VENTURA : Volunteer Toy Store Had a Modest Start

One night in 1979, Joan Gendreau and Patty Hulsey sat in the garage of Gendreau’s Ventura home and wrapped hundreds of toys as Christmas gifts for underprivileged and abused children.

The two sat up well past 3 that night. The toys, mostly used, were strewn throughout Gendreau’s home. They had to be cleaned and repaired.

Fifteen years later, dozens of volunteers collect and distribute between 7,000 and 10,000 new toys each year for an estimated 2,000 children. Two nonprofit agencies, Child Abuse and Neglect Inc. and the Children Services Auxiliary, have combined forces to continue what Gendreau and Hulsey started.

And for Gendreau, the volunteer project has become a full-time job each holiday season.

“The day after Thanksgiving, I put on my jeans and sweater and I don’t take them off until the day after Christmas,” she said.

Volunteers collect toys daily at “Giving Trees” in three county shopping malls. The toys are then taken to the Child Abuse and Neglect Toy Store, where they are sorted.

Parents and foster parents who have appointments are then allowed to shop for the children. “We let the parents do the wrapping,” Gendreau said.

Once again, the table stacked highest with toys is the one holding Barbie dolls. The Paint ‘N’ Dazzle Barbie is proving to be the most-desired request of preteen girls, Gendreau said. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers action figures are the hottest item for preteen boys, while teen-agers are requesting boom boxes, she said.

Gendreau said this year will probably be the biggest year for the Toy Store.

“The demand keeps going up each year,” agreed Diana Caskey, of Ventura County’s Children’s Protective Services. She attributed the growing need to the county’s expanding population, coupled with the state’s lingering recession.

For information, call 644-1555.