Jim Harney was devastated as he surveyed his ransacked floral shop and mourned the loss of about 150 toys he had collected for sick children just days before Christmas in 2003.

But on Friday, as Harney and son-in-law Frank Davis begin the last stretch of deliveries to 52 hospitals and children’s centers–dropping off nearly 11,000 toys–they will celebrate how Chicago-area residents transformed the loss into something magical.

The morning after the break-in, at least 20 people lined up outside Aberdeen’s Wedding Flowers on the Northwest Side with bags of new toys. Others continued arriving throughout the day. Soon more than 7,000 toys had been collected.

Now, three years later, what once was a family effort to hand out a few hundred toys has become a full-fledged non-profit organization called The 100 Percent Foundation, a name chosen because every donated item or nickel goes to the children.

Harney and Davis lead about 15 volunteers who help them hand out toys, as many as four per child. They started making the first deliveries this month.

A banner that hangs on Harney’s floral shop at 3829 N. Harlem Ave. declares: “We’re doing it again! The Grinch is still dead.”

Residents who live nearby donate several thousand toys each year beginning in late November. Friends and hundreds of strangers throughout the area pitch in too, generating gifts from Lake, McHenry and DuPage Counties as well as from the far south suburbs.

“That’s the kind of city we live in,” said Harney, 68, as he drove toward the University of Illinois Medical Center on Wednesday with a carload of gifts. “There’s always a couple of jerks, but right behind them are people giving from their hearts.”

At the hospital, Davis’ wife, Anita, one of Harney’s daughters, rummaged through a large box to find a couple of toys just right for a 5-year-old boy. She and her son Adam, 11, settled on a Spider-Man costume with light-up sleeves and an action figure.

Brendan Burdick smiled as he looked over the toys. The Indiana boy has a blood disorder, said his mother, Susan.

Later, a nurse passed the mother’s thank-you note on to Anita Davis; it featured an outline of her son’s hand.

“That’s how it gets a little addictive,” Anita Davis said.

Frank Davis first delivered toys to children at Cook County Hospital in 1981 with another student at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines. For years, they also handed out clothes to homeless people, he said.

Frank Davis eventually lost contact with his buddy, but he continued collecting and donating toys as he married, became the owner and director of Lindenhurst Early Childhood Center and a father of four.

“Once you see these children’s faces and you’ve seen them in distress as well as happiness, it’s with you forever,” said Frank Davis, 45, of Prospect Heights.

About 10 years ago, he brought his father-in-law into the effort.

Harney, who wears a red Santa’s cap on his rounds, concedes that he didn’t think he would feel comfortable around sick children. He opened Aberdeen’s in 1958 specifically for weddings because he wanted to serve happy people, not grieving families ordering flowers for funerals.

But after making a few hospital visits, he began to experience moments now ingrained in his memory: a child who had no family and cried in gratitude for the toys, a blind girl who joyfully played a xylophone, a boy whose face was mangled by a dog but still managed to smile.

Harney soon was addicted.

“I really can’t not do this,” he said.

On Wednesday, the family passed out toys to babies and young children who had bowel transplants, pneumonia, unexplained fevers and other problems. Gifts also went to teenagers with life-threatening diseases.

Lovia Williams, 5, of Chicago smiled shyly as Anita Davis helped her put on a pink Barbie costume.

“I know when you’re in the hospital, you really need to be wearing a gown,” Anita Davis said.

Mayra Ramos, 18, chose a bead activity kit to keep her busy as she is treated for kidney failure. The Chicago teen already has had two transplants, but her body has rejected both.

“It’s real nice because it’s from people you don’t expect to give you anything,” Ramos said. “It helps distract you, and you forget what you’re in the hospital for.”

The family handed out more distractions: talking tea sets, dancing princess ballerinas, white Christmas bears with red ribbons, a bilingual talking frog, pirates and Little Ponies.

Since the burglary and subsequent donations, the Harney and Davis families set up the non-profit and expanded their efforts. They also sponsor year-round parties and outings for children with severe illnesses or disabilities.

Members of the Hinsdale-Oak Brook Gateway Rotary Club collect and deliver gifts and volunteer during a trip to the circus for children with mental disabilities. Families in Woodland School District 50 in Lake County have donated a couple of thousand toys each year since 2004. Others helped the organization host a party for children with AIDS.

Don Nelson, a retired Lake County sheriff’s officer, was the first to call Frank Davis after the break-in with an offer to replace the stolen toys.

Since then, he has donated an abundance of toys to Harney and Frank Davis. Their efforts also inspired him to deliver toys to children in the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where he received treatment in 2000 after he suffered a broken neck.

“Three years later and it’s the best thing that could ever have happened,” he said of the burglary. “Sometimes when things look so bad, they can turn out to be the best thing.”

Later Wednesday afternoon at Chicago Shriners Hospital, Harney and his daughter spread dozens of toys across tables. Harney learned that most of the patients were teenagers, so he drove back to his shop to pick up more age-appropriate gifts.

Patients arrived in wheelchairs and even on rolling beds to make their selections.

“Boy oh boy, this is really something,” said Phyllis Hoteko of Bridgeview. “It’s amazing all they have.”

Hoteko and her husband, Dimitri, are former foster parents who have adopted seven children, including the four young adults with them at Shriners who have multiple mental and physical disabilities. Two are blind and in wheelchairs.

Their daughter Lavender, 19, hugged and thanked Harney for the gifts. He smiled and gave her one more toy, a stuffed animal.

As he drove back to his floral shop, Harney remained awestruck by the Hotekos.

“Unbelievable people,” he said.

They are the faces, he said, that he will remember from this day–the faces that will keep him collecting and delivering toys at Christmas.

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