Athens firefighters raised nearly $9,000 to help children and adults with muscular dystrophy, earning them the golden axe award and recognition from the City Council Monday. Among the firefighters were Martin Ezell, Tommy Lewis, Lee Marker, Heath Patterson, Jeff Jones and Leslie Williams. Fire Chief Bryan Thornton, Mayor Ronnie Marks and Ethan LyBrand, the 2017 MDA ambassador, were also there for the ceremony.

Some Athens firefighters won a golden axe for their efforts to raise money to help fight the muscle-debilitating disease muscular dystrophy.

Athens Fire & Rescue and Athens Professional Firefighter Association raised nearly $9,000 in the 2016 Fill the Boot campaign — the most money raised in the state by a city of up to 25,000 people, Mayor Ronnie Marks said during Monday’s City Council meeting.

The money, all of which goes to Alabama Muscular Dystrophy Association, is used to fund research, clinics, medical equipment and a summer camp in Jackson’s Gap for kids with muscular dystrophy and similar diseases.

Katherine Shivers, director of Business Development for MDA, and 7-year-old Ethan LyBrand of Decatur, a 2017 Alabama goodwill ambassador for MDA, bestowed a standard-size golden axe and a plaque to six firefighters at the meeting.

Fire Chief Bryan Thornton thanked the firefighters, explaining it was their idea to try to raise as much money as possible.

“They came to me and said, ‘Chief, we’d like to take this to the next level. We’ve done this but we’d really like to get into it,’ ” Thornton said. “I said, ‘let’s do it, it’s gonna make the mayor happy.'”

The chief said he received the award at the Alabama Fire Chiefs Association winter conference.

“But, I accepted it on their behalf because they did it,” Thornton said. “They raised this money and they won this axe.”

Ethan’s family, Jason and Jordan LyBrand and their daughter, Chloe, also attended the meeting and received a plaque from MDA. Jason, a teacher at the Renaissance school in Athens, thanked the city for its support.

“This means more to us than you’ll ever know,” he said.