Tonight was our annual Shop With A Fire Fighter event for Christmas. Our Union gets a list of children in need from the local schools, and we take them to Wal-Mart to shop. Wal-Mart donates $$1000 for 10 kids, so each kid gets $100 to spend. On top of that, several firemen and other individuals such as business owners and such also sponsor a kid, and our Union picks up the rest. They come to our station, the local Shoops restaurant owners donate the food for them, and then we pile them in fire trucks and ambulances and we head to Wal-Mart for some shopping. All kids come with a list from their parents of clothing that they need, and then we hit the toy aisles! Mostly, the kids are behaved and excited, as well as polite and grateful, but occasionally you get a kid who has no manners. It happens. All in all, it's a lot of fun, and since I'm usually a bastard coated bastard with bastard filling for the greater part of the year, I like to think this act of kindness makes up for at least a small portion of that!
