HOWELL – Members of Ramtown Fire Company No. 2 in Howell collected more than 4,000 items for the Howell Food Pantry during the 2018 holiday season.
On Dec. 22, members of the fire company assisted Santa Claus with his annual Santa Ride/Howell Food Pantry food drive. Santa and the firefighters collected more than 4,000 items to assist people who may not always have enough food to feed themselves and their family.
Firefighter Jim Gaul chairs the fire company’s publicity committee. He said the tradition of taking Santa for a ride on a fire engine started years ago.
“Our fire company has been around for over 70 years, we are starting our 71st year. Way back, probably in the 1970s or so, a group of firefighters decided to ride around” with Santa, Gaul said.
He said the firefighters put Santa on a fire engine and drove around Ramtown so he could hand out candy to youngsters.
“That kind of evolved into this whole Santa ride,” Gaul said.
He said that for at least the last 10 years, the firefighters have teamed up with the food pantry to collect donations as they drove Santa around the community.
“People would leave a can or two of food and it has evolved. We have received some tremendous contributions from the people in Ramtown,” Gaul said. “(After) last year, we decided to rent a (truck) and we filled a 15-foot-long truck with food. The (4,000 items) amount is more of an estimate, but it is a lot of stuff. That is what the food pantry said, it was over 4,000 (items),” Gaul said.
Santa toured Ramtown on Dec. 22. On Dec. 23, the firefighters took the food that had been collected and delivered it to the food pantry.
“From what (food pantry personnel) were saying, we probably supplied them with enough food to get through to at least June. We are very happy with that,” Gaul said.
He said the members of the fire company are grateful to all the people who call the Ramtown section of Howell their home.
“If it was not for them we would not be able to help the food pantry. So it is something we enjoy doing, it is a fun day,” Gaul said.