'Gilligan' Plays Santa in W.Va.

PRINCETON, W.Va. (AP) _ Gilligan turned into Santa's helper when former television star Bob Denver and his wife joined a car dealership's toy campaign. <br/><br/>``I think it's all been fantastic.

Monday, December 6th 2004, 9:54 am

By: News On 6

PRINCETON, W.Va. (AP) _ Gilligan turned into Santa's helper when former television star Bob Denver and his wife joined a car dealership's toy campaign.

``I think it's all been fantastic. It has only been 45 minutes and we've already done really well,'' Denver said during Saturday's event, which transformed Ramey Chrysler's lot into an island of toys.

``We normally do this in a smaller way, but we wanted to go all out this year. When I was growing up, I was underprivileged myself and didn't get a lot of toys at Christmas, so this is really important to me,'' said Jim Ramey Sr., owner of Ramey Automotive Group.

Denver, star of the 1960s TV show ``Gilligan's Island,'' and his wife, Dreama, donated a pickup truck full of toys and a $1,000 check to the Princeton Quota Club. The couple live in the area.

All the toys will go to the Marine Corps League's Toys for Tots campaign. The organization recently received $1,300 worth of toys from Toys-R-Us in Roanoke, Va., and a bakery donated $2,000 worth of toys.

``We're off to a really good start. People really don't know how much this means to us,'' said Jack Grose of the Marine Corps League.