Firefighters helped brighten the holiday for Durham children by distributing presents, most of which came from the Toys for Tots program, last weekend. | facebook.com/photo/?fbid=525711699586926&set=pb.100064443023561.-2207520000.
Firefighters helped brighten the holiday for Durham children by distributing presents, most of which came from the Toys for Tots program, last weekend. | facebook.com/photo/?fbid=525711699586926&set=pb.100064443023561.-2207520000.
Durham firefighter Chaz Moore remembers his childhood Christmases as times when the family sometimes had to rely on the help of others to have a happy holiday.
Now, he’s helping by putting presents under the tree for area children who might not otherwise have gifts to open.
"When I was a child and my brother, it's kind of how we got toys as well,” Moore said in a WTVD report. “So it feels good, feels good, to be able to do that.”
Christmas came early this year for children at McDougald Terrace when firefighters showed up Sunday to distribute hundreds of presents to youngsters 13 and under.
Anneka Helper said their generosity helped her take care of her extended family.
”For my nephew and for my niece, for my little brother and my own children,” she said, ticking off those in her family who received a surprise. “Because my mom passed, I get stuff for them. You know how that is."
Moore, organizer of the opportunity and member of Victor Co. – an organization of firefighters of color, can relate to that experience.
”When I was a child and my brother, it's kind of how we got toys as well,” Moore said. “So it feels good. Feels good, to be able to do that.”
The community could use the boost.
"It's not a lot of people out there that do this for the community,” Helper said. “It’s a low-income-based area, so it's nice when everybody can help out like this. I'm just super grateful."
McDougald Terrace is a neighborhood that is often associated with maintenance issues that forced some tenants to move out until the Durham Housing Authority could fix the problem.
"It doesn't quite get the publicity, or seen in the light that the people here are all about,” Moore said.
Most of the 400 toys the firefighters brought came from the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program. Other groups contributed as well.
The happiness was contagious, as the children’s faces lit up as they received their surprises, a feeling that spread to the firefighters as well.
"It's something our community needs,” Ashley Canady of the McDougald Terrace Residents Council said. “A lot of people have lost jobs, just different situations."
She and the firefighters know that hard-working people live in neighborhoods like McDougald Terrace, and they don't always get the credit or the assistance they need to make sure their families are safe and happy over the holidays.
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