At 13 months old, Julian Lazcano was too young to speak or even really understand the firefighters and volunteers who visited his room and formed a small circle around him Friday morning at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
But Julian stretched his eyes wide and looked around curiously as he sat bouncing on the lap of a child-life specialist. And when firefighter Peggy Dempsey handed him a red plastic helicopter, the toddler beat the toy with his hand and tried to press the colorful buttons.
"We're here when you need us," Dempsey told the toddler, who had big brown eyes and closely cropped, dark brown hair. "We hope you go home soon."
At the hospitals, the Chicago firefighters and their volunteers delivered hundreds of dolls, plastic trucks, bicycles, puzzles and other new toys. The emergency responders went room by room to visit the children who were strong enough to accept guests and to give them toys for the holidays.
"We've been doing this for 10 years," Pinskey said, adding that it was tough enough for the children to be sick, let alone stuck in a hospital over the holidays. "It's always nice to put a smile on a kid's face. You get to see that twinkle in their eye."
While toy drives and giveaways are common this time of year, this project gives the firefighters and paramedics a chance to serve children at the same hospitals they frequent on emergency calls, Pinskey said.
At times the firefighters have to put on protective gowns, face masks and gloves just to go into the rooms and visit the children.
At Advocate Illinois Masonic on Friday, the firefighters started their day by dropping off several truckloads of toys. They stacked the colorful boxes under a Christmas tree in the lobby and eventually took them upstairs to the children.
Each child in the hospital's pediatric unit and emergency room got several toys to keep, said Anna Zieba, the child-life specialist there. If the sick child had a sibling, they also were given gifts to take home, she said.
The rest of the toys will be stored at the hospital and distributed through the year as children rotate in and out of treatment.
"We use the toys to distract them during procedures," Zieba said. "It helps them cope, and it helps them get through the experience."
Omar Hali stood in his crib and watched quietly as the firefighters brought him a new plastic truck to play with. The 15-month-old looked over at his mother and then at his visitors before examining his new toys.
"It's very generous for them to give us gifts," said Omar's mother, Emina Redzovic. "It's really sweet that they want to make sure he feels comfortable."
Because her baby was in the hospital, she hasn't had much time for holiday shopping, Redzovic said. After her son was given two gifts, she had less to worry about.
This year, Nathan Maldonado, 7, asked Santa Claus to bring him a remote-controlled truck and an orange bicycle for Christmas, he said. Though confined to a hospital bed, he got everything on his list Friday.
Nathan was too shy to talk, said his mother, Linda Maldonado, so she expressed thanks for him.
"He didn't expect this," she said. "He knew he had to get better to get home before Christmas Day. But now he has gotten his gifts first."
