Charities try to keep up with demand for toys this year

Charities this weekend had a hard time keeping up at toy giveaways aimed at helping struggling Long Island families put gifts under the Christmas tree.

In Jericho on Sunday, volunteers with Toys for Tots unloaded thousands of toys to be distributed at the local firehouse as officials said requests for help this year increased tenfold.

"This means a lot today because we’re going through the pandemic right now," said U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Sardine. "The town, the children, they’re in need and we’re here to answer the call."

The 2020 holidays will be tough for many on Long Island, a region that has shed a net total of more than 109,000 jobs since November 2019, according to the state Department of Labor.

Samantha Morales, who founded the nonprofit Branches Long Island in September 2019, wasn’t quite sure what to expect when she put the word out on Facebook about her group’s first toy giveaway at their Middle Island headquarters on Saturday. The message traveled across the Island because people came from Riverhead to Valley Stream, lining up along Middle Country Road with some waiting several hours for gifts. The donated Barbies, baby dolls, and more went quick.

"I expected it to be a lot of people, but not thousands," she said. "I expected like one hundred. When we started getting rid of the toys, I panicked."

Branches ran out of toys three times during the day, so Morales sent volunteers to a nearby Walmart to restock on gifts, spending $3,000. But all who came left with two to three gifts per child, she said, helping an estimated 3,000 children. That’s in addition to the 2,000 children the organization aided by connecting volunteers to shop for specific families, up from 450 children in 2019.

Morales estimated that nine out of 10 families that sought assistance this year suffered financial hardship because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That includes Kierstin Berkowitz, who lost her job as a house cleaner when the pandemic hit. A mom of three kids under 6 years old and an 11-year-old stepdaughter, Berkowitz moved in with her father in Mastic Beach because she said unemployment benefits could not cover her monthly $2,000 rent and other expenses. Compounding her anguish, her mother, who babysat the children while she worked, died of a brain aneurysm this summer.

Being sponsored by Branches Long Island saved Christmas for her kids.

"I’m completely grateful," said Berkowitz, 25. "I’ve never been more appreciative to people. It shows that people still have a heart these days. We do still have love in the world."

With James Carbone

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.