Residents Digging Deeper for Humanitarian Groups

Whether it was altruism, guilt or the last chance to get a tax write-off, Orange County residents and businesses gave and gave and gave this holiday season.

Although final numbers won’t be available until mid-January, charities are reporting that more toys, food, volunteers and always-needed cash flowed into homeless shelters, soup kitchens and distribution centers this month than in previous Decembers, making the season a little brighter for thousands of the county’s less fortunate.

“It was overwhelming. There wasn’t a day or hour that went by that someone wasn’t bringing in food or donations, and this year we handed out more presents than we’ve ever handed out,” said Gary Zager, a director at the Casa Youth Shelter in Los Alamitos. The shelter houses and feeds up to 12 homeless teens at a time. Six spent Christmas Day there this year and were showered with gifts ranging from socks and underwear to Walkmans and games.

Orange County officials of Toys for Tots, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves program designed to give needy kids at least one toy at Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, said more than 203,000 toys were collected and distributed throughout the county this year--almost 40% more than last year. The Orange County Red Cross reported that midway in its November-through-January fund-raising drive, donations are up more than 11% to $486,000.

“The community will respond as long as they know there is a need,” Red Cross spokeswoman Judy Iannaccone said. It also helps that “so many people want to assess bills and write that check in time to get IRS credit,” she said--and today is the last day to do so.

This season’s spirit of charity seems to represent an extra leap in a growing trend of giving in the county.

In an annual survey of county trends and attitudes released earlier this month, UC Irvine professor of urban planning Mark Baldassare found that giving in the county has been slowly rising over the last couple of years, after the county declared bankruptcy. The preliminary numbers from this holiday season, he said, confirm what the survey found.

“Charitable giving has been chugging along for the past few years, but this year we saw a significant increase in giving,” Baldassare said. “This seems to be the first year [since the bankruptcy] in Orange County that people are really feeling better about personal finances.”

Many representatives of local charitable organizations agree with Baldassare.

Officials at United Way of Orange County, which is just ahead of last year’s donations of $12.4 million, said they hope the improving economy will translate into more charitable giving.

“You can’t dismiss the overall mind-set that the bankruptcy cast a shadow across the county,” United Way Vice President Jeff Rocke said. “But that uncertainty has been dispelled, [and] we’re viewing this as a bounce-back year.”

Officials at Toys for Tots and the Red Cross echoed that sentiment.

One charitable organization that has become almost synonymous with Christmas--the Salvation Army--reported increases of a different sort.

Although the famous bell-ringing kettle tenders have watched donations to their pots fall drastically over the past several years, volunteers at the Orange County chapter nearly doubled to 500 this year. In addition, the Salvation Army’s Angel program--where companies and organizations fill the wish lists of needy children--has been growing steadily over the past five years, spokesman Warren Johnson said. This year, the program gave out nearly 13,000 toys.

“The bottom line is that [donations to] kettles were down, but everyone was taken care of and that made it a very successful Christmas,” Johnson said.

The Salvation Army fed 7,000 families over the holiday while maintaining its two permanent shelters, six social service centers and two cold-weather shelters, Johnson said.

“It’s a balancing act,” he said.

Officials at local charities also know that, like ocean tides, donations that flow during the holidays tend to ebb just after the New Year. But this year, many say they are prepared.

Revenue left over after a healthy Christmas giving season at the Salvation Army is split among the organization’s ongoing relief programs.

The Red Cross’ Iannaccone said her organization figured the January drop-off into its master budget and that relief programs--barring a major crisis--aren’t affected.

One charity that tends to flourish after the holidays is Goodwill Industries.

“After Christmas is when people tend to clean out their attics and garages to make room for all the new stuff,” said Hernet Herrera, assistant manager at Goodwill’s As-Is store in Santa Ana. “After New Year’s is when we get hit the hardest.”