Pilots Play Santa for Mexicali’s Poor Youths

As Christmas presents, they were late by almost a month. But in keeping with the traditions of the season, they were delivered with care by a special airborne courier service.

For the sixth time in seven years, pilots gathered at Van Nuys Airport on Sunday to cram their small planes with toys, games and clothing bound for Mexicali, Mexico, and the poor children of that sprawling city’s southern suburbs.

This holiday tradition is led by a number of Los Angeles Police Department officers, including Sgt. Doug Abney, a helicopter pilot with the Air Support Division. Abney said the organizers decided to focus their efforts on Mexico early on, when they realized that Los Angeles kids were well-served by a number of local toy drives.

Many of the recipients “are the kids who really, truly don’t have anything,” said LAPD reserve Officer Matthew Rodman. “There are very few children in Los Angeles who literally don’t have shoes.”

The flights, which usually occur before Christmas, were delayed this season by the federal government’s Code Orange terrorist alert. It kept Abney and other LAPD pilots busy in Los Angeles on homeland security detail.

With the alert recently downgraded to yellow, the pilots were ready to make their hour-plus jaunt to the border town of Calexico. There, they planned to deliver the goods to church officials, who would haul them across the border in pickup trucks.

For volunteer gift-gatherer Linda Caridad, the delay only showed that the holiday season “doesn’t end with Christmas.”

“We are so lucky,” said Caridad, who solicited donations from her Malibu neighbors with the help of her children John, 13, and Melissa, 17. “We have so much, and it makes you feel good to give back to someone who will really appreciate it.”

The donations came from all over Los Angeles, and many were stored in the out-of-commission jail cells at the LAPD’s West Los Angeles station. This year, volunteers also raised about $1,000 to help pay for books and school supplies for members of La Sagrada Familia church in Mexicali’s Colonia Hidalgo, Abney said.

Pilot Bob Steele seemed to be imbued with a certain Christmas spirit as he looked over the bulging sacks of presents stuffed behind the seats of his tiny Beechcraft Bonanza.

But he only encouraged Santa comparisons up to a point.

“Well,” the 85-year-old cracked, “I don’t go down chimneys.”