Toy Giveaway ‘Truly a Miracle’ This Year

Ripple effects from the Sept. 11 terror attacks moved through East Los Angeles on Saturday morning--forcing one of the area’s biggest yearly holiday traditions to downshift, downsize and simplify.

Over the last 21 years, the Hollenbeck Youth Center’s annual toy giveaway has come to be dubbed the “miracle on 1st Street.” What started small grew into one of the community’s biggest days of the year, attracting high-powered celebrity and corporate sponsors.

The last few giveaways had beckoned an average of about 10,000 kids and parents. Many would line up a week in advance, forming tent cities stretching around the block to get a chance at computers, stereos and other big-ticket gifts.

This year was far different. After Sept. 11, said Hollenbeck Youth Center Director Daniel Hernandez, donations plummeted. Prospects for a successful giveaway dimmed.

“This year,” Hernandez said. “the Sonys or the Disneys who have given us lots of toys in the past said they are sending resources back East or they are just having to cut back.”

Hernandez surveyed the gymnasium. Scores of gifts lay beneath a basketball hoop. It was a heady amount to be sure, but Hernandez noted this was about half as many gifts as in previous years. And it was only in the last few days--as local companies got word of the shortfall and began offering scores of dolls, teddy bears and skateboards--that Hernandez began feeling sure he could pull off the event.

“Even though we have less than normal, this year truly is a miracle,” said Hernandez, who also weathered a robbery in 1996 when all of the toys were stolen just weeks before the giveaway. That was the year actor Arnold Schwarzenegger got involved, donating so much to make up for the break-in that the gym overflowed with toys. “Maybe even more than ‘96, this is incredible,” Hernandez said. “I mean this year we must have had some help from above.”

Perhaps aware that there would be fewer toys as well as fewer fancy ones, perhaps because people seem just a little less likely to venture from home, the crowd was about half of normal.

This year about 5,000 people showed up throughout the day, and the line stretched just half a block. First to arrive were a few families who came around midnight. Most said they did so because waiting in the line and meeting people had become a Boyle Heights tradition.

“Everyone is maybe more appreciative,” said Vaiola Loau, who has come to the giveaway for the last five years with her children.

Loau said that in past years some children were bitterly disappointed after getting Play-Doh instead of a PlayStation. The terrorist attacks seemed to have given kids a different perspective.

“This is just fine for me,” said a smiling Rebecca Quesnott after she received her gift: a box of crayons. The 16-year-old was the first in line, having arrived around midnight.

“Maybe in the past the first one would get something really big, but this year that’s not why we came out here,” she said. “We came because it is nice to see all of the people in the community be together--the best gift of all.”

Inside the gym, about two dozen families sat in plastic chairs with local political and business leaders--and the comic Sinbad. This year, to ensure that the neediest received gifts, the event organizers selected families most in need. Some children wrote essays to the center, pleading for help.

Joseph Serrato, Kim Diggs and their six children seemed unsure about the hoopla around them, but said they were blessed. The couple said they have trouble just paying rent, and if not for the giveaway they would not have much in the way of presents this year.

As the family left, each of their boys held small toys and smiled broadly.

“Finally,” said Anthony, a reed-thin 16-year-old, as he clutched the gift he had longed for all year. “Finally. A football.”