Joy of Giving Shines in a Police Station : Christmas: Three youngsters and their mom are rescued from a bleak holiday, courtesy of the kind-hearted officers in Buena Park.

A couple of months ago, Peggy Garcia gathered her three children together and sadly informed them that they probably wouldn’t be having Christmas this year.

Garcia, then living in Las Vegas, had been maintaining her family from a variety of retail jobs and Social Security disbursements since her husband, David, had suffered a stroke more than two years before. When he died unexpectedly a few weeks before Thanksgiving, it left the Garcias devastated and nearly destitute.

With no insurance, Garcia was forced to borrow money for funeral expenses. To survive, she moved 400 miles to live with her sister, Alicia, in a cramped, two-bedroom apartment in Stanton. The struggle to get by from day to day meant that presents were an unaffordable luxury--until the Buena Park Police Assn. showed up to save Christmas for the Garcias.

After hearing about their troubles, the police officers’ union decided to help out and on Monday presented the Garcia children--Anita, Joshua and Noah--with new bicycles, money for badly needed clothing, and gift certificates for food.

“Noah was just telling me he needed some new shoes,” said Garcia, who cried softly as she watched her children examine their new Huffy bikes. “This is really very special.”

Not expecting to be the guests of honor at a Christmas celebration two days early, the Garcia children thought they were going on a tour of the police station when they arrived Monday. After guiding them through the basement and carefully explaining the bullet holes in the training vehicles, Crime Prevention Officer Sharon Parsons announced that she was hauling them off to jail, but just for a look around.

Instead, she took them to the police station lobby, where the bikes, carefully positioned next to a festively decorated Christmas tree, stood waiting for their new owners.

Anita, 11, was the first to spot them as she rounded the corner. She stood puzzled for a while before silently walking over to the purple-and-green bike, carefully touching the handles, the brakes and then the seat.

“Yes, they are yours,” Anita and her brothers were reassured by a police officer.

Each December, the 140-member police association adopts a needy family during the holidays. The group learned about the Garcias when Peggy’s sister called the department hoping to purchase some confiscated bikes.

The Police Department had just held its annual auction of unclaimed and confiscated property and all of the bikes were gone, she was told. But touched by the family’s plight, the police association decided to adopt them and give the Garcia children their first new bikes.

“We are glad we can bring a little joy into these lives that have been touched by tragedy,” said Detective Buck Buchanan, president of the Buena Park Police Assn. “It is too bad we don’t have millions of dollars to help everyone who needs it.”

In addition to the bikes, which cost a total of about $420, association members also presented each child with a $125 Sears gift certificate and $200 worth of grocery coupons.

Noah, 14, said he is going to buy a pair of sneakers with his money, while Anita has her heart set on a Barbie Doll. Joshua, 15, whose idol is Chicago Bulls basketball star Michael Jordan, has his eye on sports T-shirts.

After thanking everyone at the department, the family headed home to enjoy the new treasures.

“It’s got good brakes,” Noah proclaimed after his first spin on his bright blue bike. “Yes, this is the best Christmas,” Joshua added while removing the safety lock coiled around the seat of his bike.

While watching her children ride in and out of the driveway, Garcia said she hopes to have enough money saved to afford an apartment within a couple of months.

“It is just so hard this time of the year without David being around. . . . I am just so grateful that we have someone to help us,” she said.