Good Samaritans Stepping Up To Help Charities Caught In Toys For Tots Mix-Up

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- People are stepping up to help after a mix-up involving Toys for Tots that meant hundreds of kids might not get toys for Christmas.

But what lead to the problem is still a bit of a mystery.

Donations of toys have poured into Sisters Helping Sisters in Penn Hills. There are now toys almost waist high in one room in the Lincoln Park Community Center.

Director Theresa Germany says they've been blessed. But 24 hours ago, she didn't know what she would do.

Her group, like several others in our area, say they applied for toys from Toys for Tots, but somehow Toys for Tots never got them.

Lifeline Community Outreach was also left with no toys in the mix-up.

"My heart was aching because I would not want to experience a child not having something under the tree," said Bishop David Brock.

There are efforts to help. A man who heard KDKA's Marty Griffin on the radio donated a warehouse full of toys to East Liberty Family Healthcare.

The blogger behind "I Heart PGH" has raised more than $4,000, plus toy donations, so she and her friends can help all the groups who got caught in the mix-up. Click here for more information on their emergency toy drive.

One of those friends, Nina Sauer, told us the plan: "Whatever they don't get with physical things, we're going to go shopping with the money and fill the list."

Toys for Tots released a statement about the apparent mix-up: "There is no record of any completed request having been submitted by the agencies in question. Agencies with incomplete online applications were notified that there was insufficient information input to the system concerning their orders and toys would be provided if available."

But Germany says she submitted the application, just like she's done for years, and hasn't gotten an explanation.

"No calls. No nothing. No emails. Nothing. But that's okay... God has truly blessed us, and we're going to be okay," she said.

East Liberty Family Healthcare now says a "Secret Santa" has come forward with a $10,000 for them to buy hundreds of toys.

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