Junior Firefighter Cookie Convoy Delivers Cheer, Carols, And Confection To Residents Of Westhampton Beach

Through a dreary December drizzle, a fire engine, high water truck and company van trundled into the neighborhood. The occupants of the trucks and the cheer they would spread belied the afternoon’s chilly and somber clime.

For the 17th year, on Saturday, December 18, members of the Westhampton Beach Fire Department set out to visit community members, bringing cookies, song, and cheer.

“We’ve always believed in giving back to the community,” Paul Hoyle, who co-founded the junior program with Steve Smith, explained. He acknowledged that this time of year can be difficult for those who have lost loved ones; that special heartbreak is something the volunteers look to comfort. Anyone in the fire department family who lost someone was on the list for a visit, as well as cookies baked from scratch by members of the Ladies Auxiliary. Some members of the department’s junior program lost a parent and grandparents this year, Hoyle said.

“Hopefully, the rain holds off,” he said, standing at the bay doors of the firehouse, looking up at the heavy clouds. They expected to visit a dozen homes in the village. “They’re our family, so we do it,” said Cody Hoyle, who works as a junior program advisor alongside her husband.

“We’ve done it in rain before, in snowstorms,” Paul Hoyle said, recollecting the words of a late friend and Word War II veteran, Arma “Ham” Andon, who’d say they never stopped the war for the rain. In 2016, Cody Hoyle recalled, “It snowed and we had a snowball fight. It was awesome.”

Members of the junior program, aged 12 to 19, would wear their turnout coats, and after delivering cookies, sing a selection of holiday carols.

The program has attracted a hefty number of participants. The Hoyles like to keep the membership at 30, but they had a wait list of between 15 and 20. Last summer, she recalled, “Nobody was leaving, so we decided to let it roll.” They’re up to 46 members.

“This is a fantastic organization for the community,” Chief Mauro Di Benedetto offered, as he stopped by the firehouse Saturday morning. It gets kids interested in the fire service and could — hopefully — become a pathway to adult membership, he said.

Fourteen-year-old Jason Kampfer has participated in the event for “three or four years,” he said, offering that he, too, feels it’s “cool for the community.”

Katherine Luna, 12, has been in the juniors program for just four months. She said she was “very excited” by the prospect of cheering up neighbors. Her companion, 14-year-old Michelle Castro was participating for her second year. “It’s a fun little event,” she said, “though I’m not much of a singer.”

The kids don’t practice for the event and sang using sheets of lyrics Cody Hoyle prints out.

It doesn’t matter.

“They come every year,” Anne Kirsch, the cookie convoy’s first stop said, delighted. Standing on her front porch, the nearly 90-year-old resident appeared delighted, clapping along to the a cappella voices.

“They never know the words,” she whispered, a wink in her voice.