Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Saturday December 1, 2001
Sara Kugler, Associated Press Writer
For a month after the Sept. 11 attack, the Children's Hope Foundation was forced out of its office three blocks from the trade center, and couldn't receive deliveries for weeks afterward.
"About 60 to 70 percent of our donations come in at that time," said Jonathan Bee, who coordinates the group's toy program. "We probably have 1,000 toys and we're looking at 8,000 kids."
The staff briefly worked out of the executive director's home, and then in another temporary spot as crews cleaned dust from their office.
When they moved back in on Oct. 9, they were told that packages sent to their office had been returned to senders, and could not be tracked, Bee said.
Nationwide, charities not playing a direct role in attack relief have delayed fund-raisers, stopped direct-mail programs and toned down their sales pitches.
Some have done so out of concern that the relief efforts in New York and Washington should take precedence.
The roughly 100 hospitals and agencies expecting gifts from Children's Hope have been notified of the toy shortage.
"Children's Hope is our only way to get toys to the kids, and in turn, families rely on us for toys for their kids for the holidays," said Galia Galansky, a clinical case manager at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Family Immunology Center. "You want to make sure these kids have something to open on Christmas."
Galansky said workers at the center may have to pool their own money for gifts.
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