Operation Santa Claus Badly Needs Helping Hand : Charity: The volunteer program that provides gifts to needy youngsters faces a shortage of donations.

Just before noon Wednesday, Joanne Noyes did something she hoped she would never have to do: She closed the doors of Operation Santa Claus, the volunteer program that doles out gifts to needy Orange County youngsters at Christmastime.

“This has never, never happened so close to Christmas,” Noyes said. “We have all these people who need something, but we just don’t have anything to give them.”

By midafternoon Wednesday, enough gifts had arrived to allow the reopening of the gymnasium, where parents and social workers browsed for presents.

But Noyes and other volunteers were frantic with worry as they contemplated the dearth of gifts with only a week left until Christmas. Without a burst of donations, thousands of needy, neglected and abused children could go without a Christmas gift this year, they said.

“We’re definitely getting many fewer donations than we’ve ever had at this time,” said Bob Griffith, chief deputy director of the County Social Services Agency. “We’ve got about half as many as last year.”

Operation Santa Claus served about 13,000 youngsters last year, but lost its county funding during the budget cuts last summer. It was quickly adopted by a local foster parent organization, giving new life to a program that has been in operation for 29 years. Never in all that time have the gifts come in so slowly, program officials said.

Some volunteers say the uncertainty about the program’s future has hurt donations this year. But most say the real culprit is the recession.

Some companies that in good years give 400 to 500 gifts have only been able to come up with half that this year, Griffith said. And individual donors are similarly hard-pressed.

“People don’t quite know what the future holds,” Noyes said. “They’re holding back.”

Not that the flow of gifts has stopped altogether. By midafternoon, bundles arrived at the Orangewood Children’s Home, where Operation Santa Claus is located, and volunteers scrambled to tag them as a line formed outside.

Once the doors were opened at 2 p.m., dozens of people rushed to the gift room and plunged into the piles. Within an hour, the pickings were slim again.

The tables with gifts for teen-agers were nearly empty, as was the sporting goods section. Toy cars and trucks were snatched up as quickly as volunteers could put them on the tables. Stuffed animals were plentiful, but not too popular.

“When they start taking your stuffed animals, you’re out of stuff,” Noyes lamented.

Shuffling through the remaining gifts were a mixture of social workers shopping for their clients and parents of children who are receiving county assistance of one kind of another. Each child receives 50 “Santa bucks,” which can be cashed in at the center for gifts.

Some parents come themselves, but those who cannot arrange for transportation often let their social worker pick out gifts for them.

Take Deborah Moodie, a social worker whose list of clients includes a young boy suffering from a terminal illness. Moodie was scanning the gift tables anxiously until she spied a bright green Ninja Turtle doll.

“I have a little boy in the hospital, and all he wanted was a Ninja Turtle,” she said. “I’m so excited I found one.”

For the parents who found gifts among the offerings, the program was no less appreciated.

“Our family needs this program to have a Christmas,” said Marisela Magdaleno, who managed to find a plastic cement truck for her 8-year-old. “We need it very much.”

Carlos Linos Roman, a migrant farm worker who was shopping with his 5-year-old son, Juan, said a bag of toy cars and trucks would help make Christmas more pleasant at his house this year.

“It’s good,” he said of the program. “It helps us when we need it.”

Peeking out from behind his father’s leg, Juan nodded, his eyes huge. Smiling shyly, he held up a key chain acquired through Operation Santa Claus.

It’s those small moments that the volunteers of Operation Santa Claus work for. But they are worried about the program’s status this year, and they say it will take an outpouring of donations in the coming week to ensure that Operation Santa Claus can reach the youngsters whose families depend upon it.

“I don’t want my kids to do without,” Noyes said. “If there’s anyone out there with anything to give, we need it.”

The Operation Santa Claus office is located at the Orangewood Children’s Home, 401 The City Drive, Orange. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Donations of new, unwrapped toys or cash are welcome.