Trees and Toys Given to 50 Local Families at Holiday Event

A number of Pasadena organizations, including the Pasadena branch of the NAACP, Fire Fighters Union Local 809, the U.S. Postal Service, and the U.S. Marine Corps, joined together on Sunday to provide a happier holiday for nearly 50 local families.

Local firefighters arrived at the Pasadena branch of the NAACP early Sunday morning to deliver 25 Christmas trees while volunteers and local residents filled tables with blankets and gifts for children of all ages, donated by the Marines and USPS employees.

According to Pasadena Deputy Fire Chief Tim Sell, the Pasadena Fire Department and Union Local 809 were challenged by the NAACP to provide 20 trees for the toy drive event.

“We wanted to surpass that challenge,” said Sell, “We managed to donate 25 trees.”

NAACP Pasadena Branch President Allen Edson, kneeling at front, is joined by Pasadena firefighters and Deputy Fire Chief Tim Sell and Sell’s son at NAACP Headquarters to hand out 50 Christmas trees on Sunday, December 19, 2021. [Photo by Eddie Rivera/Pasadena Now]

“We’re just trying to help those who can use support for the holidays,” said NAACP Branch President Allen Edson, who added that while most families were pre-registered for the event no one was turned away.

‘We have plenty of trees and toys here,” he said, happily.

Co-organizer and Pasadena resident Lisa Andrews Strawberry said she had been organizing toy drives all over Southern California for a number of years, but never before in her home town of Pasadena.