CONWAY, Ark. – After funds started to get low for the Christmas Boot Drive, the Conway Fire Department decided to heat things up and create some new ways to raise funds to help kids have a better Christmas.

Page by page, the Conway Fire Department turned up the heat.

“The best-looking guy goes on the cover,” Conway firefighter, Justin Adlong said.

Their funding efforts are becoming a challenge after struggling with other methods like Fill the Boot, which is a way for the fire department to give back to the Faulkner and Perry County communities.

“Everything’s cashless nowadays and so we will stand outside at like the Conway Commons or target all that area and you will see us holding a boot just asking for money and every year that number is going down,” Conway firefighter, Blake Brents said.

The Conway Fire Department uses the money from the fundraiser to support around 650 kids in both counties with toys, clothes, and food for Christmas.

This year, as a way to help increase funds they decided to create a calendar, the last one was made about 20 years ago.

“At first everybody was like, I don’t know if I want to be in it, so we had a couple of guys back out but if we keep this going I think people will realize it’s a good thing,” Brents stated.

Firemen Blake Brents and Justin Adlong talked about the community response and how it has been well received through town.

“It’s been a big hit so far,” Brents stated. “I think we have raised 7-8 thousand dollars so that’s a big help,” Adlong said.

As the flames grow higher, and the room gets hotter, they hope this calendar will be something that will help elevate some of the financial stress around the holidays.

“If we start now, we will be able to fund this year’s Christmas without having to rely on that money out there collecting the boot as much,” Brents said.

All proceeds go towards Fill the Boot, and they will still be doing that on top of calendar sales.

If you would like to purchase one of the $25 calendars you can visit this link or you can go to the Central Fire Station in Conway to pick one up.