Gilmer County and Ellijay firefighters have chalked up another successful season moonlighting as Santa’s helpers.
A team of local public safety employees recently bought and brought presents to all three Gilmer County elementary schools as part of the annual Ellijay-Gilmer Firefighters Kids Christmas drive.
“The principals and teachers have the hard jobs. We just come to the schools and deliver the toys, but they have to do all the other stuff,” said Mike Dempsey, a firefighter with the two participating agencies.
Local firefighters started the Christmas drive about 14 years ago, and it quickly become an annual tradition, Dempsey noted. To fund the gift purchases, team members collect money outside local shopping centers using a firefighter’s boot.
They’d previously done an annual boot drive for the Georgia Burn
Foundation, but after finding out none of that money stayed local, they began thinking about something strictly for the local community. That led to the first Firefighters Kids Christmas in 2008.
“We began working with some of the teachers, and that’s how this (got) started,” Dempsey told Gilmer Board of Education members at a recent school board meeting.
“We collected around $4,000 that first year. That was great, (but) our mission was to give as many kids Christmas as we could. (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 family,” he added.
Before COVID-19 came along, the firefighters took turns collecting money sporadically throughout the year. The past two years, the boot drive has been done on just the two October weekends of the Apple Festival. That’s actually led to more donations coming in, noted Dempsey.
“Any time people see us out on the corners with the boots, this is what it goes to. One-hundred percent of (it) goes to kids here in Gilmer County,” he said.
This year, the firefighters collected $25,000 over the two weekends. “We didn’t break last year’s record, but it was a good year,” said Dempsey.
“The Firefighters Kids Christmas is a wonderful program that serves pre-K through second grade students throughout our schools,” said Dr. Brian Ridley, Gilmer schools superintendent. “They are a tremendously committed group, and we are proud to partner with them to help give our kids a great holiday.” Dempsey stressed that the program would be possible without the community’s generosity, as well as assistance the firefighters get from retailers including the East Ellijay Walmart and Shoe Show stores.
“We appreciate all of them and the school system for allowing us to do what we do,” said Dempsey. “The generosity of people who live here and people from other states and communities who come here (for those two weekends) is overwhelming. I’ve had some people tell me, ‘I wish our community had something like this.’ That makes you feel pretty good.”
Along with all types of toys, the firefighters also buy and donate clothing, shoes, socks, blankets, toiletries and other essential items each year.
“We did that this year, and we also filled up stockings with stocking stuffers (for the kids),” said Dempsey.
The team of county and city firefighters is looking to expand the program in the coming year. An official Firefighters Kids Christmas website and Facebook page are in the works right now.
“We have actually become a 501(c)(3). We had our first board meeting last week,” said Dempsey. “We have a five-person board and no one from public safety is involved in that board. It’s people from the community.”
The new website will allow for donations to the program to be made year-round, Dempsey said.
“In the next few months, we should have all that stuff up and running. We’ll also be on all the social media platforms,” he added.