Bay Area Toys For Tots Donations Coming Up Short

SAN JOSE (KCBS) - The largest Toys for Tots chapter in the country, right here in the Bay Area, was struggling in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

"From where we were last year, we're about 20-25% short. So we're still hoping to finish strong but unless we see a large increase towards the last couple of weeks, we're not going to be able to meet our goal to help all the children in our area get toys for Christmas," said organizer, Marine Corps Sgt. Daniel Best.

Best's territory spanned Santa Clara and Monterey counties, the biggest Toys for Tots program in the U.S.

"We still have a few weeks left in the program and we're hoping to finish strong but as of right now, we're still about 60,000 toys short of our goal."

Not only were donations down, demand surged in 2010.

"Last year we gave over 90,000 toys to children. And this year it's well over 100,000," Best outlined the increased need.

"Since the needs have gone up, donations aren't going up. We're still getting good donations, monetary donations and we still have a lot of big events coming up. But as far as our donations, they're just not increasing like our need is."

Donations were being accepted at 2390 Zanker Road, San Jose. Online donations were welcome as well.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)