McCleary firefighters host Santa Through Town Food Drive

Published 1:30 am Friday, December 26, 2025

On late Saturday afternoon and into the evening, McCleary firefighters escorted Santa on their annual Santa Through Town Food Drive. In spite of the frequent downpours, residents came out to hand over bags of donations to the firefighters who walked ahead of the firetruck. A caravan of vehicles trailed after Santa to collected the donations, and trips to the station were needed to unload. In all, it took five hours to go through the entire town.

What originally started nearly 30 years ago to spread cheer and pass out candy canes, evolved into collecting money and food for McCleary food bank, Fire Chief Andrew Pittman shared via text.

Collectively, the food donations filled over five pallets, and they will be weighed later today. Cash donations were over $1,600, which Pittman said broke previous years’ totals.

“It [was] a great event to help out the community and get out there and see everyone and greet them with candy canes,” wrote Pittman. “It is not possible without our great volunteer members, as well as their families, to help plan, track, and shuttle donations for us.”