With Christmas nearing close, the members of the Fredericktown Firefighters association with your help have been working diligently on our thirteenth annual Firefighter Toy Drive. Firefighter boots have been in businesses around the community for a few weeks all ready to take monetary donations to support this cause.
Our firefighters had a very successful day this past Saturday at our toy drop off at The Brickhouse Grind in Fredericktown. The back of the rescue was filled with toys and the fire boot filled with donations to make this year’s event happen. It is through great local relationships such as this and a very supportive community that the toy drive has flourished over the last 13-years. If you are writing a check in support of our toy drive, please make the check out to the Fredericktown Firefighters Association, with “Toy Drive” in the memo field.
Firefighters will be at the Fredericktown Christmas Walk on Saturday, December 1 at the Masonic Lodge, selling and taking orders for poinsettias that also serve as a fundraiser. This is another great time to meet your firefighters and drop off toy donations as well. No amount is too big or small; the ability for this drive to be so successful is from great community support by many.
We are very proud of our local philanthropy that our association has been part of over many decades here in Fredericktown, but this one, in particular, is a favorite of our members. Working in partnership with the Fredericktown Interchurch, our organization receives de-identified information to enable us to purchase and group toys for the appropriate age groups. Our firefighters and fire families are a part of this project from the beginning clear through the toy distribution day.
Our toy drive is 100-percent locally operated, volunteer, and a standalone toy drive that our firefighter’s association launched 13-years ago. This project, sponsored by the association has no ties to a national program and is completely a volunteer effort of hard work and giving. Thanks to volunteer labor and donations of design and advertising material we are fortunate to operate with no overhead. We operate solely through monetary donations through our boot drive and new toy/monetary donations that we receive either at the firehouse or at local drop off events. All funds given toward this project are earmarked and set aside for this specific use only.
For more information on the toy drive or how to help, please contact Bernadette Smith at 740-507-8605. Updates will be posted on the website at www.fredericktownfire.net