Rescue Squad toy drive a hit again

While the parents came to Santa instead of Santa coming to the parents, this year?s 45th annual Warren County Rescue Squad toy drive was another success, serving over 1,200 needy children.

?We couldn?t do this if it weren?t for the good people of Warren County,? said rescue squad Director Fred Hillis. ?They supply the toys and we provide the labor.?

Rescue squad members handed out gifts for two days leading up to Christmas at the Squad building on Sparta Street, sometimes making two lines to serve any backlog of traffic during peak hours. Public Safety Units helped with traffic issues in front of the building.

?We had one driver who pulled in and we asked for his name so we could look on our list, and he looked at us and said he wasn?t on the list,? said one rescue squad member. ?Then he admitted he thought he had run up on a sobriety checkpoint and was pulling in to show his license.?

This year marked the first year the squad has had parents come get the gifts, something Hillis said is being done for the parents.

?This way they can wrap the gifts and put them under the tree themselves,? Hills said, noting he and other squad members generally delivered gifts until the deep hours of the evening on Christmas Eve prior to starting the new system this year. ?It does save us a lot of mileage as opposed to delivering them, but we found the parents like it better this way.?

Hillis said the squad will likely operate the distribution the same way next year, perhaps ironing out some minor issues with the system. Hillis noted donations of toys and money are accepted around the year for the annual event.