Santa, firefighter elves deliver gifts in Poughkeepsie
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. » The Poughkeepsie Fire Department helped Santa navigate snow-covered roads in the city on Friday, Christmas Eve, to deliver gifts to eight families adopted by the members of International Association of Fire Fighters Local No. 596.
The firefighters partnered with individuals and organizations to spread some holiday cheer. In addition to the selected families, the caravan of fire trucks stopped if they saw children out and Santa gave them a small gift.
The union members selected the families based on recommendations from community leaders. Poughkeepsie Fire Department Lt. Paul Bucher contacted the adults of each family to get the ages and genders of each child in the house along with their wish lists. The union members then went shopping for a large number of gifts for the youngsters. Their efforts were supported by the Shamrock Association, The Chance Theater, Baroni Recycling, Marshall & Sterling, along with Mayor Rob Rolison and Councilwoman Natasha Cherry.
Chance Theater manager, Nikki Johannessen held a toy drive at a recent concert and worked with Todd Bender from the Shamrock Association to distribute the toys to some less-fortunate children and used the rest to support the fire department Santa run. “I am so happy that we are making a lot of kids in our community have a merry Christmas,” Johannessen said.
Added Rolison, “Our firefighters are always doing things to help our city, and joining with them today to deliver gifts really put me in the holiday spirit. “
Local No. 596 President Nick Bucher said, “With the help of our donors we were able to really make Christmas special for several deserving families and that makes us feel good.”
In preparation for the deliveries, a group of firefighters, friends, and family gathered at Mahoney’s Irish Pub to sort and wrap the gifts and then separate them into boxes for each of the families.