Cadets Brighten the Holiday

Connie Lopez is convinced there was a psychic among the young volunteers who brought $8,000 in gifts to a North Hollywood shelter.

Two weeks ago, thieves stole the box of Army soldiers she had bought for her son, Jesse. On Monday, the 8-year-old opened a brightly wrapped box and found a green motorized tank.

Jesse and about 100 other children at the Sydney M. Irmas Transitional Living Center received toys and a session with Santa at a giveaway held by California Cadet Corps students from two San Fernando Valley middle schools.

The recipients, ranging in age from infants to teens too embarrassed to sit on Santa’s lap, lined up with their parents for the event, held at the center for the second consecutive year.

“Kids want to be happy around this time of year, but it’s so hard when they’re living in shelters and can’t afford to buy anything,” said a woman who identified herself only as Tia. She held a baby as her two older children chased each other around her feet.

“These sorts of things are such a blessing for us.”

Tia’s family and 67 others live at the center, run by the L.A. Family Housing Corp., which provides housing, child care and employment assistance for up to six months.

Six middle school students, along with a dozen of their high school Cadet Corps mentors from the Valley Brigade, helped distribute the gifts, including backpacks containing Play-doh and walkie-talkies.

The Cadet Corps was formed 90 years ago as a leadership and discipline program for students in sixth to eighth grade. About 150 students from Pacoima and Frost middle schools helped collect and wrap the presents distributed on Monday.

“For other charities, we’d collect the toys and they’d go off somewhere else to be given away,” said Anya Ratanawan, a junior at Van Nuys High School. “This way we get to see the kids we’re helping and how happy they are.”

The gifts were sorted into piles based on age and gender. The younger cadets listened as Santa shouted each child’s age, then scurried to bring an appropriate present.

“Doing this kind of thing actually gives kids hope that there’s something out there for them, even if the rest of the year has been horrible,” said Marc Cohen, who played Santa. “Nobody should be crying at Christmastime.”

For Debra Banks and her two daughters, who moved into the center in October, the presents were a hopeful sign that their lives might turn around. Banks said the family has spent the last year sleeping in seedy motels when times were good and in hospital waiting rooms when money was tight.

“It ain’t going to be Christmas like it could be,” said Banks, 46. “But we’re grateful for whatever we get.”