{"id":65484,"date":"2025-12-19T18:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T18:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/65484\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T18:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T18:50:11","slug":"reading-firefighters-host-toy-drive-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/65484\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading firefighters host Toy Drive Breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Reading Fire Department hosted its annual Toy Drive Breakfast on Friday at Trooper Thorn\u2019s Irish Beef House.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to collecting toys, this year\u2019s drive honored the memory of retired Reading firefighter Keith \u201cSarge\u201d Eschleman, whose dedication to the community and the holiday season continues to inspire this tradition, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year\u2019s one of the highest turnouts we\u2019ve had in a long time,\u201d Fire Chief James G. Stoudt Jr. said Friday. \u201cThe shirts this year are dedicated to Keith Eshelman, who was a big part of this. He was a firefighter in Reading for 30 years. He served as our chaplain, and he served in a big role for this every year. Unfortunately, he passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Reading Fire Chief James G. Stoudt Jr. wears a fundraising T-shirt in memory of firefighter Keith Eschleman during the department's annual Toy Drive Breakfast at Trooper Thorn's Irish Beef House, 451 Morgantown Road, on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. . (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\" width=\"3000\" height=\"333\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/REG-L-RFDToyDrive1521.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"2970086\" \/>Reading Fire Chief James G. Stoudt Jr. wears a fundraising T-shirt in memory of firefighter Keith Eschleman during the department&#8217;s annual Toy Drive Breakfast at Trooper Thorn&#8217;s Irish Beef House, 451 Morgantown Road, on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. . (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n<p>Community members enjoyed a free breakfast at the pub, 451 Morgantown Road, with the donation of a new, unwrapped toy.<\/p>\n<p>All toys collected will be distributed to the Salvation Army of Reading to support families in need this holiday season. Toy Drive shirts and hoodies were available for purchase, with the proceeds being used to buy additional toys.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"The Reading Fire Department held its annual Toy Drive Breakfast at Trooper Thorn's Irish Beef House, 451 Morgantown Road, on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\" width=\"3000\" height=\"298\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/REG-L-RFDToyDrive1519.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"2970101\" \/>The Reading Fire Department held its annual Toy Drive Breakfast at Trooper Thorn&#8217;s Irish Beef House, 451 Morgantown Road, on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve collected, we bought over $10,500 in toys that we delivered yesterday (Thursday) to the Salvation Army,\u201d Stoudt said. \u201cAnd then today, all the toys that are here we\u2019ll take them to their drop-off site at the end of the event. So it\u2019s always a good event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reading Fire Department hosted its annual Toy Drive Breakfast on Friday at Trooper Thorn\u2019s Irish Beef House.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-65484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}