This from a Chicago Tribune article:
“We’re here when you need us,” Dempsey told [a] toddler, who had big brown eyes and closely cropped, dark brown hair. “We hope you go home soon.”
Julian was among dozens of children in Chicago hospitals who were given gifts by emergency responders throughout the day, said Rich Pinskey, a firefighter who helps organize the project for the 5th Battalion, 2nd District, Engine Companies 55 and 78, Truck 44 and Tower Ladder 21.
At the hospitals, the Chicago firefighters and their volunteers delivered hundreds of dolls, plastic trucks, bicycles, puzzles and other new toys. The emergency responders went room by room to visit the children who were strong enough to accept guests and to give them toys for the holidays.
“We’ve been doing this for 10 years,” Pinskey said, adding that it was tough enough for the children to be sick, let alone stuck in a hospital over the holidays. “It’s always nice to put a smile on a kid’s face. You get to see that twinkle in their eye.”
While toy drives and giveaways are common this time of year, this project gives the firefighters and paramedics a chance to serve children at the same hospitals they frequent on emergency calls, Pinskey said.
At Advocate Illinois Masonic on Friday, the firefighters started their day by dropping off several truckloads of toys. They stacked the colorful boxes under a Christmas tree in the lobby and eventually took them upstairs to the children.
Each child in the hospital’s pediatric unit and emergency room got several toys to keep, said Anna Zieba, the child-life specialist there. If the sick child had a sibling, they also were given gifts to take home, she said.
The rest of the toys will be stored at the hospital and distributed through the year as children rotate in and out of treatment.
This year, Nathan Maldonado, 7, asked Santa Claus to bring him a remote-controlled truck and an orange bicycle for Christmas, he said. Though confined to a hospital bed, he got everything on his list Friday.
The entire article is HERE.
… webmaster wonders where the term ’emergency responder’ came from …
