Holiday Treat: Helping Others : FULLERTON : Group Aid Effort Fills ‘Santa’s Closet’

Nancy Pretty pulled a navy blue sweat shirt from its plastic wrapper, carefully folded it and placed it atop a dozen others in the overflowing “extra-large” pile.

With 12 other multicolored stacks of sweat shirts, sweat shorts, socks and blankets, the two tables began to resemble a small store. Or, as Pretty and other Assistance League of Fullerton members call it, “Santa’s Closet.”

Santa’s Closet is one of three sections of the Christmas Clearinghouse that opened this week behind the Maple Community Center at 244 E. Valencia Drive to help the area’s needy during the holidays.

Families with appointments through their schools or community centers now can come to the clearinghouse to select items they need.

“For many families, this will be the only Christmas they have,” clearinghouse coordinator Betty Sharrott said.

The project is sponsored by Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Services, a nonprofit group that organized other civic groups to contribute.

Opposite the Assistance League’s corner, Caroline Peterson of the Fullerton PTA Council peeled the price tag from a pink box containing a Barbie doll. Many of the toys collected are new and the others are only slightly used.

“We want the kids to get something that’s in really good shape,” Peterson said. “Sometimes, this is the only item a kid gets and we want it to be fairly new.”

The council’s toys included stuffed bears and other animals, arranged on the backs of two couches. The seats of the couches held a Mrs. Potato Head, a toy ukulele and assorted games and children’s books collected in drives sponsored by about 20 city schools.

“The toys go quickly,” she said, “so we’ll have to count on (further) donations for the next couple of weeks.”

Besides clothing, blankets, toys and canned food, the First Presbyterian Church of Fullerton’s board of deacons donated 270 coupons, each good for $10 worth of meat at a local grocery chain, Sharrott said. The coupons will allow the families to buy a turkey or ham just before Christmas, rather than having to store it at home, she said.

About half of the canned food, which filled a wall of shelves at the clearinghouse and two metal storage sheds, was donated by the North Orange County Board of Realtors.

Real-estate agents collect about 30 tons of food throughout the year for Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Services, board spokeswoman Debbie Shrider said.

“That’s a lot of cans,” she added. “I know, I had to carry a lot of them.”

The interfaith charity provides emergency food supplies and other assistance to the area’s needy throughout the year. The other groups contribute extra help at Christmas time, she said.

The Assistance League raised enough money to buy about 800 sweat shirts, 400 blankets and enough socks for every member of the 270 or so families expected to pass through Santa’s Closet in the next three weeks, said Dee Stopper, assistant chairwoman of the league’s Christmas drive.

“I think it’s wonderful that so many groups can get organized to do all of this,” Sharrott said.