A few quality assurance elves already were hard at work sorting and inspecting toys this week at a barn where gifts are dropped off for the annual Skagit Valley Herald Christmas Fund, getting ready to help as many as 1,800 families during the holiday season.

A group of high school volunteers had already done a preliminary sort of the toys. The next round by Jackie Donovan and two other volunteers from Burlington was aimed at making sure toys are age appropriate.

“We read and make sure a 3-year-old girl doesn’t get something appropriate for an 8-year-old,” Donovan said.

The volunteers had their work cut out for them at the barn at the Skagit County Fairgrounds, which was brimming with two truckloads of donations dropped off from Toys for Tots, collected mostly by U.S. Marines throughout the year.

Thousands of toys, books and knit hats will be passed out Dec. 16 and 17 to needy families in Skagit County, along with a gift certificate to buy food at one of The Market’s grocery stores.

Skagit County families who qualify by having at least one dependent child and a combined income that is less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level (about $33,000 for a family of four) can register by phone to receive gifts from the fund until Dec. 11.

Over the next three weeks, the Christmas Fund’s small staff and many volunteers — huddled in an even smaller office around a space heater — will raise funds, sort gifts and finalize their list of receiving families.

Lynn Postler, Christmas Fund administrator, said she expects that list to grow this year, given the poor economy and the number of people still out of work.

“Not knowing anything, I would expect it’s gonna be a hard year,” Postler said. “There’s gonna be a lot more people applying for help, and there’s gonna be less people that are able to provide.”

About 1,700 families received goods from the fund last year. And the fund, now in its 60th year, raised about $76,000 to serve them from April to March of last year.

With 600 families registered already this year, Postler expects the growing number of needy families to be a “challenge” to the fund’s resources.

The fund has also inherited some of the challenges facing the county’s budget this year, since it relies on the county for use of its fairground space.

“There’s still the future of the fairgrounds that is up (in the air), but they have been gracious enough to allow us to have it here this year. We’d have to find another location otherwise,” Postler said, noting that they might have to do so in the future, depending on the fairground’s fate.

But in order to use the facilities this year, the fund has to foot the bill for utilities, such as heat and light.

“We’ve been wearing our winter clothes and long underwear,” said Postler, who hadn’t figured out how to turn the heat on in the barn yet earlier this week.

The chill didn’t seem to bother the volunteers, who were busy discussing how “modern” the medical Barbie looked these days.

“We’ve had some good volunteers, but we can always use volunteers. There’s a lot to do,” Postler said.

The biggest tasks for volunteers are sorting toys and answering phones for both Spanish- and English-speaking families who call in to register.

The barn is open for donations Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And donations are always needed.

“Typically we’re short of donations for infants to 2-year-olds and then teenagers 10 years old and up,” Postler said. “People can donate toys or money — it all goes toward the same goal.”

She said the fund also needs more knit hats. A few bags of hats, knit mostly by church groups throughout the year, had been donated already this week, but is far short of the number needed for every child to receive one.

There were not enough knit hats for each of the 4,500 children the fund served last year.

“Each of them got a toy, but we’d like to give them hats,” Postler said.

• Whitney Pipkin can be reached at 360-416-2112 or at .

Skagit Valley Herald Christmas Fund
By the numbers
- 1,681 families helped in 2008
- 2,878 adults and 4,503 children
- 105 phone calls answered on average each day
- Half of the donations received are $50 or less.
- 1,800 families expected by the Christmas Fund in 2009
Source: Skagit Valley Herald Christmas Fund