Spark of Love Toy Drive 2007

For the past two years, since Dave has been with the San Bernardino Fire Department, we have participated in the toy drive. This has been no exception for my team at work either. I informed them of the specifics of the toy drive and they stated they wanted to help:

• Children for low income communities are chosen at the Elementary schools for an invitation to the Fire House for Toys.
• The chosen children are allowed to bring their whole family so this includes babies, teenagers, other elementary aged siblings and of course their parents.
• All children whom are present get toys
  
• These families are families that without the assistance from the Fire Department and the people who donated toys would otherwise not have a Christmas with gifts
• The invited guests are treated to snacks of hot cocoa, punch, pastries and cookies while they meet Fire Santa Claus and receive gifts (the parents receive them so they can present them on Christmas morning).
  
  

Special thanks to Heather, Michael, Yovan and Ronnie for all of their help and donations. Heather and Michael had the most generous competition on who could supply the kids with more toys. Yovan and Ronnie, donated their time as well by coming down to Station 77 and helping with the toy drive. It was MUCH appreciated! :)
Pictures of some of the stacks of toys. They had sections for boys and girls and their ages

We arrived at the fire station, and quickly helped distribute the toys in the age appropriate spaces that were provided on the ground. We then went inside for some pizza and a quick briefing before the guests arrived. We then took our posts for the event. How the event works is that outside the fire station are two lines. One for the invited guests, and the other for the uninvited guests (people in the community that are aware of the event and would like to receive assistance for their Christmas as well).
This is Ronnie, Caiden, me and Yovan trying to take a picture of each other ourselves
Ronnie, Me, Cade, and Yovan with some downtime before the event begins
Caiden was a little tired. Here he is with Dave. Father and son firefighters :P

Yovan was stationed at the front gate to assist with any of the interpreting needs that we had. The families were let in a few at a time, where they would go meet Ronnie who was manning the refreshment area before they entered the bay where myself and the other "writers" were sitting. We would speak with the families and find out how many children and what gender and ages they were. We would then write that information along with the family name on a post-it note and hand it to a runner (Caiden and a Explorer) who would take a bag and quickly fill the bag with toys and gifts that were age appropriate. The bag would then be given to the "callers" who would then call the family name and provide the bag of toys to the parents.

Yovan stationed at the front gate to help interpret
Ronnie the cookie man :) Appropriate as he is the keeper of candy at work :)
Caiden helping an explorer find toys for the boys and girls on their list
Caiden took his job seriously picking out good toys

While the families were waiting for their toys to be gathered, they were allowed to enjoy their refreshments as well as take pictures and meet the Fire Santa and his elf. *Quick side note: there were supposed to be two elves, but one had a family emergency. Unfortunately, he had taken his elf costume with him, or Dave would have been prancing around in tights...I would have LOVED to see that. He volunteered for the job - we couldn't find another elf costume though :(*
Fire Santa Claus and his elf

Dave was in charge of keeping peace within the lines outside (some of the non-invited guests decided it was wise to keep themselves warm and occupy their minds by destroying the plants and bushes outside the fire department as well as kick around the piles of sand that the FD keeps for sand bags). Dave also handed out bikes and helmets to lucky families who were escorted outside of the building by an alternate route to avoid other people seeing them. He also did the job of the runner for a little while, as well as present checker - to ensure that people were not giving away so many toys that we didn't have enough for all of the families.
Some of the bikes that were given to the invited families

While this is a very rewarding experience for both the families and ourselves, this was also an opportunity to teach my 3 yr. old the importance of giving to others and being a responsible citizen. Caiden is very blessed to have 3 sets of grandparents that adore him, and often spoil him :P He has to understand that he is a very lucky boy, and that he is blessed and these things are not to be expected. We spoke about the children and the families that were less fortunate and he really took it to heart. He did a GREAT job helping to choose toys for the boys and girls (along with an explorer) and it even curbed his desire for the toys.

When we got home, both Dave and I explained how proud we were of Caiden, and how happy he made both us as well as the families and boys and girls that he chose gifts for. He was BEAMING. He is such a sweetheart. He really worked hard to choose good gifts that he would want for the little boys and girls and he took his job very seriously.

Now it wasn't ALL work for Caiden, who was SO excited to see the Fire Santa Claus. He ran up to him, arms outstretched to sit on his lap. He was talking NON-STOP! It made everyone laugh and ooh and aww. It was very sweet.
Caiden with Fire Santa - as you can see he had a lot to say
Caiden and Fire Santa Claus

Although we did not have as many toys as we did last year, all in all it was a good night...a little chilly, but a successful toy drive for 2007. Thank you to all who participated and donated both toys and their time to helping those in need.