Hospital employees donate toys, gifts

SECRET SANTA—Helpers load a truck with gifts for families at the Ventura County Naval Base Fleet Readiness Center at Point Mugu. The presents were collected from employees of Los Robles Hospital. Back row from left, Avionics Technician 1st Class Troy Clark, Jim Sherman, president and CEO of Los Robles Hospital, and Avionics Technician 3rd Class Ian Pisowicz. Front row from left, Avionics Technician 2nd Class William Vega, Avionics Technician 3rd Class Sean Awa and the Rev. Michael McDonald, chaplain of Los Robles Regional Medical Center.

Each holiday season the employees of Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center, under the direction of hospital chaplain, the Rev. Michael McDonald, donate thousands of dollars worth of toys, clothes and food items and play Santa to special families.

This year, the families include those of military personnel serving in Iraq.

Representatives from the Ventura County Naval Base Fleet Readiness Center in Point Mugu helped McDonald and

hospital CEO Jim Sherman load a truck filled with presents for the families on base. The hospital donations will go to families of Seabees whose spouses are deployed.

Other families receiving gifts and food were identified by St. Vincent de Paul of Thousand Oaks, Sarah’s House Maternity Home of Simi Valley and the Lighthouse Women and Children’s Shelter of Oxnard. Representatives from these organizations took the gifts to the homes of those families.