South Bay girl donates birthday gifts to local fire station

KTVU KTVU Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close South Bay girl donates birthday gifts to local fire station 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Lilly Fernald, an eight-year-old in Campbell, has just made some new friends at her local fire station.

Inspired by a classmate who recently gave canned foods to a homeless shelter, the second grader decided to ask friends to bring stuffed animals to her birthday party in lieu of gifts. Fernald wanted to donate them to the local fire station to help comfort other children in times of need.

"I'm just totally impressed with the little girl's heart [and] her initiative to pay forward a kind act to someone who may need it," Mark Franz of the Santa Clara County Fire Department told KTVU.

Fernald hopes that her gifts will help "bring love, kindness, and joy" to children dealing with a crisis, telling KTVU, "I'm parting with them because I want to make people happy."

On Monday, Fernald presented fifteen stuffed animals to (the epically mustachioed) Franz and the fire department — a gift with significance not lost on them.

Lilly, a Campbell resident, recently celebrated her eighth birthday and asked her guests to bring a stuffed animal for... Posted by City of Campbell on Monday, March 21, 2016

"When you have little to nothing and you get a gift like that," Franz added, "it becomes your favorite thing."