Chicago firefighters spread holiday cheer among kids in the hospital

FOX 32 NEWS - Chicago firefighters are spreading cheer among children who are spending some of the holiday season in hospitals.

Chicago firefighters collect toys all year long, and the payoff for them, and lots of children, comes on days like Wednesday.

Firefighters from the 12th Battalion, Second District, surprised the children at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with toys to cheer them up. The firefighters visited pediatric patients in the emergency room and in the pediatric wards.

Fifteen-year-old Nina Royston, a 9th grader at Lane Tech, was hospitalized Tuesday night for a severe allergic reaction. The visit from the firefighters, and all of the cameras, caught her by surprise.

“This is wild. I had no idea this was going to happen! So I don’t mind at all, it's pretty cool, what a nice Christmas surprise,” Nina said.

Firefighters also dropped in on Elizabeth Renteria, who was with her newborn baby at the hospital.

“I think it's something that helps us, parents, as well as the children,” she said.

Lots of toys are passed out to the children during the holidays, but hospitals also stock up on some of them to give out to children throughout the year.