POUGHKEEPSIE – Christmas arrived early for several families in the City of Poughkeepsie. Santa Claus, assisted by Poughkeepsie firefighters visited 13 homes on Sunday morning and delivered all of the gifts that children had on their wishlist.
Santa was overheard telling the firefighters “I appreciate all of the help that Poughkeepsie firefighters provide me. It makes my workload a little lighter for tonight.”
The firefighters’ union, IAFF Local 596, teamed up with Mike Baroni of Baroni Recycling, to purchase all of the gifts that 43 children had requested from Santa.
Off-duty firefighters and others gathered together on Saturday night to sort and wrap the presents according to each of the 13 stops. On Sunday morning, Fire Department Captain Steve Bauer and the on-duty crew at Station 3 on Hooker Avenue assembled a bicycle that a boy had wished for. Several of the firefighters noted that bicycles had become more difficult to assemble over the years, with many more parts and features than older bikes came with.
With boxes of presents for the first five deliveries loaded on the Rescue rig, Santa and his firefighting driver Ethan Binford departed for deliveries, escorted by Deputy Fire Chief Vincent Parise and his daughter, Captain Bauer and his son, and Lieutenant Paul Bucher and his daughter. Bucher has organized and planned the annual Santa Run for more than a decade and this is his last year as Chief Elf. “I’m turning it over to Local 596 Vice-president Brian Ineson for next year. I’m nearing retirement and we don’t want the tradition to retire so Brian stepped up to keep it going.”
Bucher works with teachers throughout the Poughkeepsie City School District to find families that would otherwise not be able to enjoy the holidays. “We don’t want kids to miss out while others are celebrating. With the financial support of Mike Baroni, we can make Christmas merry for the kids and we take great joy in doing it.”
Mid-Hudson News accompanied Santa and his group of elves on Sunday morning at a few of the 13 deliveries. A Facebook video of one delivery can be found here.
