POUGHKEEPSIE – The professional firefighters in the City of Poughkeepsie are members of the IAFF Local 596, but in the days before Christmas, they renew their union membership in the North Pole Toymakers Union Local 1225 and gather to buy and wrap presents for the families adopted by the firefighters for Christmas.
This year, eight families received early gifts. In his second year as the organizer, Firefighter Brian Ineson worked with the parents in each family to get their kids’ wish lists. The firefighters, with financial support from Baroni Recycling, went shopping to fulfill each list.
Early last week, firefighters, family, and friends gathered at JD’s Brew Pub to sort the gifts by family and wrap them up for delivery on Christmas Eve.
On Wednesday morning, a command vehicle and department pickup were loaded with boxes of gifts, and Santa and his firefighting elves set out to visit the kids and spread Christmas cheer.
Santa was followed by a caravan of helpers made up of off-duty firefighters, Captain Bauer and his family, and Acting Chief Parise and his daughter. This is the 11th year that Captain Bauer’s teenage sons have been helping, and Chief Parise’s daughter is also a veteran helper.
Before Ineson took the reins, the event had been run for more than a decade by Lieutenant Paul Bucher, who recently retired to spend more time at Disney World with his family. Bucher says Union Vice-President Ineson will do a great job carrying out the longstanding department tradition.
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