A Christmas without any toys? A birthday without any presents? Isn’t it enough that parents can just barely provide food, clothing, and shelter in these tough economic times?

Just days before her daughter Triviana turns 7, Felicia Schardt explains how tight things are for her and her three children as, “not an extra dollar in my pocket.” Her 2-year-old and 3-month-old might not be old enough to notice. But with Triviana’s birthday coming, and Christmas just around the corner, Felicia says it’s especially hard when she can’t give her daughter anything. “She doesn’t understand that I can’t do it,” says Felicia. “She thinks I don’t want to do it. I don’t want her to have those thoughts in her head.”

Felicia, 22, and her children live on federal and state assistance. She’s attending community college on a scholarship, with plans to make a better future for them. Public assistance barely covers her rent. Food stamps take care of food. But beyond that, there’s nothing left, and no job to be found that would leave anything after she covered the cost of day care.

Felicia acknowledges that gifts aren’t everything, but for children, even the smallest gift conveys that they are special. “I could give her food stamps, let her get whatever she wants [at the grocery store], but that’s not what she wants,” says Felicia. “I get down if I can’t do anything for her.”

Karol Barkley, 61, president and founder of Toy Rescue Mission in Tacoma, Wash., understands how much one simple toy can convey love to a child. When she was young, her father died of a heart attack just before Christmas. “Before my father died, he had already purchased a doll for me for Christmas,” explains Karol. Remembering the loss of her father, and the comfort that the doll brought her, is “the passion that keeps me going,” says Karol. She still has the doll, 50 years later.

In 1990, when her two grown daughters had left home, Karol was struggling to redefine herself after years as a full-time mom. Remembering the impact of that one doll on her own life, she founded Toy Rescue Mission. In 2008, the ministry served more than 4,000 children with new and refurbished-like-new toys for Easter, Christmas, and birthdays. They serve children of all ages, from toddlers through teens.

A few of the families they’ve served over the years have made a real impact on Karol. One was a man she met just before Christmas six years ago at the YMCA, where he worked as a custodian to support his wife and five children. When she found out they had nothing for Christmas, she says, “I told him I have toys I can give you for your children at Christmas.” She got age-appropriate toys from Toy Rescue Mission and delivered them to their home in white garbage bags, so the children wouldn’t see them. “I showed them the bags, and they asked, ‘Which ones?’ And I said, ‘All of this is yours.’ There were about four bags, and they cried.”

“We’re a year-round agency providing gifts,” explains Martha Davis, 57, vice president of Toy Rescue Mission. “Our main focus is to refurbish used toys so that families who couldn’t afford to buy things could have items for their children.”

The City of Tacoma recently calculated that the 33 tons of toys they save from landfills every year make an environmental impact, too. “What we save in energy alone will power 172 homes for a year, or 134,000 gallons of gas,” explains Martha.

“Everything has to look brand-new before it goes out,” notes Martha, surrounded by piles of toys in various stages of being washed, glued, painted, cleaned, and installed with new batteries. Their warehouse has various areas labeled “Doll Hospital” and “Book Room.” They even have their own professional shrink-wrap machine, all with the goal of making the toys look new again.

Martha says that all this work to refurbish toys gives her special appreciation for the new items donated by World Vision because they are of such high quality. They’ve been receiving donated items from World Vision for about six years, and they can immediately go on the shelf and out to children in need.

World Vision’s generous corporate donors enable Toy Rescue Mission to offer children items that are special to them, such as Hannah Montana shirts, Transformers toys, children’s DVDs, board games, mini digital cameras, even popular teen personal hygiene products.

For Felicia Schardt, World Vision’s donations to Toy Rescue Mission mean that her daughter Triviana will have a great birthday. Just three days before Triviana’s birthday, Felicia came to Toy Rescue Mission and picked out a Hannah Montana shirt, an Elmo doll, a play purse, a Manners game, a Monopoly game, and some books.

She’ll be back just before Christmas to pick up more toys for her children. “It’s like a little bit of weight just lifted off me. It makes it just a little bit easier,” says Felicia.

“Without the donors who give to World Vision, it would be hard for us to provide at Christmas, and birthdays, and Easter. It means so much to us that we have these things,” explains Diane Pederson, an eight-year volunteer with Toy Rescue Mission.

But things are just as tough for Toy Rescue Mission as they are for the clients they serve. They’ve been hit in four ways: less funding, fewer volunteers, declining donations of used toys, and more families needing help.

“We are receiving less grants than we did in the past,” explains Karol. “A lot of the funders are saying there’s not enough money to go around.” Their expenses are minimal: rent, a part-time administrative assistant, a part-time volunteer coordinator, and the cost of refurbishing the toys. Karol and Martha are both retired and volunteer their time and energy with Toy Rescue Mission.

With fewer resources, Toy Rescue Mission is seeing more families come to them, so World Vision’s donations of new toys, clothing, and hygiene items make even more of a difference.

“This is the time to give,” she says, in gratitude for World Vision’s corporate donors. She notes how World Vision’s donations can have a far-reaching impact. “If it were not for the big company product donations, to give this product, people would go without. And you know what happens when people start to go without. People start to feel like they don’t have any other choices. Sometimes people make wrong decisions. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

In this difficult economy, parents are relying on food banks or food stamps, as well as public assistance or unemployment checks for help with rent. But where do parents go to help meet the needs of their children’s hearts at birthdays and Christmas?

For Toy Rescue Mission and World Vision, that’s what it’s all about. “They get to go home and have Christmas just like you or I would have Christmas,” says Martha.

Lorena Reynoso, 37, lost her job two months ago. She’s struggling to pay her bills. She came to Toy Rescue Mission to pick up presents for her 2-year-old daughter Sheyla. “I’ve been going to food banks, but this is the only place that gives toys. It’s a gift,” says Lorena, as Sheyla eyes the plastic bag her mom has filled with toys for her.

“There’s a lot of families that really need this help,” says Lorena. “Thank you. If it wasn’t for you guys, the kids wouldn’t have a smile on their face when it comes to Christmas.”