Second chance for used toys

When Carey Campbell's Plainview home began to resemble a toy store, she knew she had to do something.

But throwing out toys that her three children -- ages 3, 4 and 6 -- had loved but barely used didn't seem right to her. And Campbell couldn't find any neighbors who wanted or needed the toys.

She went online and found Second Chance Toys, a New Jersey-based nonprofit that keeps used plastic toys out of landfills and distributes them to needy children.

Since that introduction two years ago, Campbell, 41, has become the Long Island coordinator for Second Chance Toys, which holds a toy drive twice a year on the Island.

She and other volunteers clean each toy with nontoxic cleansers, change the batteries and make sure they're not broken or missing parts.

"We inspect each toy, which is fun -- you make sure it works," she said.

Volunteers take the cleaned, working toys to a Long Island-based agency that will distribute them to families in need.

The Guardian Angel Family Crisis Center in Sea Cliff received a truckload of toys from Second Chance Toys last year, president Barbara Costello said.

"We got educational toys, we got writing toys, we got beautiful toys," Costello said. "They were all working, they were all clean."

Jennifer Biren, 36, of Old Bethpage, encouraged her three children to go through their own toy bins last September after hearing about the program from Campbell.

While she was enthusiastic about the idea, it took her children, from ages 4 to 10, a little while to warm up to the thought of parting with their possessions.

"The baby toys they very easily got rid of," Biren said. "But the toys they liked, they were a little less forthcoming with them."

Still, the four chose action figures, dolls and stacking toys to donate to Second Chance Toys. The experience, Biren said, taught her children the value of compassion and charity.

"One of the benefits is for children to learn that there are less-fortunate kids, and it's easy to help," she said. "It's not difficult to pack up a bag of toys."

Biren, a self-proclaimed "toy-obsessed mom," said the process taught her a lesson, too.

"They don't need a million toys," she said of her children. "They don't need 20 Power Rangers or 50 Rescue Heroes. They need two -- so they can fight against each other."