The LAFD Toy Program

Over the last 34 years, the Los Angeles Fire Department Toy Program has distributed more than THREE MILLION toys throughout the City. The success of the program can be attributed to invaluable resources and partnerships which include all of the wonderful volunteers, KABC TV’s “Spark of Love” Toy Program with their extensive media coverage, and of course, the generous donations of our Los Angeles community.

Throughout the years, our charity toy program has operated out of various LAFD facilities including the apparatus shed at Fire Station 3, and old Fire Stations 23, 27 and 6. We are fortunate that for the last twelve years, Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center (FHMTC) has served as the Toy Program’s home base. 

The LAFD Toy Program officially opens each year on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and for the following six weeks, an area of the drill deck is transformed into what is known as “Toy Central.” Toys collected from our fire stations are transported to Toy Central where volunteers sort items by age and gender. Requests submitted from approximately 750 certified charitable organizations are processed and transported to the Fire Station nearest the requesting organization. Meeting the deadlines requested by the organizations can be somewhat challenging. However, this process has enabled us to reach thousands of children within the dates requested by the charity organizations.

The 2011 Holiday Season was again very successful. This was due in no small way to the usual suspects: the Toy Central staff of Firefighters Mike Marquez (76-B) and Ray Topete (61-C), the LAFD Cadet corps who donated countless volunteer hours and all of our LAFD members and their families who were kind enough to participate. Hoping everyone had a great holiday season and is enjoying a very Happy New Year!