By Kimberly Gasuras
The Christmas spirit was alive and well on Saturday at the Bucyrus Fire Department as well over 50 vehicles made their way through the station for the annual toy drive.
“We have probably had close to 75 vehicles come through,” said firefighter Kevin Phillips.
The toy drive began at 9 a.m. and by 11:30 a.m.; the department had collected four tables full of toys.
“We have many more piled up on the floor,” Phillips said.
Firefighters gathered toys from several collection boxes placed around the city before the event on Saturday morning.
“We have also received monetary donations and have purchased 30 coats from Family Farm and Home. They have been great to work with on this,” Phillips said. “This is the third year for the coats and it is working out really well.”
The toy drive began approximately nine years ago and firefighter Casey Gillen helped the yearly event get off the ground.
“We used to adopt a few families then we started raiding all of the angel trees around the county. We decided to begin our own toy drive,” Gillen said.
The department will distribute the toys through the Bucyrus United Methodist Church.
“We were doing it through Crawford County Job and Family Services but they have too much to do this year so we contacted John’s (Schiefer) church to distribute the toys,” Gillen said.
Non-perishable food items also were collected and will be given to families that suffer disasters at Christmas time throughout the county through the Crawford County American Red Cross.
Volunteers from the local chapter also were on hand to help with the toy drive at the station.
Firefighter Jeremy Maglott is teaching his five-year-old twin sons about the importance of helping others this Christmas season.
“They came to drop off toys then stayed for a bit to help collect them,” Maglott said as Kaiden and Karson helped retrieve toys from an SUV that came through the station.