Ridgebury man tapped at last minute to help Santa Santa's helper distributes truckload of toys to local children

A lot of people wonder how Santa can distribute toys to all the children in the world in one night.

Joe Doherty of Ridgebury Township got a taste of how challenging can be when, out of the blue, he was given a truckload of hundreds of toys on the day before Christmas this year, and asked to distribute them to needy children.

And Doherty, in a way, faced a bigger challenge than Santa, because Doherty did not have a list of children who were naughty or nice, so he didn't know the names of needy children in the area.

And Doherty had less than a day to get the toys placed underneath the Christmas trees of area children.

It all began when Doherty got a phone call at 9 a.m. Thursday from an old pal from the Marines, Greg Burch of New Hope in Bucks County.

Years ago, Burch and Doherty had worked together on the Toys for Tots program, which is a program run by the Marines to distribute toys to needy children.

Burch told Doherty that the Toys for Tots program in the New Hope area had way too many toys to distribute this year, and wondered if Doherty could find a way to distribute some of the extra toys and if he could send someone down to New Hope to pick up the extra toys.

That "someone" turned out to be Doherty, who agreed to help out his friend.

While Doherty was initially looking at an eight-hour round-trip journey to New Hope, Burch arranged to have a friend from New Hope, who owns an ice cream store, drive the toys to Hazelton - which is about half way to Ridgebury - in an ice cream truck, Doherty said.

Before leaving for Hazelton to meet the truck, Doherty sent an blanket e-mail to all the members of the grassroots group Bradford County Concerned Citizens, telling them that if they knew of any needy families, to contact him. Doherty was recently elected chairman of Bradford County Concerned Citizens.

At 10 a.m., Doherty began his journey to Hazelton in a Ford Explorer SUV, pulling a six-foot-long trailer.

In Hazelton, Doherty and Burch's friend packed the SUV "top to bottom" with toys, and also loaded up the trailer.

When Doherty returned to Ridgebury Township at 8 p.m. Christmas Eve, there were already a "bunch" of people waiting outside his house to receive some of the toys, Doherty said.

Doherty said he distributed many of the toys from his house, adding that he was up to 1:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve handing them out.

"I had a blast!" Doherty said.

And most of the toys were under the Christmas trees of area children by the time they woke up on Christmas Day, he said.

In addition, the daughter of Doherty's girlfriend telephoned Jason Cornish, who lives not far from Watkins Glen, N.Y., who agreed to help distribute some of the toys.

Cornish said he got the call because he works for Twin Tiers Rentals of Elmira, N.Y., which rents home furnishings to people, and he knows that some of his customers don't have a lot of money.

Cornish said that the toys he distributed occurred mainly through "word of mouth." In other words, he would give toys to a family, and the members of the family would recommend other needy people who could use some of the toys.

Cornish said that when he got the phone call at 6:30 p.m. Christmas Eve asking him to help, he was at first reluctant to do so, because he still needed time to wrap his own Christmas gifts.

But Cornish said he was glad he agreed to assist Doherty. "It was awesome!" he said. "It was my best Christmas ever!"

Cornish said he wore a Santa cap while distributing the gifts.

"My sister said to put it on, and not to take it off!" Cornish said.

Cornish said that after completing the distribution of toys at 2 a.m., he was up until 4:30 a.m. wrapping toys for relatives and friends.

Cornish said that he and a friend, Jason Jennings of Horseheads, N.Y., used a van to distribute toys to at least 50 children.

Lori Burlingame of Elmira, N.Y., said she has three grandchildren who received some of the toys.

"It really made their Christmas," she said, adding that the grandchildren are from two families "that are struggling" financially.

Doherty said he still has "half a barrel-full" of toys at his home, so anyone who needs them is welcome to telephone him at (570) 596-3224.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.

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