POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – Pompano Beach firefighters teamed up with community members to hand out gifts to hundreds of children on Christmas morning.
From drones, to skateboards, to soccer balls, to gel blasters, the array of gifts brought smiles to their faces as volunteers dressed up like Santa Claus to spread joy.
“We are grateful and thankful the kids are happy,” parent Coral Torres said.
The Christmas Day Express was a collaboration between Pompano Beach Fire Rescue and other local sponsors, like Savewithmia.
Lidia Plascencia’s family bought 500 toys. Plascencia said she was motivated by her daughter to give back.
“She said ‘Mommy, I wanna give toys,’” Plascencia said.
So she packed up the gifts in U-Haul trucks, blessing others who could use the help.
“We struggled, we definitely struggled, there was once upon a time we didn’t have money to buy toys before my daughter was born and my son couldn’t have a nice Christmas,” she said.
Firefighters, including the aptly-named Kori Christmas, said they were proud to help give back.
“Doing this and giving back to the community and being grateful for what you have at home and doing this really shows that we care about the community and that we are very blessed with what we actually have,” Christmas said.
The plan is to continue the event next year.