The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
By Karen Trautmann, Somerset.
It’s that time of year where children count down the days to experience the magic of Christmas morning and adults hope for just a few more days to decorate, clean, bake, buy, and wrap to get everything just right for the magical day. Saturday evening was no different. “Mommy, what’s going on?” my three-year old asked as we heard the loud firetrucks and emergency vehicles in the neighborhood. My heart sunk just imagining what disaster had struck. Then I received a text from my neighbor who told me to get my son and come outside because Santa had arrived by firetruck! I threw on our coats and ran to the end of the court, but we just missed him on Johnson Road. So we ran back to the car and were off in hot pursuit of the man in red whose sleigh was lit up and was being pulled by a firetruck. We followed them from one neighborhood to another and I thought we may just have to follow those four firetrucks all the way to the North Pole! We finally caught up to them in the parking lot of the St. Peter and Paul church. Santa greeted us with jolly “Ho, ho, ho’s!” and a present that he had in his bag just for my little guy. My son’s face beamed with the purest joy a boy can have. Santa had personally delivered a present to him from a firetruck!
My mother always said, “What you do for my children, you do for me.” You didn’t have to dress up, drive around the streets in freezing weather, play Christmas music, wish the residents a “Merry Christmas” on the truck radio, or stop to give out candy canes and new presents to kids. You didn’t have to make a special visit to the car of the crazy mother who chased you around town and with her three-year old son bundled up in the back seat, but you did. You warmed the hearts of many that night. For no other reason except to give, you gave. Thank you for Saturday’s surprise adventure and for all you do year round. On behalf of the countless moms and dads and kids you touched that night, I want to wish a very Merry Christmas to the volunteers of the East Franklin and Community firehouses! Your work does not go unnoticed.
