Community makes for happy toy story

Amy R. Spurgeon

WEST SIDE -- Less than 24 hours after the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen put

out the call for desperately needed Christmas toys, Newport-Mesa

businesses and residents sprang into action Wednesday.

“It brings tears of joy to my eyes,” said George Neureuther, the soup

kitchen’s only full-time employee. “It shows what the true meaning of

Christmas is.”

For more than 13 years, volunteers have been serving meals to more than

200 of the area’s working poor and homeless each day.

And each year, Santa visits the soup kitchen to hand out toys to those

less fortunate.

But after a busy Thanksgiving holiday, the soup kitchen had received only

500 of an estimated 1,500 gifts needed by Christmas.

Toy Boat owner Diane Naumann of Corona del Mar scrambled to her shelves

Wednesday to help. She pulled everything from Beanie Babies to Barbies,

craft sets to backpacks, stuffed animals to yo-yos. She planned to

present the soup kitchen with up to $1,000 of merchandise by sundown.

“They are right in our backyard,” said Naumann. “When I saw that little

girl in the paper, I just thought ‘she needs a Barbie.”’Naumann said she

plans to put the name of that girl, 9-year-old Karrin Wilson, on a very

special Barbie. Karrin visits the soup kitchen daily with her mother.

Naumann hopes other toy stores in the area will match her donation to the

soup kitchen.

“We are just a little store,” said Naumann. “But we will get as much as

we can.”

As soon as Neureuther arrived at the soup kitchen at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday,

he said, the phone was ringing off the hook. Three local business people

said they planned to start a toy drive immediately in their office.

Along with Naumann’s donation, the soup kitchen received more than 100

toys Wednesday. The kitchen will be accepting toys for children of all

ages through Christmas.

“It just makes us feel so great that people are giving us a helping

hand,” Neureuther said. “We really want to thank the people of

Newport-Mesa. Without them, it wouldn’t be possible.”

The only problem other than collecting the toys will be wrapping them,

Neureuther said.

FYI

WHAT: Toy donations for Someone Cares Soup Kitchen

WHEN: In time for Santa’s visit on Dec. 24

WHERE: Bring or mail new, unwrapped toys to the soup kitchen. Checks are

acceptable and can be designated to purchase toys. The soup kitchen is at

720 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa. For more information, call (949) 548-8861.