Toys

The Glendale Centre Theatre?s goal has always been to produce quality plays with a ?Gee? rating. As in ?Gee whiz. Gosh darn. That was a pretty good show, honey.? Believe it or don?t, that?s the kind of thing you?ll hear the grown-ups saying in the lobby at the 8 p.m shows. So there?s no age-appropriate issue for parents who want to bring the older kids along at night, unless someone forgot to take a nap. When it comes to the kids bringing the parents along, the reverse is not always true.

A last-minute donation push last week allowed the Crescenta Valley Sheriff?s Station to help more than 160 families in need over the weekend as the station?s annual holiday Toy and Food Drive ended. Los Angeles County Sheriff?s Deputy Jorge Valdivia said they received 2,000 toys ? enough that every child could be given more than one. Each family also received a $20 gift card and up to four bags of groceries. ?Friday was a big push; it was a Christmas miracle,? Valdivia said.

In a holiday season marked by sharp reductions in toy donations as the number of families seeking assistance rose, the largest toy giveaway in the Glendale-Burbank area didn’t disappoint. The line outside New Horizons Family Center’s 15th annual toy drive, held Saturday at the organization’s youth center, snaked around the block as dozens of volunteers gave action figures, race cars and board games to more than 3,500 children. “I got exactly what I wanted,” said Ramon Sanchez, of Burbank, who took home a Razor kick scooter.

GLENDALE — Local firefighters say they’re struggling to fill orders for toy donations in the wake of Metrolink’s decision to cancel a main collection drive last week. Because of rain, officials said logistics prevented the annual Metrolink Holiday Toy Express, where residents donate hundreds of unwrapped toys for needy families, from being rescheduled. That took what little wind there was out of the sails for local fire departments, which depend on the brightly decorated train and musical performances to spur toy donations from the community for the “Spark of Love” campaign.

GLENDALE — Local nonprofits and firehouses have been struggling to gather enough toys from financially strapped donors for hundreds of low-income children this holiday season. With more families seeking out free services this year due to financial constraints, local community toy drives and nonprofit organizations are feeling the pressure to fulfill their needs, and this Christmas, their wish lists. Community leaders said demands for goods have increased, but donations haven’t matched that need.

Michele MacNeal works as a nurse at Verdugo Hills Hospital, has raised three children and gives what is left of her time to volunteer with humanitarian-based efforts, such as Operation Christmas Child and the Parents Television Council. She attributes her busy lifestyle to her gene pool. “As my grandmother used to say, ‘We Muncies have a lot of moxies,’” MacNeal said. Her grandmother’s maiden name was Muncy, and she raised seven kids without a husband during the Great Depression.

Firefighters surprised Maria Avalos and her three sons Wednesday when they knocked on their apartment door, carrying a bicycle and three large bags filled with toys. Glendale Fire Capt. Mark Berg, engineer John McGaffin and firefighter Eric Carlsen, all of Fire Station 23, cheered “Merry Christmas” as they walked into Maria and husband Jorge Avalos’ apartment. Her sons — Jonathon, 5, Bryan, 7, and George, 9 — stood motionless and their jaws dropped as Carlsen and Berg placed the bags of toys next to the family’s Christmas tree, and McGaffin wheeled in the bicycle that Jonathon wished he would get for the holiday.

The largest toy giveaway in the Glendale-Burbank area didn’t just offer more toys to more children than ever before, officials said, it also gave many of them their first experiences with a pair of iconic creatures: live reindeer. The antlered animals, scarce in California and commonly associated with Christmas, were one of the attractions on the way to a gym full of Hannah Montana dolls, Batman action figures and other popular toys at the New Horizons Family Center’s 14th annual toy and volunteer drive, which was held Saturday at the organization’s youth center.

Every year the Crescenta Valley Rotary Club has a special evening meeting to collect gifts from members and friends to be donated to the Toys for Tots campaign. This year was very special because the brand new Valley View Elementary School Choir made its first public performance at the meeting. The choir is made up of more than 70 boys and girls in first through third grade, and their singing was just sensational. They sang holiday songs and everybody joined in on many. This inaugural event for the young singers fit right in with the toy campaign.