Brandon Farley, After the Presents Were Unloaded from the Back of the Ambulance

John Came in to Work so Another Firefighter With Young Children Could Spend the Holiday at Home With His Family.

Making Certain That all of the Presents are Removed from the Back of the Ambulance.

Roger, one of the Firefighters Who Helped Deliver Presents.

Andrew, a Firefighter in the Truck Made Certain This Blogger was Properly Seated in the Truck!

Carol McCracken  (Post # 2,518)

Early on Christmas morning an ambulance at the Firestation on Munjoy Hill backed up to the bay while firefighters on duty loaded the back of it with presents for a deserving family living on the East End of Portland.  Right behind the ambulance was a fire truck in which this blogger was fortunate enough to ride to the home of a single mother and her three sons – the recipients of this year’s “Adopt a Family” initiative begun by the Firestation on Munjoy Hill.

The idea was the brainchild of Brandan Farlay and Mark Tweedy, firefighters at the Munjoy HIll station.  The inspiration for the initiative came from Tweedy’s mother who is involved in a similar program in Michigan.  Tweedy told Farlay  one day this fall that he’d like to see this program on Munjoy Hill.  They set about finding businesses on the Hill to support this initiative. They  were amazed and overwhelmed at the big response from local businesses according to Farlay.  All total  $1,500 was collected in both cash and gift cards. Next year they hope to adopt more than one family on the Hill and that the Adopt a Family program will be observed by other firestations in Portland.

Meanwhile, when the ambulance arrived at its destination yesterday morning mother and children were there to help unload the packed ambulance.  The family prefers to remain unidentified, but the awe of the three boys was obvious when a fancy bicycle was unloaded and mom could not hide her tears from the firefighters gathered in front of their home on the east end at the sight of all the carefully wrapped presents were unloaded and taken into their home by the family as well as firefighters on duty on Christmas Day.

It was over quickly as the firefighters had to return to Christmas Day duty at the firestation on the Hill!  Just wait until next year!