Orlando Sentinel (Florida)
Copyright 2006 Orlando Sentinel
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Paramedics and firefighters played Santa Claus and his elves Friday, delivering food and toys to underprivileged children throughout Lake and Sumter.
For the fourth year, Lake-Sumter Emergency Medical Services dispatched four ambulances filled with hams, canned vegetables, bicycles and Christmas trees to 34 families and almost 100 children.
The annual charity drive targets families who have “had hard knocks over the year,” said Diane Sanders, the project’s co-coordinator and an emergency medical technician. Most are families in rural areas who paramedics have helped in past months, Sanders said.
The nearly $5,000 in donations come from several families, but also from EMS employees, officials said.
“It just keeps getting bigger and bigger each year,” EMS assistant chief Tom Lackey said.
At the Lake Square Mall, 28 kids got a special visit Friday from the man in red aboard a Lake County firetruck.
Earlier, the children and their families were treated to a free breakfast in Leesburg. Today firefighters will deliver donated toys to families in Fruitland Park, Lake Jem, Paisley and Okahumpka.