DEARBORN – Reflecting a year’s worth of fundraising, the Dearborn Firefighters Burn Drive passed out $20,000 worth of toys to children at area burn centers and hospitals on Dec. 15.
“We brightened the lives of many young children in the hospital,” said Lt. Steve Worden of the Fire Department. “We are able to do this because we get tremendous support from Mayor (John) O’Reilly, the City Council, our volunteers and our many generous donors and businesses throughout the city of Dearborn,”.
The Burn Drive delivered to the Oakwood Center for Exceptional Families, The Ronald McDonald House, Children’s Hospital Burn Unit, Detroit Receiving Hospital Burn Center, University of Michigan Trauma Burn Center and the Penrickton Center for Blind Children.
“These hospitals contact us, usually in November, with a wish list,” Worden said. “As a group, we shop for all of the toys and supplies, wrap them and deliver them.”
This year, students from Howe School participated in the delivery of the gifts, which not only showed the students the importance of helping those in need, but taught lessons of humanity, said Howe fifth-grade teacher Nellie Kiesel.
“After the event, one of my students wrote in an essay that no matter who you are, or what you may look like, you deserve to be treated with respect and dignity,” Kiesel said. “It’s a lesson that’s hard to teach in a classroom. The students and I really feel this experience enriched our lives.”
For more information about the Dearborn Firefighters Burn Drive or to help or donate to the cause, contact Worden at (313) 478-6761.