Chicago ? Civilian volunteers have rushed in to help run the Marine Corps’ annual Toys for Tots drive because the soldiers have their hands full in Iraq.

The volunteers are making sure tens of thousands of gifts reach children around the country in time for Christmas.

Sgt. Rita O’Reilly said there were only about 28 Marines and reservists available to help sort the small mountains of toys that began accumulating at a Marine training center; about 400 were available last year.

When the public learned of the manpower shortage, the flood of calls began.

“They were pouring in so much they filled up our voice mail,” said O’Reilly, a reservist with the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment in Chicago. “We wouldn’t have succeeded without them.”

Today, toys coming into the training center get sorted and sent with the help of a collection of volunteers — ranging from a 22-year-old woman with a stud in her tongue to a 63-year-old retiree who left the Marines years ago.

“It makes me feel good doing something like this,” said Tiffany Allendorfer of Lombard, who spent her day off from work to volunteer.

“These toys have to be passed on,” said Denny Dobrowolski of Morton Grove, who was in his fourth day of sifting through Tonka Trucks, Spider Man action figures and toy tool sets, as his wife, Mary, did the same nearby. “Somebody has to do it.”

Around the country, the Marines are getting the toys out even as their ranks have been depleted by deployments to Iraq.

“We were genuinely surprised and pleased that so many wives of Marines over there (in Iraq) stepped in, former Marines and people that love children have stepped in,” said Bill Grein, vice president for marketing and development for the Toys for Tots Foundation in Quantico, Va.

Maj. Tom Nelson, the national Toys for Tots coordinator, said he didn’t know how many volunteers had helped out around the nation, where there are 480 Toys for Tots sites, 179 of which are run by Marine units.

But they are out there, he said.

“Marines always find a way to accomplish the mission and we will again, especially with the help of all the civilian volunteers,” he said.

In Chicago, O’Reilly said she believed when all the toys were counted, their number would top the 150,000 collected and distributed last year.

“It’s awesome, it is so awesome,” said Jen Doty, who was being helped by her 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Emily. “It makes the Marines happy knowing that people are stepping up when they’re away.”

She said her husband, Shawn, a sergeant in the reserves who is now in Iraq “has been here every year and I said, you know what, I’ve got to step up to the plate.”