During the holiday season many of us come to realize either by personal involvement or random conversation that as we hurry about searching for that, “perfect gift,” to add upon the pile of previous purchases, there are those close by struggling with the thought of how to create holidays for their families.
The students at the Caribou Techonology Center recently stepped up and decided that they could give back to their community, perhaps helping some of these families by making sure area children would have a Christmas toy.
“Right after Thanksgiving break, I brought in some soup cans and placed them in the classrooms,” said Judy Boogie, guidance counselor at the Caribou Technology Center. “I told the kids that if they wanted to they were to just dropped whatever money they could into the cans — pennies, dimes, nickels — anything they wished.”
The result of this two-week collection saw eight students go shopping for toys which would be donated to the Caribou Fire and Ambulance annual Toy Project — $688.20 worth of toys.
“We did it as a sort of math project also,” said Boogie. “I had eight students, in two groups of four go shopping and it wasn’t until they reached the cash register did they realize they had come within 50 cents of the money they actually had to shop with. It was a bit of a reality check — the students got an idea of what it’s like to have a budget.” Boogie added, “They did a great job with this project, last year we raised a sizable amount but not near this much. The students really like the idea of helping the community with projects such as this one.”
Steve Corbin, Toys Project coordinator stated, “This is really something. This is a big project for the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department, we serve approximately 320 children in 125 families within the area we service at the department.” These communities include Caribou, Stockholm, New Sweden, Perham, Woodland, etc.
“This toy project began back in the 1940s when firefighters would accept donations of damaged or secondhand toys and refurbish them by mending and re-painting them,” stated Corbin. “Of course most toys during that period were made of wood or metal.”
Over the years, this project has grown and the firefighters were spending a tremendous amount of time fixing all the toys, then manufacturers started using more and more plastic. It was pretty much during this time that firefighters decided that it was difficult to mend the used toys therefore we started accepting only new toys for the project.
“About 20 years ago we asked that donations to the Toy Project include only new items,” said Corbin,” “although the CFD purchases toys for the project with money raised through fund-raising events over the year, members of the community have really stepped up to help out with this project and this year’s success is a perfect example of that community involvement.”
Not only do the firefighters sort the appropriate gifts for individual families, they also are involved in a whole lot of wrapping. The holiday gifts are always delivered the Saturday prior to Christmas Day.
“We start about 8 a.m. on Saturday morning,” said Corbin, “we all have breakfast then start loading up private vehicles and ambulances with the toys. We deliver the gifts right to the houses. At one time we discussed having the families stop at the fire station to pick up their gifts, but the firefighters really prefer to do the deliveries right to the homes in person. It usually takes us until noontime to finish — we make 125 stops.”
Members of the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department spend many volunteer hours on this project, making sure as many as possible area children have a very Merry Christmas.
“It is after all, all about the kids,” said Corbin.
