Giving Thanks

Each year, the United States Marine Corps Reserve puts on a toy drive to collect and distribute toys to less fortunate children in local communities. Since its founding in 1947, the annual Toys for Tots toy drive has distributed more than 500 million toys to children across the United States. In 2015, the Fire Museum of Maryland joined the long list of organizations that help in this effort, becoming a toy drop-off location. We are pleased to do so again this year, and will even be hosting several Marines on Saturday, November 26, in connection with our annual visit from Santa.

We would like to encourage all of our followers, friends, readers, Museum members, and everyone else to consider buying an extra present this year for someone less fortunate than you, and donating it at one of the many Toys for Tots toy drop-off locations located near you. (You can visit this link to find a list of the locations in your area.) We frequently hear that the holiday season is about giving thanks and showing compassion and care for strangers, and we feel that the Toys for Tots program is a great way to do that.

If you would like to drop off your gift at the Fire Museum, we will be accepting new, unwrapped toys from now through Saturday, December 10. If you happen to be joining us on Saturday, November 26 for a photo with Santa in his sleigh, we will even have several U.S. Marines on site to help collect toys. We would love to see you that Saturday, but if you can’t make it then, we hope you will be able to swing by before our December 10th deadline.

And don’t forget, along with Santa’s visit we will also be opening the Christmas Train Garden for the first time this year, complete with a new fire scene showing an industrial fire on Sparrows Point and a fire boat in action.