Fire Fighters Santa Express goes virtual
FAIRFIELD — For 15 years the Fairfield Fire Fighters Charitable Foundation have hosted the Santa Express — bringing Saint Nick to people’s doorstep via fire truck while raising money for charity.
This year the event was slightly different — taking place online via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic — but the foundation is still raising money for the Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer.
“Our executive board of the foundation talked about not doing it at all this year,” Bob Smith, who is president of the foundation, said. “But, it’s become quite the event for our guys as well. Nobody every calls the fire department when they’re having a good day, so for our people to get out and see smiling faces and meet the people we meet... it’s a good thing for us too.”
Smith said the executive board tried to figure out how to do it safety. He said they talked about bringing a truck out, but couldn't make it work.
“We decided we would go virtual with it,” he said. “We did it on like a Zoom platform. People signed up like they normally would, and then we set up a crew at our regional fire training school. We had Santa and his whole entourage there — all separate in different rooms.”
Smith said kids would call in and talk to an elf receptionist.
Then, he said, Mrs. Claus would people in to surprise everybody.
“Then, she would click everybody over to the big man and they could talk with Santa for 5 or 6 minutes,” he said. “Each call lasted about 10 minutes.”
Smith said the non-profit was formed in 2012 as a means for the firefighters union to be able to raise more money for the different charities they like to help, especially ones in town. Santa Express, he said, was the an idea that matched well with the goal of their foundation.
“It was just kind of one of those ideas that one of our guys, my wife and I had when we were sitting around,” Fairfield Fire Lt. Bob Smith said. “We said, ‘Well how can we bring some joy around the Christmas holiday.’ We figured we’d bring Santa around.”
Smith said the funds raised during the Santa Express has gone to different causes over the years, but the department has had friends helped out by the Tommy Fund when their children were battling cancer.
“The Tommy Fund was actually started by a New Britain Firefighter back in the 50s,” he said. “No children should ever get cancer. Nobody should ever get cancer, but certainly not children.”
When the event first started 15 years ago, Smith said, there were just 15 families who got a visit from Santa on a fire truck.
“It’s grown exponentially over those last 14 years,” he said. “Last year we had 150 stops over a three day period. We saw about 400 children and we raised $26,000 dollar on that weekend.”
In a typical year, Smith said
multiple crews with escorting different Santas would have to drive to the home of people who registered for visit. The cost of a visit? $25 dollars in previous events — but Smith lowered it to $10 this year.