TOY DRIVE SUCCESS SOARS LOCKHEED MARTIN EMPLOYEES GIVE.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin employees donated mounds of toys and for poor families in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys in a 17-year-old annual Christmas drive.

The donations filled 22 55-gallon barrels and the toys were enough to fill up a plant loading dock - with presents that included video games, bicycles and televisions.

``Out of 4,200 employees at the site, I'd guess 80 to 85 percent participate, whether it's food or toys,'' said Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Dianne Knippel, a Santa Clarita resident.

The toys will go to children recommended by the Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services and Children's Bureau of Los Angeles County.

Employees bought toys for about 800 children whose names and Christmas wishes were hung on artificial Christmas trees around the plant, and donated enough toys for about 800 more.

Food will go to Grace Resource Center in Lancaster and to the Santa Clarita Food Pantry, because many workers live in Santa Clarita.

Also donated by the employees were 150 handmade ``security'' blankets to be given out to youngsters at Grace Resource Center.

The quality of the presents the employees donate amazed organizer Terry Kleintop.

``Sometimes people get together and they buy something really nice like an Xbox or a bicycle,'' said Kleintop, who's on the engineering planning staff in the Advanced Development Projects.

The drive started in one building at Lockheed's Burbank plant 17 years ago, said Kleintop. The drive gradually spread around the plant, then came to Palmdale after Kleintop transferred to Palmdale in 1994.

Food and toys are also collected at Lockheed credit union offices in Woodland Hills, Santa Clarita and Westlake Village.

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Photo:

Steve Baker, executive director of Grace Resource Center, lifts a donated bicycle in a sea of toys donated by Lockheed Martin employees in Palmdale.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer