Holiday Treat: Helping Others : SAN CLEMENTE : Children Receive Gifts He Never Did

There weren’t piles of gifts under the family’s Christmas tree when Brad Wright was growing up in Los Angeles.

“My mom worked three jobs,” Wright, 34, said. “I got a toy each Christmas, but it wasn’t always the toy I wanted.”

Wright, now a South County businessman, has for several years been doing something to make Christmas a happier time for needy children.

Each year, his nonprofit Christmas Without Toys organization gives a $50-per-plate dinner-dance. This year’s event will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the California Beach Club in San Clemente. He expects to collect $3,000 this year, which a committee will use to buy toys. The toys will then be distributed through the Episcopal Service Alliance of San Clemente and through the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Mario Rodriguez of the league said that some of the distributing is done in answers to children’s letters to Santa Claus.

“The post office allows us to open the letters, and we go to the homes of the kids living in bad areas and bring them toys with someone dressed up as Santa,” Rodriguez said.

“Last year,” Rodriguez said, “a little girl wrote and said that all she wanted for Christmas was to see her brothers and sisters get toys. She wanted nothing for herself.

“So we got a guy to play Santa Claus and went over to the house. They had seven kids there and only about three gifts under the tree. We asked who had sent a letter to Santa, and this little shy girl raised her hand. Then we distributed gifts to all the kids.”

Rodriguez said two or three Santa look-alikes will be responding to wishes in Christmas letters this year.

“There is a real joy that you get when you hand out the toys to kids,” Wright said. “People think of South Orange County as being really affluent, but a lot of people can’t afford gifts or even food.”

Wright’s organization also gives $300 to the alliance to provide holiday turkeys to senior citizens on fixed incomes, Wright said.

Information on the charity dance is available at (714) 498-0705.