Monday morning 10 members of the Iola Fire Department left the fire station a little before 10 o’clock, and formed a short caravan of sport utility vehicles and trucks. A fire engine and an ambulance followed. THE GROUP — at this point, 10 firefighters, three wives, a mom, a dad, and seven kids — gathered under the astringent light of Walmart’s entryway to listen to Ballard describe the gift Iola’s firefighters had been preparing during the weeks prior. THE KIDS made swift and giddy work of their shopping spree. HAVING FINISHED loading the plastic sacks full of toys and shoes and balls and video games into the back of one of the firefighter’s pickups, Alexander — Sammy and Jimmy’s dad — was pushing his juddering shopping cart across the parking lot to deposit in one of the metal stalls.
They traveled less than half a mile, parked their vehicles in front of two squat brick apartment buildings on North Buckeye Street, and got out. They crossed the damp grass of the courtyard and gathered outside one of the doors. Firefighter Ron Ballard knocked.
Sammy, a seventh-grader, was the first to emerge, followed by his little brother, Jimmy, in the second grade. They looked curiously at the group of uniformed men crowding their doorstep. Their father, Alexander, emerged last, grinning wide — in on the surprise.
Ballard, who organized the day’s event, was quick to explain to the boys the reason for the group’s intrusion. The firefighters — accompanied by three of their wives — were there for one reason: to take the boys Christmas shopping and then out for pizza. Jimmy looked back at his dad, disbelieving. His dad nodded. Then the three piled into one of the trucks, and the caravan was off again.
The next stop was a house on North Cottonwood Street, to collect William and Breanna and their mother, Josi. William answered the door and made a point of shaking the hands of all of the firefighters gathered on his porch, while he waited for his mother to squeeze a stocking cap onto the head of his wriggling sister.
One other family was already along for the ride — siblings Heaven, sixth grade; Isaac, third grade; and Kandrella, first grade. An elderly relative had dropped them off at the fire station beforehand.
Each child was being presented with a $100 shopping spree. “You can buy anything you want,” Ballard told them.
With that, firefighter Corey Isbell began peeling shopping carts out of the clattering rack, handing them over, one after another.
The kids, like newly hatched sea turtles whose earliest instincts send them scuttling in the direction of the surf, immediately fanned out toward the toy section at the back of the store.
According to Ballard, the money for the event came out of the firefighters’ union dues.
This is money that in previous years might have gone toward retirement parties or items around the fire station.
“We knew we needed to do something different this year. We expanded our department in the last year,” Ballard said, “and so there’s been a lot of political turmoil. This is something to do that is good.”
Ballard reached out to the schools — namely, USD 257 counselors Judy McIntosh and Barbara Sherrill — for advice regarding specific families who might need a hand this holiday season, and then contacted the families to make sure that helping hand was welcome.
Invaluable to the day’s outing were Kristin Ballard, Kim Isbell and Amy Burnett (wife of firefighter Mike Burnett), who helped Heaven and Kandrella — whose mother wasn’t able to make it — fill their cart with all the clothes and toys they wanted. At one point the women were crouching down next to Kandrella in the shoe aisle as the first-grader weighed the purchase of a pair of tie-dyed hi-tops with sparkly toecaps, a decision in footwear very likely beyond the expertise of the firefighters.
But, as one Walmart employee said to his colleague: “I think the firefighters are having as much fun as the kids.” Isaac was dragging EMS Director Ryan Sell from one side of the store to the other, and at one point had Sell carrying an over-large blue beanbag chair down the store’s center aisle. Sammy, the oldest of the Christmas shoppers, vowed to stretch his $100 as far as possible. Casting a cool eye over the prices, he was routinely enlisting Isbell’s help in getting an electronic price check on items not clearly marked.
What did he think of the morning’s event?
“It was wonderful,” he said. “They called me and said what they wanted to do and made sure I was game for it. And of course I was — I love my kids….I have them now, full time. I’m a single dad, so we’re trying to make up for — I mean, they miss their mom, of course. But this thing here,” Alexander said, pointing back to where the firefighters were beginning to climb back into their trucks, “is well-appreciated.”
The last stop for the group was lunch. A couple hours after which Ballard said this in an email: “It was amazing to see the kids and how happy they were to play with their toys at Pizza Hut, and enjoy a meal with nothing else to worry about. We are truly blessed at the IAFF Local 64 to be able to provide things like this for the people in need in our community. We hope that people see that we try and go above and beyond the call of duty as firefighters and medical professionals and really do try to help the greater good any chance we get.
“The community should know,” Ballard said, “that we are here for them.”
Christmas spirit catches like fire
