{"id":49592,"date":"2025-11-23T21:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T21:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/49592\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T21:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T21:19:07","slug":"family-of-fallen-fdny-firefighters-take-over-fao-schwarz-in-annual-holiday-shopping-spree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/49592\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of fallen FDNY firefighters take over FAO Schwarz in annual holiday ‘shopping spree’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of fallen New York City firefighters turned out<\/a> for the FDNY\u2019s annual \u201cShopping Spree\u201d at FAO Schwarz Sunday and made off with bags of holiday loot \u2014 along with some lifelong memories, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Santa and I got a purse. It\u2019s good,\u201d said 6-year-old Charlotte, one of numerous kids who have lost their FDNY parents and were heaped with gifts at the annual event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a case upstairs with a fireman\u2019s hat in it and the fireman\u2019s hat had 325 on it. That\u2019s my dad\u2019s engine,\u201d her 8-year-old brother Joseph said about their father, Joseph Mulvey.<\/p>\n

Kids were given a ride around Rockefeller Center onboard Santa\u2019s very own fire engine at the Sunday event. James Keivom<\/p>\n

Santa poses inside the hallowed FAO Schwartz and to help out kids of fallen FDNY firefighters. James Keivom<\/p>\n

The entire Midtown toy store was shut down for the kids, who were each given $200 gift cards and allowed to run free through its hallowed aisles and buy whatever they wanted.<\/p>\n

Santa also made an appearance and gave every kid who wanted one a ride around the block on an FDNY fire engine. Kids were even brought up in the engine\u2019s bucket to look out over Rockefeller Center alongside the towering Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

The event was hosted by the FDNY-Uniformed Firefighters Association Widows & Children\u2019s Fund, and for decades has been providing gifts to kids whose firefighting<\/a> parents have passed.<\/p>\n

The event has been a holiday lifeline for many FDNY families \u2014 with kids often growing up to give back as volunteers.<\/p>\n

Anybody who wanted to take a ride in the engine\u2019s bucket were allowed to go up by the Rockefeller Christmas tree. James Keivom<\/p>\n

The event has been held annually for decades to support the families of firefighters who have died. James Keivom<\/p>\n

The kids also got a ride on Santa\u2019s special fire engine. James Keivom<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids started giving back as they grew up, wrapping gifts, volunteering,\u201d said Eileen Bellew, whose husband John died at 37 in the infamous 2005 Bronx tenement fire known as \u201cBlack Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we received we moved into giving. We like to give back because we received so much from this event,\u201d Bellew added, explaining she and her four kids haven\u2019t missed the event in 20 years.<\/p>\n

And for many kids, the day is about<\/a> so much more than the toys.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the kids here are pretty much going through the same thing,\u201d said 15-year-old Juliette, who lost her father, Tony Oelkers,\u00a0to 9-11 related cancer in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be with other kids who understand. Understand what this is like.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of fallen New York City firefighters turned out for the FDNY\u2019s annual \u201cShopping Spree\u201d at FAO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[12565,27879,194,969,57,9,24,63,134,136,135,6128,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-49592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-christmas","9":"tag-fao-schwarz","10":"tag-fdny","11":"tag-holidays","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-staten-island","17":"tag-staten-island-headlines","18":"tag-staten-island-news","19":"tag-toys","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}