12/9/2006-  On Saturday from 11am to 9 pm, the Long Hill Fire Department held its annual Open House.  Actually the event kicked off a day early.  On Friday, members traveled to Middlebrook School, where students had been collecting toys for our toy drive.  The student body presented us with boxes of unwrapped gifts.

Back to Saturday; The morning started off with a front page article in the Connecticut Post. The weather for the day was perfect and the turn out was unbelievable.  Santa was on hand to accept incoming gifts and to find out what everyone wanted for Christmas.  The spread of cupcakes, cookies, popcorn and treats made mouths water. And there was apple cider and hot chocolate on hand to help wash it all down.

The whole goal was the fill the back of the fire truck with toys to support Trumbull Social Services.  Like years before, we tried our best to fill the back of the truck.  So it was especially surprising this year when the unexpected happened.  The truck got filled.  So the big boxes got brought out and the truck was emptied.  Then it got filled again.  So we brought in a trailer to store the toys.  This happened all throughout the day as the truck got emptied four times.

In total we collected 2,194 toys. The toys will be divided up to be donated to 3 charities. 1,365 toys will be delivered to Trumbull Social Services this Thursday, 150 toys will be sent to Yale Children's Hospital and 679 toys will be donated to Project Elf, which is run by the National Guard, and provides toys to Connecticut children who's parent(s) are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The Long Hill Fire Department would like to thank the residents of the Town of Trumbull and the surrounding towns for your support in making this the most successful Toy Drive yet.  We would also like to thank the following for their donations and support in helping us to make this event happen:

• Ansel Label & Packaging Corp.

• The Corner Deli

• The Connecticut Post

• The Fairfield County Gazette

• Goodfellas Pizzeria

• The General Electric Corp.

• H&H Printing

• Star 99.9

• Marisa's Restaurant

• Marty Kanes Deli

• Middlebrook School

• Porricelli's

• Rural Gas

• Sam's Club

• Stop and Shop

• Target

• The Trumbull Times

• Trumbull Center Liquor

• Tashua School

• Vazzy's

• Westfield Shoppingtown Trumbull

Middlebrook Students and the toys they collected

Santa and his helpers putting toys in the back of the truck

The LHFD Ladies Auxiliary provided food and beverages

The back of the trailer filled with donated toys.

Some of the LHFD Toy Drive Helpers...