Wyndmoor Hose Company No. 1 Finds a Unique Way to Celebrate Martin Luther King Day

Wyndmoor, PA, January 21, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Thanks to gracious individuals, and a generous donation from Odoodles toy store in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, UCP of Philadelphia along with Wyndmoor Hose Company were able to collect hundreds of dollars worth of toys to deliver to the Stuart J. Hulnick MD Burn Center at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.

On Martin Luther King Day 2009 Wyndmoor hosted United Cerebral Palsy of Philadelphia’s children program volunteers at the fire station for a morning of community service activities. Beyond the donated toys, games, and puzzles the organizations were able to acquire, the firefighters assisted the children of UCP in creating a decorative “Get Well” banner for the burn center’s playroom all in the spirit of the “King Day of Service”.

When a firefighter from Wyndmoor reached out to Fran O’Donnell, owner of Odoodles, O'Donnell was extremely interested to get involved in the festivities. It took just seconds to explain the event and he immediately assembled boxes of toys and arts & crafts materials, to be picked up and used to create the banner on January 19th.

Chief Fran DePaul of Wyndmoor Hose Company explains, “UCP reached out to us in November about partnering on a service project for Martin Luther King Day. We quickly began discussions with local community leaders about the event and before we could hang up the phone Fran was asking us how soon we could have someone available to pickup boxes.” Wyndmoor President Keith Schwartz adds, “Wyndmoor has been involved with UCP fundraising and adult services events for many years, but the MLK festivities are new and exciting for us. We are lucky we can count on local business owners to lend a hand.”

Firefighters also presented a fire safety demonstration, a tour of the facility and apparatus, and hands-on demonstrations to all the volunteers involved.

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