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Military

Free Toys for Military Kids

Hundreds of military families showed up for toys during the Operation Homefront event at Camp Pendleton on December 4, 2009.
Alison St John
Hundreds of military families showed up for toys during the Operation Homefront event at Camp Pendleton on December 4, 2009.
Free Toys for Military Kids
Hundreds of military families showed up near Camp Pendleton today for a free Christmas toy event, run by Operation Homefront.

Hundreds of military families showed up near Camp Pendleton today for a free Christmas toy event, run by Operation Homefront.

Tables were piled high with toys for children of different age groups and volunteers in elf caps helped the parents pick out three presents for each of their children.

Angie Gonzales’ husband is a Navy gunner’s mate currently in Iraq.

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“This year I was just going to get them clothes because toys are more expensive,” she said. “But this helped out. It made it a bigger Christmas than what I could afford.”

Gonzalez loaded Barbie dolls, Dr. Seuss books and a Star Wars lightsaber into the back of her truck.

Gonzalez’ husband is due back in two months, but she said she has friends whose husbands will be affected by the fresh deployments to Afghanistan.

“It’s kind of worrying that it’s not getting better,” she said. “More of our troops are going, and nobody knows what’s going to happen out there.”

Some parents drove from as far away as Imperial and Orange Counties to pick up the free toys for their children. Altogether toys for 16,00 children were handed out. It was part of a national million dollar "Walmart Gives Back" initiative.