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By PETER DAY
Senior Reporter
LUCERNE VALLEY • Volunteers from the Lucerne Valley Roadrunners gathered in the Lucerne Valley Elementary School multipurpose room Saturday to assemble large bags of Christmas gifts for 83 needy families.
Billie Stebbins’ volunteer crew was surrounded by countless toys and hygiene items for girls and boys that came from a variety of givers from Lucerne Valley and beyond.
“This all starts with the Toy Run,” said longtime volunteer Diane Holland.
The annual October event attracts motorcycle club riders from through Southern California who end up at nearby Pioneer Park to deliver their gifts and enjoy a barbecue buffet. For the months that followed, the local branch of First Mountain Bank collected additional toys and matched financial donations up to $1,000.
Despite the town’s generosity, some Roadrunners were concerned that they wouldn’t have enough toys for Lucerne Valley’s large number of children ages 0-12 whose families struggle to provide gifts.
“Every year we worry, and then the world comes through and we do it,” said an emotional Jo Richards.
Early Saturday morning, Toys for Tots delivered a U-Haul van full of gifts of all types — Wilson footballs for the boys, dolls, large stuffed animals. It was more than the Roadrunners could have hoped for.
“The gifts kept coming and coming and coming,” Richards said. “Lucerne Valley will have Christmas. There’s such a need, such a need.”
“Blessings to them,” said Woody Hart, an always involved volunteer and former honorary mayor.
Hart was joined by his Roadrunner wife Pam and their daughter Bekah, a middle-schooler who has learned the value of community service first-hand.
Other volunteers also helped out. Special education teacher Judy Baudoux and several of her students volunteered several hours.
“I tell my students we always remembers we give and we receive,” Baudoux said.
Baudoux’s twin sister Jo Richard, Richard’s son Colby Baruch, an airman home on leave from a U.S. Airbase in Germany, and Baruch’s 9-year-old nephew Avary Baruch helped to bag toys.
The next day the bags of toys and hygiene supplies were handed out, making numerous children’s Christmas dreams come true.
“If it wasn’t for the community coming through we wouldn’t be able to do this,” Stebbins said.
