TOYS TO CHECK OUT LENDING 'LIBRARY' MAKES DREAMS COME TRUE FOR NEEDY CHILDREN.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Two young boys were caught stealing toys from a Los Angeles dime store in 1934. And now, 66 years later, 30,000 children a year from low-income families reap the benefits of what those Depression-era thefts have spurred.

The children walk into recreation rooms in 41 different low-income housing projects scattered throughout Los Angeles County to borrow toys they can play with for a week or two for free. No one has to steal.

It's like checking out a library book, only they're checking out toys that most of their parents could never afford to buy them.

From electronic games, in-line skates and scooters to basic skill-building toys - all the toys these kids see advertised on TV for other kids to play with.

``The probation officers back in 1934 spoke with the boys' school principal and learned they had good records, but their families had no money to buy toys,'' said Esther Martinez, director of Los Angeles County's Toy Loan Program.

``So the county opened its first toy loan center in a garage near Manchester Park, and the program's remained virtually unchanged since,'' she said.

It costs taxpayers about $75,000 a year for a staff of four to run this little-known program out of a small second-floor room in the county's Department of Public Social Services offices downtown.

It may be the best 75 grand we spend every year because the payoff to 30,000 kids in this county has been tremendous.

To see that, all you've got to do is look into the eyes of some of the more than 500 children who live in the government-subsidized, 430-unit Nova Pierce Park housing projects in Pacoima.

They're like kids in a candy store when the toy room opens every Wednesday afternoon. It's Christmas every week. Rows and rows of toys, all for them to take home and play with for free. All they've got to do is ask.

Inside the small room, converted last August from a gym no one ever used to the most popular room in the complex now, volunteer Rita Mancha checks out hundreds of toys a month to neighborhood kids.

If they bring them back on time, and in good condition, they get a star. Twenty stars gets you a certificate and a gift.

``The program teaches the children responsibility and trust, and that is good,'' said Mancha, who has raised four children of her own in this complex, where she has lived for 18 years.

She has seen it all here - the good and the bad - and what this toy room has meant for the children of Pierce Park is beyond good, she says.

It makes them feel like they're part of a larger community than the one inside these iron gates along Van Nuys Boulevard where everyone has the same common denominator.

Money is always tight, too tight for trips to toy stores to buy your kids the toys they're seeing other kids play with on TV.

``Look at them - they're so excited,'' Mancha said last week to Carmen Martinez, whose 2-year-old son, Ricardo, is looking through rows of toys with Jonathan Fuentes, 4, and Lilliana Salazar, 3.

Ricardo has just returned two big trucks he borrowed from last week's trip here, and now he's in search of a tractor.

There would be no way for her to afford these toys and others her son now gets to play with for free, says Martinez, who attends English classes run by the nonprofit Pacoima Urban Village, which also oversees the toy loan program at the complex.

``Without this chance to come here, Ricardo would never be playing with nice toys like this,'' she said. ``He can't wait to come here every week to find something new.''

And that's the biggest payoff, says Jorge Lara, director of Pacoima Urban Village. The human payoff.

The Ricardos, Jonathans, Lilliana, and all the other low-income kids living in housing projects all over this county, getting their hands on the same toys the lucky kids have, and learning a lesson about trust and responsibility at the same time.

Getting that star by their name on the check-out card.

``Almost every toy comes back in good condition and on time, even though there is no fine imposed for bringing them back late,'' Lara said.

``These kids are learning some very valuable lessons in that toy room.''

As always, the success of a program like this depends on a lot of people. The county sorts, cleans, and repairs toys, if necessary, and distributes them to the 41 centers, but it relies heavily on the public and private sectors for donations.

If anyone is interested in making donations to the program, call the toy loan headquarters at [phone], Mondays through Thursdays. It's closed Fridays.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Ricardo Baltazar, 2, plays with Mr. Potato Head at the county toy loan program in his apartment building in Pacoima where children are permitted to check out three items. Ricardo wound up skipping Mr. Potato Head and checking out a toy motorcycle, a train and a Little Tykes car.

(2) Pacoima Urban Village toy librarian Rita Mancha checks out a toy truck to Jonathan Fuentes, 4, who will earn points toward a free toy if he returns the truck in good condition and on time.

(3 -- color -- ran in Bulldog edition only) Lilliana Salazar, 3, carries a stuffed Mickey Mouse doll toward the checkout table at the Pacoima Urban Village toy library.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer