Orange : Deukmejian to Dedicate New Home for Children
Gov. George Deukmejian will be the guest of honor at today’s dedication of Orangewood, the county’s new shelter for abused and abandoned children in the City of Orange.
Hailed as the nation’s largest and most successful joint public-private venture of its type, the 170-bed Spanish-style complex was built with $6.6 million in private donations and $1.4 million in contributions from 26 cities and the county, which also donated 7.5 acres for the new shelter.
It replaces the aging 68-bed Albert Sitton Home, which made glaring headlines beginning in 1979 for dangerously overcrowded conditions--children sleeping on mattresses jammed in hallways, fire aisles and on porches, lack of hot water, among other things. By 1981, Juvenile Court judges and county fire officials threatened to shut it down unless the shelter’s skyrocketing daily population was reduced drastically.
Without sufficient funds to remedy the problem, the Board of Supervisors appealed to the public through a blue-ribbon committee of community leaders.
By the time the Orangewood leadership council was through, it had exceeded by $500,000 its goal of $7.5 million.
The ceremony, at 3 p.m., is expected to attract an estimated 1,000 local officials and community leaders, as well as the governor and his wife.
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