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Three-year-old Alice Morrison wore her birthday best; a dress adorned with bright flowers, her pink socks and pink sunglasses, as she patiently waited for Warman’s fire chief to visit her.
Peering out of her home’s living room window, she appeared excited as she looked for the Warman Fire Rescue truck’s red flashing lights.
Soon, they appeared, and the bright red truck stopped in front of her home. Fire Chief Russ Austin carried a birthday present for her in a package wrapped inside a plastic bag. The gift contained a fire marshal helmet, stickers, a frisbee, crayons and an activity book.
Austin held the clear bag up to the window for her to see, then walked over and put it on the doorstep before ringing the doorbell and stepping back several feet.
“Happy Birthday!” he and another department member shouted in unison.
The home’s door slowly opened, and Alice’s mom Karsen Morrison showed her daughter the presents.
“What do you say?” she asked Alice.
“Thank you!” she shouted.
Alice’s birthday delivery was one of nearly half a dozen the Warman Fire Rescue Department had scheduled in just one day.
Austin said he and his department wanted to provide joy to children who couldn’t have birthday parties because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and orders for everyone to socially distance themselves from one another.
“Anything that we can do to bring a smile to a kid that’s been stuck in the house and can’t get out and maybe doesn’t understand why their friends can’t come over,” he said. “If we can provide just a little bit of relief from it and make it a positive thing, it’s certainly going to be a birthday they’ll remember and be able to tell their grandkids about someday.”
Morrison says a friend told her about the initiative the fire department had come up with, so she made a request to the department for her daughter’s birthday.
“I thought it would be a great way to bring a little fun to her birthday when you can’t really go anywhere,” she said. “I think it’s great to see that people in our community are reaching out and trying to make this as easy of a time as they can.”
Austin says the idea came from one of their members (now in isolation) who went to a conference in Texas not long ago. He’d heard that a small department in that state was delivering toys to children as well.
“We thought about it long and hard for about 45 seconds, and then started putting the wheels in motion to try to bring a little bit of joy to the kids in Warman,” Austin said.
Within 25 minutes of posting the idea on Facebook, the department had 25 requests. There are now 80 requests.
He says the department will continue to take requests for gift deliveries throughout April, and will assess whether it will extend that timeline.
Anyone in Warman interested in having volunteer firefighters deliver their child a birthday gift can contact the department through its Facebook page.