If you were to walk into the Violet Township Fire Department any time during the holiday season, you might mistake the station for the North Pole, but with life-sized fire trucks.
Courtesy of the Violet Township Fire Department
Violet Township Fire Department
The Violet Township Fire Department with students who came to the station as helper elves.
The Violet Township firefighters’ toy drive has been a tradition since 1986 and is the reason for the fire station’s annual merry makeover. This annual event encourages community members to donate gifts and funds, ensuring that all children and teenagers in Pickerington have a present to unwrap on Christmas morning.
The fire department begins planning for the event in early October and it always becomes an all-hands-on-deck endeavor. Department members commit several days a week to the project throughout the holiday season until two weeks prior to Christmas, when everyone on duty gets involved.
“We always joke about needing elf uniforms and getting vests and hats,” firefighter/paramedic Thurman Rohrbaugh says. “We’ll have different people opening Amazon packages, sorting the toys and organizing the tables for pickup.”
While fire department members are key in planning and organizing the drive each year, it’s young people themselves who serve as main contributors to the drive: students from Pickerington Local School District.
“We partnered with the schools because it’s easiest to go where the people are that you want to help,” Rohrbaugh says. “The kids especially get into (the toy drive) because they’re helping their peers. They just want to do the right thing and it’s awesome to see.”
Courtesy of the Violet Township Fire Department
Pickerington toy drive
Pickerington students explore the array of toys they donated with their peers.
The fire department places big red boxes throughout the schools where students can drop off their toy donations. Counselors from each of the schools collaborate with the department to identify families in need and distribute the gifts once the drive has ended.
“This is one of those things where it directly goes back into the school system,” Rohrbaugh says.
For Harmon Middle School, there is a special incentive for students to donate: a firefighter-versus-student dodgeball tournament. The class with the most toy drive donations gets to take on the Violet Township Fire Department in a playfully intense dodgeball battle.
“I have a pretty recognizable face because I keep a big mustache, so the kids know who I am,” Rohrbaugh says. “They usually get me out really quick and I spend most of my playing time in jail.”
To make it even easier to donate, the department also hosts a toy drive drive-thru. The firefighters open one of the bays and cars can drive in and drop off their gifts.
“There’s also a little kid who hands us the gift out the window with the biggest smile,” Rohrbaugh says. “When their parents say that the kid picked it out themselves to help someone, it always pulls on your heartstrings.”
The entire Pickerington community gets into the holiday spirit. Multiple local businesses assist with generating funds for the toy drive. Proceeds from Combustion Brewery’s Chili Cook Off and an auction at Squeek’s Bar and Grill directly benefit the toy drive.
The department uses these donations to buy gifts that are in high demand and haven’t yet been donated.
Courtesy of the Violet Township Fire Department
Violet Township Fire Department
The Fire Department poses before their dodgeball battle with Harmon Middle School students.
“We use the money to get whatever needs we still have,” Rohrbaugh says. “For example, battery-operated headphones are a big thing, so if we realize we’re low on them, we’ll go and clear out Five Below or Best Buy. Once people realize what we’re doing, store managers will come over and offer a deal on the product or a recommendation on what brand is better quality.”
In 2022, the toy drive supplied an incredible 140 families with gifts for the holidays. Any gifts that don’t find a home are saved for the drive the following year.
“This toy drive is called the Violet Township Firefighters Toy Drive, but it is basically the Pickerington toy drive. It includes the schools, us, local businesses and everyone really has a hand in it,” Rohrbaugh says. “If we were missing any of those pieces it would make the whole process a lot harder, if not impossible.”
Ainsley Allen is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
