Teamwork makes the dream work. At a young age, schoolchildren learn this handy little phrase to help them cooperate and succeed in their tasks.
Teamwork is also what makes a Christmas toy drive led by local firefighters come together each year just before the holiday school break.
This year, the Ellijay-Gilmer Firefighters Kids Christmas drive was able to help almost 300 kindergarten, first and second graders in all three of the county’s elementary schools, noted Katherine Evans, a firefighter with Gilmer Fire and Rescue and a Kids Christmas coordinator.
“We were able to collect (a total of) $43,000 this year. We were very successful and able to do more for the schools this year than in the past,” Evans said.
Personnel from Gilmer Fire and the Ellijay Fire Department team up to collect donations for the toy drive by standing at two busy intersections (at Highland Crossing near Walmart and Yukon Road and First Avenue near Ingles) with a firefighter’s boot.
“That has (always) been our main source of income for this,” said Evans.
A new fundraising device for this year’s Kids Christmas was a first-time softball tournament — Battle of the Badges — in which firefighters and police department employees took to the ballfields to raise money for their respective holiday outreach efforts for kids.
The charitable tourney raised $16,000, which was split evenly between the Firefighters Kids Christmas and the Shop With a Hero program led by the Ellijay Police Foundation.
“It was a really big (fundraiser) for us, and that was how we got the year started for funding,” said Evans about the softball tournament. “It was a very good event and fun (for all who participated).”
“It was good for us to get together outside of work as two different departments and be able to come together to do something like that,” added Emerald Goble, Gilmer firefighter and Kids Christmas coordinator.
Teamwork between the fire departments, local retailers and the local school system is crucial to Kids Christmas being successful each year, both coordinators emphasized.
School counselors and other faculty members help determine which children are in need of the gifts, which also usually include such non-toy items as shoes and blankets. Parents are then contacted, and pick up of the presents is arranged shortly before Christmas break starts.
“We definitely could not do it all without (help from) the school system and the stores,” confirmed Evans. “In the schools, you have the superintendent, principals, teachers, counselors and the maintenance men. The maintenance men are our muscles on the days that we shop. They get into it and enjoy it as much as we do.”
“We shopped at Walmart, Shoe Show and Dollar Tree. (All the stores) worked with us and were a big help. That’s one of the major reasons we can keep doing this for the kids,” said Goble.
Now in its 16th year, the drive started out with a handful of firefighters raising money to buy presents for some students at Ellijay Primary School. About $5,000 was collected that first time out, noted Battalion Chief Mike Dempsey, who coordinated the effort for several years.
“That was great, (but) our mission was to give as many kids Christmas as we could,” he added. “(We didn’t want it) to be coming from the firefighters. We start off at pre-K, so all the toys need to come from Santa Claus or the families.”
The community’s generosity in making donations is perhaps the most important component of this team effort.
“This year was the max amount we’ve collected since Emerald and I have been here and since Chief Dempsey’s been here,” said Evans. “We even had a handful of anonymous donors who came to the station (to make donations).”
Evans and Goble are the latest Gilmer firefighters to lead the Kids Christmas, which has grown into a program that requires year-round planning. In 2024, it will again be aided by the Battle of the Badges Softball Tournament, which is being planned for March 30, Goble said.
“We’re hoping for it to be as successful, if not more so, this year,” she added. “We may also have a couple of different events this coming year to kind of kick-start things before we start doing our annual collections.”
“We don’t plan on (this drive) ever stopping or going away. It’s something we hope to pass on to the next group of firefighters that wants to take it once we retire,” said Evans.