MARYSVILLE — The Marysville Fire District Foundation sent Marysville firefighters and Santa Claus out to collect for the Marysville Community Food Bank, Dec. 9-11.

Firefighters were filling their boots, along with shopping carts, with donations for the food bank, as well as accepting donations for the families of the slain Lakewood police officers, at the Marysville Safeway and Haggen stores.

“It’s been a really good turnout,” Marysville firefighter D.J. Neyens said at the Safeway Dec. 11. “We’ve had some extremely generous donations. These people are doing a great job of supporting the community.”

Neyens estimated that the financial donations were close to $2,000, while fellow Marysville firefighter estimated that they might have collected as many as four truck beds of food items.

“There’s been a lot of canned vegetables and a lot of soups, probably because people are cold and want to warm up,” Neyens said.

Neyens said this year marked the Marysville Fire District Foundation’s third holiday season in front of Safeway. They’d previously conducted a “Santa Run” throughout the fire district, but according to Neyens, the district simply became too big.

“It’s a really good situation here,” Neyens said. “We see a lot of people and we get a lot of donations.”

“We just want people to know that we’re supporting the community on our down time,” Eagle said. “We’re not paid while we’re out here. This is all volunteer time.”

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