Ventura County Fire delivers toys to sick kids

VENTURA, Calif. -- Kids at the children’s hospital at Ventura County Medical Center had some special visitors Friday afternoon.

The Ventura County Fire Department made a special delivery.

“To try to make their holidays a little brighter,” said Brian McGrath, from Ventura County Fire.

Firefighters and organizers of the Spark of Love toy drive delivered toys to children. It is something they have been doing for nearly three decades.

Many of the kids are battling serious illness during this holiday season like 17-year-old Jacob Flores from Ventura who is battling cancer.

“I am currently on chemo therapy and I got a fever last night so I got admitted into the ER and I am doing 48 hours of antibiotics,” said Flores. “So I will be out of here for Christmas.”

But not all of the kids will be home for the holiday, so firefighters took generous donations from the community and went door to door delivering gifts for all.

“Being a first responder and being able to come here and deliver a toy to a child who is recovering or even out seeing a family member and bringing the joy to their face and having them light up it makes us feel so good,” said McGrath. “It is amazing the feeling that we get being able to give back in such a way.”

And for a moment, the gifts made them forget where they were.

“Not to shy away from things like this like kids in the hospital. You do not have to do anything like this, but it is good to not ignore it and it is a serious problem and doing anything to better the situation is always greatly appreciated,” said Flores.”