Wagons for hospitalized kids

Local firefighters donate handcrafted wagons to Shriners by Lou Sennick

Two sets of Red Wagons will leave the Bay Area soon and head to the Shriners Hospital in Boston. On hand to see them off last week were, from left, Loren Parrish and Jack Hoffman from Hauser; Jeff Jenkins from North Bay; Mick Sneddon from Charleston; and Matt Fare from Coos Bay.

Each wagon carries a sign listing the groups who helped pay for their construction and shipping. On the back, another sign lists the volunteers who constructed the wooden wagons.

World Photos by Lou Sennick
Two sets of Red Wagons will leave the Bay Area soon and head to the Shriners Hospital in Boston. On hand to see them off last week were, from left, Loren Parrish and Jack Hoffman from Hauser; Jeff Jenkins from North Bay; Mick Sneddon from Charleston; and Matt Fare from Coos Bay.

The Boston Shriners Hospital and its small patients soon will get a gift from local firefighters — two red wagons.

The wagons will be used to help move young patients around the hospital and include an IV hanger. The wagons are the result of the Tofflemire Family Project, which has been donating hand-crafted wagons for the 22 Shriner Hospitals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Local resident Jim Tofflemire and some friends have been building the wagons in honor of his son, Phillip, who was a Shriner patient and passed away in April 2006 at the age of 23. Tofflemire said the wagons should last about 25 years.

The group will have completed 50 wagon sets by early next year. The two headed for Boston were funded with help from the Hauser, North Bay, Charleston and Coos Bay volunteer firefighters. Volunteers got together last week at the North Bay fire hall to send them off. Among them were Loren Parrish and Jack Hoffman from Hauser; Jeff Jenkins from North Bay; Mick Sneddon from Charleston; and Matt Fare from Coos Bay.