HISTORY

The Firemen’s Cheer Fund is probably the oldest charity in Bartholomew County that depends solely on public donations for its existence. It is one of several efforts within the Columbus community at Christmas to provide the needy with useful gifts.

The Firemen’s Cheer Fund was founded by the Columbus Fire Department in 1930, when some caring firemen realized that poor children probably see few, if any, gifts under a Christmas tree. City firemen banded together that Christmas to hold a party for some 50 needy children to whom they gave presents, using $1,500 collected from the community.

One of the firemen dressed as Santa Claus and distributed the gifts during a party held at the old fire station just west of the old city hall on Fifth Street. The number of youngsters receiving gifts multiplied in the next few years as the Cheer Fund’s goals caught on, and city firemen adopted the project on an annual basis.

To handle the overflow of children at the popular Christmas Party held each December; the firemen erected a large circus like tent next to the fire station. The Cheer Fund lapsed from 1945 to 1947, when city firemen felt their efforts were duplicating that of other community-minded groups concerned about the poor.

Firemen re-instituted the fund in 1948 and added a new wrinkle; that of delivering the gifts. Deliveries remain to this day, and picnics were held from 1949 to 1951. The Community Picnics were held at Donner Center, The Crump Theatre, and The Indiana Army/National Guard Armory, which was then located at Seventh and Franklin Streets.

In 1949, the Cheer Fund gave its first bicycle, and from that Christmas forward, the refurbished bikes are among the most popular gifts the fund gives. By 1949, some 400 children were receiving toys and treats at the parties at Christmas time.

In 1957, the project was expanded to include all of Bartholomew County. In 1963, the Cheer Fund became a corporation, and a board of directors was named. At this point the City Police force also joined in helping coordinate the project for a period of time, but has since stopped their involvement.

Experiencing even more success in the mid and late 1960’s, the fund began providing food baskets to the elderly.

Just before the economy started to suffer in the mid 1970’s, the Cheer Fund broke new ground by making a special gift of a television set to the County Home for the Aged. They also gave a fleet of 25 bicycles to the local Children’s Home and began delivering gifts to the pediatric ward at the hospital.

The Cheer Fund is coordinated through the efforts of the City of Columbus Firemen, with the assistance from a volunteer Board of Directors. Each year it depends on volunteer contributions from the public to reach a monetary goal for the purchase of toys, food and clothing for underprivileged children in Bartholomew County

The Cheer Fund keeps in touch with the public by running a day-to-day tally of all contributors’ names or synonyms in The Republic, and reports on the fund’s progress in reaching the financial goal.

Also, the fund depends on the public in helping with toy sorting, boxing and delivering of gift boxes and food baskets. The public also brings in hundreds of used toys to be cleaned and refurbished for distribution. Donated bicycles are repaired and distributed to all children who request them.

In 2006-07 the Cheer Fund assisted approximately 1458 children compared to 1462 in 2005-06.  Each child received a cheer box with one new outfit of clothes and three new toys plus three gently used toys from the annual community toy collection. Hundreds of new and refurbished bicycles were also distributed.

The Cheer Fund distributed 540 food baskets, up from 412 in 2005-06, to the needy, elderly and handicapped residents of Bartholomew County in 2006-07.  Each food basket contains enough food for a nourishing holiday meal.

The Cheer Fund also provided 211 working smoke detectors to county and city residents during 2006-07, in 2005-06 we distributed 148 smoke detectors.

The faces on the Cheer Fund change as firemen retire and children receiving toys grow up, but the Cheer Fund keeps as its purpose the thoughts of the firemen “Founding” the charity in the 1930’s:

REMEMBERING THE NEEDY AND UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN AT CHRISTMAS.

Click here for more Columbus Fire Department history (circa 1835-1941)