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thedrifter
12-23-06, 07:28 AM
A different kind of military campaign

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer

OCEANSIDE ---- As the 18-wheeler pulled into the parking lot, Staff Sgt. Tim Williams eyed the rig carefully, not unlike a child at Christmas wondering what's inside a carefully wrapped package.

"You'll have to back this in," he told the driver, who had pulled straight up to the Camp Pendleton warehouse Wednesday morning.

Outside his truck, the driver flung open the back doors to reveal 22 columns of stacked boxes, towering brown pillars each made of 70 cardboard containers that each contained four identical talking dolls.

"Wow," Williams said.

While the shipment was good news for little girls hoping for a talking doll on Christmas, it was a logistical problem for Williams, who for the last two years has organized one of two Toys for Tots warehouses at Camp Pendleton.

Soon he would be on the phone, notifying either the Camp Pendleton warehouse that sorts toys for parts of Riverside and Orange counties, or another warehouse at Miramar Marine Air Corps Station that sorts toys for delivery to south and east San Diego County.

Looking inside the rows of talking dolls, Williams couldn't help but have a horrifying thought.

"Can you imagine all of those women talking at one time?" he joked to volunteer John McKay, who has been helping sort toys at the warehouse each Christmas season for six years.

An in-between world

The men were outside a warehouse marked with a yellow triangle emblazoned with a hawk and the words "MAG (Marine Air Group) 46 Det A, Fighter Attack Assault Air Support." The sense that this is a military base is never lost; a quiet rumble over the hills is drowned out by a transport helicopter landing at a nearby air strip on this morning, which already had seen a group of paratroopers slowly descending on a nearby hillside.

Inside the warehouse, which is about 80 yards long and functions as a station for Marines to pick up supplies before deployment, the floor was an explosion of toys and games. A pile of colorful stuffed animals reached almost 6 feet, stacks of Monopoly games mingled with Operation games, and toy musical instruments squeaked, squawked, thumped and jingled when pulled from delivery boxes.

This is the in-between world for donated toys, the seldom-seen place they go between being dropped off by donors and before being delivered to needy families.

The first step is picking up the toys, a task Williams often handles. On this morning, he had driven to three North County Wal-Marts and to a Navy Federal Credit Union.

Six Marines usually work in the supply warehouse with Williams, a supplies logistics chief, and together they issue helmets, canteens, parkas and other items that Marines will need when going off to war. Come September, those items must make way for a invasion of more toys and children's games, and a command of more than 300 Marines will participate in the Toys for Tots campaign at Camp Pendleton.

The juxtaposition of military supplies and toys is nothing new. Toys for Tots began in 1947 after Maj. Bill Hendricks and other Marine reservists collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy Los Angeles children. The Marine Corps adopted the program the next year and expanded it nationally. Last year, 55,000 toys came through the warehouse and were distributed to more than 22,000 children.

'It's a joy'

Today, the program also relies on volunteers. Bridget Wilson came from the local charity group Humanity United for Giving to help unload and sort donations.

"I have five kids of my own, and they're all grown," said Wilson, who said she had benefited from Toys for Tots when her children were younger and now wants to give something back.

"It's a joy to see the kids get the toys," she said.

In addition to unloading donation trucks, volunteers sort toys by age level and whether they are for boys or girls. Churches, charities and other groups fill out forms listing the numbers of boys and girls they are serving, from babies to age 16.

The people sorting the toys try to give each child at least one expensive gift and two or three smaller gifts.

"We try to spread the wealth," Williams said. "We try to make a pretty nice Christmas for them."

Wilson said she imagines the presents she is sorting are for her nieces and nephews, and she tries to find things they would like when filling the requests for each child.

Not every donated item can be accepted. A game called "Interlude in Death" caught Williams' attention. After finding some foul language in the booklet that came with it, Wilson decided this was not a toy that could be given through the program.

Manufacturers and stores sometimes clear out their shelves and declare tax deductions for their donations, but this particular donor will be notified that the toys were declined, Williams said. Such items might be destroyed or given to another agency that serves adults.

Generous givers

Despite such rare incidences, Williams is more often overwhelmed to see the generosity of people. He recalled one company that gave 200 Game Boys at a time when they were selling for between $40 and $60. This year, a man contacted them to say he had bought 50 children's bicycles. When Williams thanked him and said they still needed bikes for younger children, the man said to come back next week and he would give 50 more.

Just as donations roll in throughout the day, trucks show up at all hours to pick up the toys to bring to various churches and charities. Williams' own church, Running Water Christian Center in San Bernardino, has benefited from Toys for Tots the last two years, and clergy and congregants came to Camp Pendleton on Wednesday to pick up gifts for almost 400 children.

Most of those children are not from church families, but their parents had heard about the toy drive through Bishop Charles Washington or other clergy.

"A lot of people are hurting," Washington said. "We've had mothers just break down because they're not in a position to give to their kids."

Washington said the toys will be taken back to the church, where parents will be called to pick them up for their children.

The church members arrived with three pickup trucks, for the gifts, which included blue, purple, red and pink bicycles.

"There's going to be a lot of smiling faces on Christmas morning," Washington said, watching church members load the bikes onto a truck.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

Ellie