| By:
Sharon K. Willis publicinfo@foolsinternational.com FOOLS Public Information Officer |
His beard and moustache aren't as full, his hair is not white, and his red work vehicle is not a sleigh, but Fraternal Order of Leatherheads Society member Rusty Ricker has been playing Santa Claus to needy children for more than 10 years. Since 1999, Ricker, who is founder and president of the New England FOOLS chapter and deputy chief of operations for the Georgetown, Mass., fire department, has been working with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots campaign and the members of his department to collect toys for area children who might not otherwise receive gifts at Christmas. For years the Georgetown Fire Department has held an annual Christmas parade, which makes its way through the town's more than 65 miles of roads to ensure that every neighborhood and every family has the opportunity to see Santa Claus and the procession. Ten years ago, Ricker said, he approached the parade organizer with the idea of collecting toys along the route to benefit Toys for Tots. According to Ricker, the organizer liked the suggestion and immediately put Ricker in charge of working out the logistics. “He said, ‘Great idea. Tag, you're it,'” Ricker said. As the parade wound its way up and down every street in the area, it would stop so that volunteers – firefighters, fire Explorers, family members (including Ricker's two sons), Marines and others – could collect the toys from townspeople who wanted to make donations. However, Ricker said, it became so successful that it added between two and three extra hours to the already very lengthy parade. In 2008, they decided to stop collecting toys along the parade route and asked the community members to bring their donations to the fire station. The local PTA also joined in, and added a “Sit with Santa” event at the station as a close-out to the Toys for Tots campaign. Although collecting toys en route turned the parade into an eight-hour journey, Ricker said they will go back to doing it that way next Christmas. “It just sort of ‘loses something' in not picking up toys as we go,” he said. Whether picking toys up from the neighborhoods or having the neighbors bring them to the station, the Georgetown Fire Department has collected more than 25,000 toys since Ricker began the partnership 10 years ago. “This event is my Christmas,” Ricker said. “It is being able to put a smile on a face or faces that might not otherwise have a reason to smile on Christmas.”
