The reindeer are resting for their mega-journey on Tuesday, December 24, 2013. So, Santa 1 and Santa 2 relied upon shiny, fire engine #4, a Suburban Personal Carrier (PC-1), and an additional trailer, to deliver delights to children in Morrison, IL, on Thursday, December 19. No one minded that gifts arrived a few days early, delivered by two Santa Clauses, two Mrs. Clauses, and one sprightly Elf.
As proven many times, generosity runs deep in Morrison, IL, where residents take care of those in need. Local donations of toys and cash supported the fourth annual Morrison Fire Department’s “Caring for Our Community” Toy Drive. In the month of November, firefighters began accepting unwrapped toys and cash to purchase holiday items Donations were dropped off at the station during the pork chop drive-through sale. Not surprisingly, citizens continued to add to the gift collection past the Sunday, December 1, deadline.
Annually, the MFD distributes toys to local school children in need. A family is eligible if they have children who attend classes in the Morrison School District and are presently enrolled in the free lunch program. Additional recipients may be those with unemployed parents or children who live in unemployed households, as determined on a case-by-case basis.
Firefighter Rob Hudson reported “lots of donations. Over 100 children each received between four and five gifts.” Last year there were 300 gifts. Special shopping for the older children was necessary he added. “We always try to [shop in town] when we can.”
“It took a couple hours to wrap” all those items, he said. The wrapper elves included wives and children of the firemen; parents; teachers.
The Christmas convoy rolled at 6:00 p.m. sharp and made stops at 46 homes, following an organized rural or in-town route.
- Engine #4 was guided by Rob Vegter and Jon Heusinkveld with one set of Clauses and elf aboard.
- Following Engine #4, Barry Brown drove a pickup truck pulling an enclosed trailer. Devin Lewis was his co-pilot. Their task was to replenish the fire truck with bagged gifts as it was emptied along Santa’s route.
- Carrying the second set of Clauses, Chief David Benters manned PC-1 for the rural delivery. He then filled in for the City residence stops.
- Each Mrs. Claus carefully carried candy canes to distribute, and they read the children’s names on the gift tags. If the family desired, the holiday visitors posed for a photo with the children by the Christrmas tree.
It was a long–and jolly–evening. What fun for all involved in this wonderful service project! It might be difficult to determine who had the most pleasure.