Pennekamp Toy Drive exceeds expectations (12/9/04)

 

By Cindy Yoshiyama

Pennekamp Elementary School collected enough toys and clothes in five days for its annual holiday donation drive to fill its auditorium to the brim.

No one was more overwhelmed with joy than one of Pennekamp's own alumni, Mike Collins, now the principal of Kornblum Elementary School in Hawthorne, where all of this year's donations will go.

"I was told there was a lot of stuff, but I didn't even imagine this," Collins said while standing amongst the endless piles of books, dolls and clothing. "This is great."

The Pennekamp holiday donation drive was started two years ago by one of its now-retired teachers, Kay Whitehead, who had organized several clothing and book drives for inner-city schools in past years.

Maureen Lee, Ricky Powell, Andy Downs, Principal Dale Keldrauk and  Kornblum Principal Mike Collins with items collected at Pennekamp's clothing and toy drive.

Kornblum Elementary, located on El Segundo Boulevard, has more than 900 students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade, approximately 90 percent of whom come from low-income families, qualifying them for the free breakfast and lunch program.

Pennekamp parents have been collecting year-round in anticipation of the holiday drive, said Maureen Lee, a volunteer parent who has been coordinating the efforts.

"People ask me all year long, 'Can you hold these clothes for me until then?'" Lee said. "This is the one time of year where it gets the kids thinking we're so blessed in this community. The kids will tell me they've gone through their drawers and found something."

There were so many donations this year that Ricky Powell, a volunteer with Kornblum, had to return twice with a flatbed truck to haul all of the items.

This year, in addition to the clothes and toys, two bicycles, two televisions and a VCR were also donated and will be raffled off at Kornblum.

Andy Downs, a fourth-grade teacher at Kornblum, also grew up in Manhattan Beach and is a graduate of Robinson Elementary School, the former Begg Intermediate School and Mira Costa High School.  He, too, has helped bring together the two schools in a partnership.

"(Kornblum) is only a couple of miles away and it's another planet," Downs said. "It's working out really well. These parents do need help and they're eating it up."

Reprinted with the permission of The Beach Reporter.