Toy drive volunteers stuff the bus

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

The third annual Stuff the Bus campaign did just that, filling an MTD bus with heaping bags and boxes of toys Wednesday morning before local dignitaries and children helped “unstuff” the bus at a Peoples’ Self-Help Housing rental complex in Santa Barbara.
Donations of toys and gift certificates for new shoes will be wrapped and handed out to children at low-income housing units throughout the city.

“We try to keep it as hometown as possible,” Santa Barbara police officer Rick Alvarado said. “The kids really enjoy it and it helps so many people in the community.”
Started as a partnership between the nonprofit organization and the Police Activities League, the toy drive has expanded rapidly in a matter of years.
“The number of merchants that are participating has doubled,” said Jeanette Duncan, executive director of Peoples’ Self-Help Housing (PSHH). “It’s been a wonderful, wonderful Christmas gift for our kids.”
Local celebs, including Assemblyman Pedro Nava and Mayor Marty Blum, hopped aboard a shuttle to accompany the bus on its route along State Street.
Nava brought along a bagful of toys as well, unloading toy trucks and boxes of Play-Doh and placing them in the front window of the bus.
“I just bought toys I would want,” he said with a laugh.
As the bus pulled up to the first stop, at Payless ShoeSource, a group of kids stood waiting, clutching boxes of new shoes to their chests, ready to help Santa Claus haul the bulging bags of gifts on board.
“We did poll the kids a while back and what they really wanted was a new pair of shoes,” Duncan said. “…It’s pretty gratifying to know that there are 300 kids that are going to benefit from this, with new shoes.”
James Redd, a district manager for the shoe store, said he is already planning to expand the store’s involvement in next year’s Stuff the Bus toy drive, setting up one box for toy donations and another for those who wish to purchase and donate a pair of shoes.
Police officers in cruisers and on a motorcycle escorted the convoy down State Street to the next location, Starbucks, everyone disembarking again to load bag after bag of toys.
“It’s Peoples’ Self-Help Housing and they are an extraordinary group,” Nava said, explaining his participation in the event. “Then you have MTD, which provides transportation for working-class families. So it’s a great gesture to show that we support them.”
After a final stop at Community West Bank, where bank officials offered a plate of cookies to volunteers and children, the fully loaded bus made its way to the Ladera Street Apartments. County Supervisors Salud Carbajal and Janet Wolf joined the unloading party, helping to haul the sacks of toys indoors and holding an impromptu wrapping contest, which Supervisor Wolf won effortlessly.
Bryan Munoz and Fernando Lino, both 8 and residents of the apartment complex, managed to sneak into the gift room with a group of other children, hovering over a water rescue toy set and whispering to each other before an organizer spotted them and shooed them away.
About 25 volunteers held a speed wrapping party at Ladera Street Apartments Wednesday afternoon, PSHH program coordinator Katie Falbo said, sending property managers off with gifts for each PSHH complex to be distributed at holiday parties during the next few days.