Giving Trees in Shopping Centers Turn Strangers Into Secret Santas

Over the past eight years, Lori Allred has cared for 54 foster children, and finding enough presents each Christmas has been a challenge.

That’s why she appreciates the Gingerbread Giving Tree, which helps distribute presents to foster children throughout Ventura County.

“Last year, one of our girls was able to get a Huffy 10-speed bike. She was so surprised,” said Allred, a Ventura resident.

The trees are put together by the Children’s Service Auxiliary, a nonprofit group that helps foster children cared for by Ventura County Protective Services. The auxiliary has collected thousands of new toys for more than a decade and given them to those in need.

The trees, watched over by volunteers, have paper gingerbread-men decorations with a slip of paper taped to the back of each asking for toys for a specific age group.

Anyone who wants to help may take a decoration, purchase a toy and return it anonymously to the tree, so it can be passed along to help foster parents and other needy families who do not want their children to think that Santa has passed them by.

That’s what Pam Dabon and her two sons did at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks.

While shopping for Pokemon cards, she and her sons--Nicholas, 5, and John-Paul, 8--took a gingerbread man from the Giving Tree that requested toys for boys ages 5 to 8. Her two sons helped Dabon pick out a Beast Wars Transformer and a lion Beanie Baby.

“We saw the tree and felt fortunate we could help,” Dabon said.

The trees are at many locations, including the Pacific View Mall, Bank of America in Camarillo, Trinity Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks and the Gull Wings Children’s Museum in Oxnard.

There is even one at the Internal Revenue Service office in Camarillo, thanks to revenue agent Christy Whisman. For about 10 years, Whisman has gone to the mall, picked up 25 or 30 gingerbread tags and brought them back to her office of about 60 agents. She then takes the donated toys to the mall.

“I do it because I feel the Christmas spirit, and it is a nice way to decorate our office tree,” Whisman said.

Once the toys are donated, volunteers pick them up from the trees and deliver them to a special toy store, housed in an empty storefront donated to the organization. The store is only open in December until Christmas Eve.

“Last year I put 4,000 miles on my van picking up toys because people were so giving,” said Teresa Brumit, a foster mother in Oxnard.

Children--even very young children--who come to Allred often do not believe in Santa, she said. But thanks to the Giving Trees, many of the kids are able to feel loved and normal for the first time.

A few years ago, she was caring for a boy whose legs were paralyzed. She could not find the right gift for him until she went to the auxiliary’s toy store.

“There I found a fishing pole and tackle box for him to use when our family went camping,” Allred said. “He loved that gift and caught a lot of fish with it.”

The Gingerbread toy store, staffed by volunteers, is full of tables covered with donated toys. Parents with special vouchers can use the store, and they usually receive three to five toys for each child, Brumit said.

“Most of these kids would otherwise have nothing for Christmas, a season that is not usually a happy time for them since many have bad memories of Santa not coming to their house, or they miss their families,” said Brumit, who volunteers.

Last year, one donor gave dozens of new bicycles, Brumit said.

This year, Allred has volunteered to pick up toys from one of the trees and deliver them to the toy store every day until Christmas.

Many of the toys that fill the toy store also come from the Spark of Love toy drive sponsored by the county Fire Department, said Lou Dixon, social worker and community coordinator for Protective Services.

There are about 1,000 children up to age 19 in foster care at any given time in Ventura County, he said. Organizers expect that another 2,000 needy children will also be served by the toy donations.

Dixon said the work of the more than 400 volunteers “makes a huge impact on children on what is one of the loneliest times of the year for them. Because they feel if they are not with their families, they are nowhere. Gifts can lessen their pain.”

Mary Moore, who posted a Gingerbread Giving Tree at her Ventura workplace, knows firsthand how welcome the donations can be.

The 34-year-old receptionist recalls getting a much-coveted curling iron for Christmas when she was in foster care as a teenager.

“I remember I was so excited,” said Moore, who still has the curling iron. “I thought it was the neatest thing to learn that someone cared enough to buy something for a complete stranger. That is one of my best memories.”

FYI

Cash is accepted and used to buy toys that have not been donated. Trees, sponsored by the Ventura County Children’s Protective Services’ Children’s Service Auxiliary, are staffed daily by volunteer groups. For information on the auxiliary, call 654-3450.