This Christmas season, a group of children can rest assured that there will be plenty of presents for them under the tree. Not only will there be presents, but there will be presents they are guaranteed to love.
South Haven Firefighters took children whose families could not afford many gifts shopping for Christmas presents at the Valparaiso K-Mart.
There were a total of seven children, all in elementary school. They were all from South Haven and their names were given to the fire department by the schools.
Donations were made by Niles Industrial, Rosewood and K-Mart. The rest of the money came from the fire fighters.
South Haven firefighters met up with the children at the South Haven Fire Department at 5:30 p.m. The kids had a chance to meet the firefighters and get to know them a little better before pairing up with one.
While still at the fire department, everyone made lists of things that they wanted for Christmas. The firemen took the lists so they could help the kids select gifts at the store. The children had pizza and sweets at the fire station before leaving for the store.
After eating, the kids were given a tour of all the vehicles. They were given the chance to sit in the new fire truck and go inside the ambulances. Then the children boarded the vehicles and rode to K-Mart.
"Between the fire trucks and the ambulances, we're going to fill every seat that we have," South Haven Fire Department President Vicki Kalmar said.
Once at the store, everyone split up in their own directions to find the items the kids wanted. Each child was paired up with one fire fighter that would stay with her around the store and help him or her find presents.
Everyone was given $100.00 to spend and they used it to pick out things they wanted as Christmas gifts. They also used the money to buy presents for family members.
After the shopping was all done around 8 p.m., everyone was transported back to the fire station in the fire truck or ambulance that brought them there. Once they arrived, they set up all their presents to be wrapped.
K-Mart donated the wrapping paper, name tags, tape and bows used to wrap the presents. After all the presents were wrapped, the kids then taken home the presents for themselves and their families.
"We'll wrap them and put them all in bags for them to go home and put under their trees," Kalmar said.