A wrap: Toys for Joy program collects more than 5,000 gifts for local children
Published 12:20 pm Friday, December 20, 2019
The Kent firefighters’ annual Toys for Joy program collected more than 5,000 toys for local children this holiday season.
Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority, Kent Firefighters Local 1747 and the Kent Firefighters Foundation collected, sorted, wrapped and delivered – on Friday morning – the new toys to needy families in the community, including at the Kent Food Bank, Maple Valley Food Bank and the SeaTac Holiday of Hope program.
In addition to toys, nonperishable food and monetary donations were accepted.
Toys were shipped to Kent Lutheran Church for distribution early Friday.
Puget Sound Fire also supported the Jerry Woods Holiday Engine – a longtime Maple Valley tradition. The Holiday Engine visited neighborhoods in Maple Valley and Covington, beginning the first weekend in December, to collect food and gifts that went to the Maple Valley Food Bank for distribution. To date, the Holiday Engine program has collected more than $15,400 and over 24,000 pounds of food for Maple Valley and Covington area families.
The Kent Firefighters Foundation will be distributing approximately 40 food baskets to pre-identified families on Sunday.
Firefighters wish to thank the community for its support, with special appreciation to corporate donors: PODS; Reddaway Trucking; Bowen Scarf Ford; Hermanson; Target; and the Renton Mustang Club.
