9-year-old Reyna with her new toys. Amidst the Christmas jams playing in the Greater Dwight Community Room on Saturday, 9-year-old Reyna wasn’t looking for any particular toys. She was happy just spending time with her friend Egypt. Nevertheless, by the end of the night, she walked away w ith a few goodies: a Rapunzel doll and bright blue Gronckle dragon plushie from the movie series How to Train your Dragon.  Christmas arrived early for Reyna and 349 children at an annual holiday toy, hat, and coat giveaway hosted by the New Haven Firebirds and New Haven Guardians. The event, which took place at 130 Edgewood Ave., was led in partnership with the Greater Dwight Development Corporation.  Volunteer organizations who contributed to the event included the NAACP, the American Medical Response New Haven, Goodwill of Southern New England, Elm City Youth Club, Yale Black Culture Network, and the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Pi Lambda Zeta chapter.  While the event has been held at different locations over the years, this is the fourth year it has operated from the Greater Dwight Community Room, said Joshua Antrum, president of the New Haven Firebirds, a fraternal organization for Black and Hispanic city firefighters.  This year, the event served a total of 600 people, with over half of them being children.  “We pretty much all work for the city, but this is just the way we take a step further to ensure that people are being properly served as much as we can,” Antrum said.  “I think in an age where it seems like volunteerism is kind of dying out, I think this kind of stuff is important to show that it still can be done and that we can still take care of the city from a ground level.” While Antrum said that the hardest part about planning is the logistics and coordinating time since the event is volunteer driven, doing the holiday drive was especially important this year, citing “uncertain times with state and government aid.” The only requirement for the toy and coat drive? Having a child present to receive a gift. Richard Borer with Goodwill volunteers. Handling boxes of clothes on Saturday was Richard Borer, president of Goodwill of Southern New England. Borer has been doing coat drives for two decades, inspired by the late Sam Tilery, who worked closely with the New Haven Firebirds to plan community events. Tilery also worked with WPLR and WYBC radio stations. Borer estimated that 2,000 coats were given out on Saturday. “The fire union has been wonderful to work with,” he said, “and it’s interesting because when I first started, it was a different generation of folks that were here, and I could see that the torch and the DNA has passed on to the younger folks to give back to the community.” The coat selection process takes three months. As garments come into Goodwill’s processing facilities on conveyor belts, people are tasked with pulling out coats they think are suitable. The coats are then put into “gaylord boxes” — large, heavy-duty, cardboard containers — and put onto pallets, and then loaded into tractor trailers. Coats that still remain after the giveaway are returned to Goodwill locations.  Walking into the gym on Saturday, guests were immediately greeted by the sharp, warm aroma of popcorn, delighted screams, and an intense match of half-court basketball. As laughter ensued, Sekonda Johnson stood with fliers and a sign up sheet informing people about next year’s Neighborhood Planning Charrette for the Greater Dwight neighborhood. A member of the Dwight Central Management Team, Johnson said she felt compelled to join to help the community and show her kids civic engagement.  “I want my kids to be involved in stuff like cleaning up the community, doing stuff for the community,” she said.  The Dwight charrette meeting, which will take place on Saturday, April 25 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 130 Edgewood Ave., will discuss the Greater Dwight Neighborhood Plan. Saturday’s giveaway not only served as community outreach, but also as a recreational space for Johnson’s kids Reyna and Elijah to spend quality family time together.  For 6-year-old Elijah, his favorite part of his day could be summed up by a single word: toys. Proudly showing off his new scooter when posing with Santa, he wasted no time taking it for a test drive, zipping and gliding through the gymnasium as attendees gathered in the front to hear city youth department deputy Ronald Huggins list the raffle prize winners.  As Huggins went through tickets, Zachery Washington stood beside him showing off the goods and keeping spirits high. A member of New Haven Fire Department and Firebirds, Washington’s traditional job is to keep the city safe. On Saturday, however, he donned his new role as St. Nick, spreading holiday cheer one photo and dance break at a time. In contrast to Elijah’s carefree attitude, Reyna and Egypt had their eyes on the raffle, which featured items such as Huffy bikes, Fortnite gift cards, and a Hisense 40” smart TV. They giggled and chatted to pass the time, watching recipients and keeping tabs on their own ticket numbers. Soon Huggins announced another winning number 9253624, and a girl stepped forward to claim a PlayStation Portal Remote Player. “Are you happy?” he asked, to which she replied yes. “How happy are you?” “I’m so happy that I’m going to run into space,” she said. Elijah using his scooter. The post Firebirds Bring Toys — Holiday Cheer — To Dwight appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less