5-year-old shows his appreciation for firefighters by giving them a Baby Yoda doll


When Tyler Eubanks organized a donation drive for firefighters battling blazes across the western United States, she expected people to drop off clothes, snacks, and other essentials, and was delighted when a 5-year-old boy named Carver instead showed up with a Baby Yoda doll.
Carver also wrote a note to accompany the doll, thanking the firefighters and telling them The Mandalorian character could be "a friend for you in case you get lonely." Eubanks collected the doll and other donations in the towns of Molalla and Colton in Oregon, but the items were distributed to firefighters outside of the state, too, in Utah and Colorado. Baby Yoda has been making the rounds, and captains tell Eubanks that firefighters are lining up to take selfies with the doll.
"The smallest gift of kindness goes a long way," Mike Lewelling, fire management officer at Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, told Today. "This has been a very long and stressful fire season and many firefighters are away from their families for weeks, and even months." Both the Baby Yoda doll and Carver's note are morale boosters, Lewelling said, and put a "smile on even the toughest of firefighters out there." Eubanks has set up a Facebook page so people can keep track of Baby Yoda and see photos of him with the firefighters.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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