Help OCFA Reach Goal of 40,000 Toys for Children in Need!
The Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) is excited to participate in the 2023 Spark of Love Toy Drive, celebrating the 31st anniversary! This toy drive provides toys for thousands of children within the OCFA service area, which includes 23 cities and unincorporated areas.
The following Orange County cities have their own fire departments and are not part of the OCFA service area; they should be contacted directly for questions regarding their programs: Anaheim, Brea, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, La Habra, Newport Beach, City of Orange, Placentia.
This year our goal is to collect 40,000+ toys! We are partnering with KWAVE again, plus hundreds of nonprofit organizations. Additionally, over 150 businesses have stepped up to help us collect toys for the many children in need this holiday season.
In 2022, we collected 39,312 toys and $50,000 in monetary donations for children in need. In addition to collecting toys at all 78 of our fire stations, we worked with 155 businesses and organizations within our jurisdiction to collect toys benefitting 117 non-profit agencies. We also held one Stuff-A-Bus event in conjunction with ABC7 and five toy donation events in the community.
Please see the information below if you would like to support this year’s toy drive.
New, unwrapped toys will be accepted through Tuesday, December 12, 2023. Toys will still be received after this date but may be saved for 2024. All 78 OCFA Fire Stations, including OCFA Headquarters (1 Fire Authority Road, Irvine, 92602) will receive toys. If bringing multiple toys, we appreciate toys be placed in bags before arriving at the fire station. To find your closest fire station to donate toys, please use the following
link.
Financial contributions to the Spark of Love Toy Drive will be used to purchase toys for children ages 0-18. These toys will be distributed to non-profits within the OCFA jurisdiction bringing joy to children during the upcoming holiday season. To donate, please call the OCFA Foundation at (714) 573-6000 or visit this
link.
We encourage all businesses and organizations looking to participate by donating toys towards these efforts to complete the online OCFA Spark of Love form. This allows OCFA to communicate updates, as well as send information on future toy drives.
The form may be accessed by visiting
here.
Once your toy drive is complete, we encourage you to place toys in bags before dropping them off at your local fire station. To find your closest fire station, please use the following
link.
Unfortunately, the application window for consideration of non-profit organizations looking to receive toys has already passed and was Monday, October 9, 2023. We encourage those interested in receiving toys next year to check back
ocfa.org/toydrive
in September 2024 for information on the 2024 application process.
The application process to receive toys is handled by OCFA Spark of Love Partners, KWAVE. For questions on this, please contact Eve Tolentino with KWAVE at
etolentino@cccm.com
Requests to receive toys are handled by the numerous non-profit organizations vetted by OCFA partners, KWAVE. These non-profit organizations are already working within the OCFA service areas.
While we cannot guarantee the fulfillment of any toy requests, you are welcome to complete the request form. If there is an organization able to fulfill your request, they will contact you directly. Please note due to the high volume of requests received, OCFA and KWAVE will not be responding to requests.
Request form: https://forms.office.com/r/YLmNjZbThb
Additionally, we encourage residents to check their local city and county social media accounts and websites for upcoming events providing toys within the community.
If you have further questions please contact Carmen Cardenas, OCFA Education Specialist and this year’s Spark of Love Toy Drive lead at
carmencardenas@ocfa.org.
Thank you.