Donations for Needy Children Lag : Holidays: Toys for Tots has been besieged with requests. At the present rate, thousands of youngsters may not receive gifts.

Unless donations to Toys for Tots pick up dramatically in the next few days, thousands of needy children won’t be getting gifts for Christmas, organizers said Thursday.

Organizers blame the weak economy, which has increased the number of needy children and hurt people’s ability to make donations, they said.

While there have been fewer donations this year compared to last year at this time, the program has been besieged with requests for 10,000 more toys.

At collection sites throughout the county, small stacks of toys are picked up daily and taken to a warehouse operated by the U.S. Marines, who have sponsored the Toys for Tots program since 1947. In the last few days, the Marines have been shipping toys out to needy agencies as soon as they get them, leaving the large space almost empty.

Thursday afternoon, Sgt. Thomas Hilk, who is coordinating most of the effort in Ventura County, had to drive from site to collection site to meet a request from Sister Carmen Rodriguez, director of the St. John’s Community Outreach program. Rodriguez wanted more than 1,500 toys for children in the Colonia area of Oxnard, but Hilk came up short by nearly 500.

“We were able to use the leftovers from last year to meet requests up until today, but there aren’t any more leftovers left,” Hilk said.

With the dribble of donations, Toy for Tots will be hard-pressed to meet the 28,000 requests for toys in the county.

“You have to live in faith,” said Rodriguez after learning that her request would not be completely filled.

“In 1986, we needed 50 toys,” she said. “This year we need over 1,500. Somehow we’ve done it. God has always been good to us, every year we’ve been able to give these kids a Christmas they might not have had.”

Some families depend on the gifts each year to make Christmas special, Rodriguez said. The barrage of advertising during the holidays puts pressure on parents to produce presents even when they are barely able to pay the rent, she said.

And the gifts are cherished, parents said.

“My boy still plays with his football,” said Regina Perez, 28, who has five children ages 3 to 10 and has depended on the program for three years. “The other kids are always banging away at the bingo game they got last year.”

Perez, who works for Oxnard College, has already received an associate’s degree in liberal arts and plans on a degree in sociology so she can “help people like me, who need a little push to make it.”

Organizers worry that they are falling farther and farther behind in meeting the needs of people like Perez.

Ken Mask, who coordinates the Toys for Tots drive in Simi Valley, Camarillo, Santa Paula and Fillmore, said donations there are off compared to last year.

“We were getting 200 to 400 toys a day last year,” said Mask. “This year we’re lucky to get 50 for the whole weekend.”

Mask said he has only about a quarter of the 4,900 toys he needs.

Depending on the amount of donations made this weekend, Mask said, toys that are given to such places as Head Start preschools and Camarillo State Hospital might have to be rationed.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it’s the only thing I can think of to do,” he said. “I have faith, though. I know when people hear that there’s a need out there, they’ll help out.”

Toys for Tots Drive

There are nearly 200 Toys for Tots collection sites throughout Ventura County, including city and county fire stations and branches of the Bank of A. Levy, Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank. Some other collection sites are:

* Ventura Harbor Village, 1559 Spinnaker Drive, Ventura

* Wal-Mart, 2001 Rose Ave., Oxnard

* Pierce Brothers Mortuary, 101 E. Wilbur Road, Thousand Oaks

* Janss Mall, Hillcrest Drive and Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks

* Simi Valley Post Office, 2551 Galena Ave., Simi Valley

* Family Service Center, Naval Construction Battalion Center,

Building 102, Port Hueneme

* Dos Caminos Pharmacy, 2412 Ponderosa Drive, Camarillo

* Vista 126 Honda-Isuzu, 126 S. Hallock Drive, Santa Paula

* Petoseed, 1905 Lirio Ave., Saticoy

For information about collection sites in your area, call Sgt. Thomas Hilk of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Station in Port Hueneme at 377-9268, or Ken Mask of the Marine Corps League at 584-3508.