Local News in Brief : Anaheim : $100,000 in Toys, Gifts Arrive for Needy Youths

A truck filled with about $100,000 worth of toys and gifts to be distributed to needy children in the county pulled into the Anaheim Plaza on Thursday afternoon, courtesy of a prison inmate and a toy company.

The delivery of gifts, which will be distributed by local social service agencies, was arranged by Rick Rowe, who is serving a life sentence in a New Jersey state prison for kidnaping. New Jersey-based Russ Berrie Co. Inc. donated the toys.

The Thursday delivery from the company’s Anaheim division was one of two scheduled shipments, said Steve Swaim, manager of community services for the city of Anaheim. A truck with a second shipment from the San Francisco Bay Area had a flat tire and was delayed. It probably will arrive Monday.

The two shipments are worth more than $200,000, said Robert Kundee, a general manager of Russ Berrie. Transportation was arranged by the Salvation Army.

The toy shipment is the second such donation to local Anaheim agencies by Rowe and Russ Berrie. The last one was at Christmastime.

The toys will go to Salvation Army offices in Orange County, the Indian Center of Orange County and the Orangewood Children’s Home.

Rowe has been in prison for 15 years and will be eligible for parole for the first time later this year.

Rowe, who is the founder of the Juvenile Awareness Program, the controversial prison encounter sessions featured in the award-winning film “Scared Straight,” denied Thursday that parole is a motivation for his project.

“I had 24 hours of nothing to do,” he said. “It helped me keep my sanity.”