Making Their Presents Felt

Sunny Blonsky could have invested in some nice municipal bonds but decided to go for a more significant return -- the smiles of children she doesn’t even know.

That is why Blonsky spent more than $7,800 early Friday morning on cart after shopping cart brimming with toys. And it’s also why she is going back for more.

Schlepping through a Rite-Aid store in Thousand Oaks, she gathered Barbie outfits and battery-operated bulldozers, crayon sets and kiddie microwaves, scrutinizing her finds with a shrewd shopper’s eye before pulling them off the shelves by the stack.

“I get a lot of joy out of picking them out, and I want them to be something nice,” she said. “No guns or anything like that.”

A travel agent, Blonsky, 58, works from her home in nearby Westlake Village. Her husband, Jerry, works for a local heating and air conditioning business. Childless, they aren’t fabulously wealthy. But they want for nothing, Blonsky said, and look for opportunities to share what they have.

Each holiday season for the last nine years, the couple have bought hundreds of toys for charities. Since 2000, their generosity has benefited the “Spark of Love” drive of the Ventura County Fire Department, which dispatches a truck to pick up the booty.

“The first time I encountered her, she called and asked where she could donate toys,” said Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna. “I told her, ‘Just drop by a fire station.’ But when she asked if we could send a truck, it turned out to be an understatement. She just opens up her heart.”

On Friday, that meant a quick trip to the Rite-Aid storeroom, where store manager Ferdie Sevillano showed Blonsky the vast piles of toys, dolls, games and festive what-nots brought in for the occasion from other stores in the chain. Loading a dolly for the first of many trips to the cash register, he instantly summed up the moment: “There’s gonna’ be a lot of happy kids.”

Meanwhile, Blonsky hit the aisles, shadowed by a reporter and photographer. She said she never has sought publicity but agreed to it last year only to spur donations.

A brisk, no-nonsense woman, she knew how to say no to toys. She passed on the 37-note battery-operated keyboard. “Those things can drive a parent crazy,” she said. And she grimaced at the “World Peacekeepers Military Motorbike With Fully Posable Action Figure” in its camouflage box.

But it was yes to the Etch-a-Sketch, and yes to Peek-a-boo Peggy, yes to the mini-monster truck that flips itself over, yes to the doll that trills “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” yes to the Wild Quest Endangered Animal Rescue Patrol, complete with majestic plastic elephant and a plastic ecologist called Wildboar Max. In general, it was a yes from Blonsky to the good karma that comes from doing good.

“Whatever you give, you get back tenfold,” Blonsky said, deciding to forgo a Barbie Pizza Hut Playset. “Kids get too much fast food anyway,” she explained.

After a couple of hours, the toy shelves looked like a gap-toothed smile, with Army tanks and fighter planes setting off the empty spaces where teddy bears and dolls had until recently resided. Blonsky said she would be back next week, ready to spend another $1,500 or so when the store can restock her preferred toys.

“They know what I like,” she said.

The toys, which Rite-Aid sold at a 10% discount, were hauled to a Ventura storefront, where volunteers sorted them for some 3,000 foster kids, children in group homes and others in need.

Blonsky is just one of many contributors, said Ventura County community services coordinator Pam Waldron, who directs the effort.

“We had a man who for many years bought $5,000 or $10,000 worth of bicycles because he never had one as a child,” Waldron said. “We’ve got volunteers working full time for weeks before the holidays. We’ve got Girl Scouts making teddy bears and retired people on fixed incomes giving what they can.

“Every day,” she said, “I’m reminded of what the season is all about.”