"Stars' Toy Drive Meant a Brighter Christmas for Hurricane Victims"
December 27, 1992 More than 100 celebrities gathered at the new $1.35 million home of actor Corey Haim for the second annual "Toyskis for Totskis" gift drive Dec. 19. The event was hosted by Haim and producer Michael Bass to help bring some of the holiday spirit to the victims of Hurricane Andrew, which hit southern Florida this year. The main worries facing most of the families in Dade County, an area most heavily damaged by the storm, are not what they will be receiving for the holidays but if they will even have a home to celebrate the holidays in. For some of the children, the presents they get from "Toyskis for Totskis" will be the only gifts they receive. "This gives us a chance to forget about some of the depressing things in the world and do something good at the same time," Haim said. And good is what they did, with more than 10,000 toys donated by a guest list of stars of stars that included Estelle Getty, Treat Williams, Chad Allen, Richard Moll, Corey Feldman and Dennis Miller. Miller, the ex-"Saturday Night Live" comedian, had some interesting things to say on the problems facing today's youth. "I think kids are stuck in a lurch between close-mindedness and complete hedonism," Miller said. "On one hand, you have 13-year-old kids who have to look at books about Madonna's sex life, or if they don't, they're square; and on the other hand, you have complete reactionaries who don't want them to read things like `Catcher in the Rye.' So a kid doesn't know what to do. He's stuck in the middle with no guidelines." When we asked him if he had any solutions to this dilemma, he replied, "Adults' sex lives should not be privy to kids, and books that are classics probably should be. The main thing is that childhood is a kind of place where kids should be left unencumbered by the problems of the adult world." Miller also is involved with the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. "You wouldn't be human if you didn't try to help with that," he says. "But I don't view that as particularly noble. It's really your obligation as a human being." The toys were to be distributed the day before Christmas by the Salvation Army, promising many smiles for hundreds of unfortunate families. |