Olympic Torch Fund Aids Youth Sports : County Groups Shared $680,000 in Distribution of Proceeds

The Special Olympics sent athletes to compete in Northern California. The Laguna Beach Boys’ Club refurbished its 18-year-old gymnasium. The YMCA established an endowment fund for teen-ager sports programs.

Such is Orange County’s legacy from the 1984 Olympic torch relay.

When sponsorship pledges were sorted out more than a year ago, Orange County youth organizations learned that about $680,000 had come their way from the $3,000-per-kilometer torch relay. Most local groups, however, split the earnings with a national headquarters.

Madeleine Evans, Orange County Special Olympics coordinator, was able to fly 212 physically and mentally handicapped competitors to the State Games in Berkeley last June with torch relay money. But Evans said her group’s $46,000 share went toward more than just a chartered plane, lodging and T-shirts for the three-day trip north.

‘It Was Like Christmas’

“The more that they asked for things, the more I gave. It was like Christmas,” Evans said.

The windfall also enabled Evans to hold a banquet and dance for 1,200 of the athletes and to send competitors to Special Olympics invitational meets in Fresno and San Diego, she said.

Orange County’s seven affiliated YMCA branches received a combined total of $80,000 from the torch relay. Some went to individual branches, and the rest was put into a $40,000 endowment to which each branch may apply for interest money, said Allan Shaffer, president of the Orange County Metro YMCA.

Shaffer said the money had just been activated, and several branches already have submitted proposed programs for funding. The Santa Ana YMCA has applied for money to help set up basketball and indoor soccer leagues, said Santa Ana’s director of physical education, Ruben Villanueva.

“We don’t have youth sports currently fixed into our budget,” Villanueva said. “Hopefully, some of that money will help us staff it.” Villanueva said the Santa Ana YMCA also wants to offer gymnastics and volleyball but needs new equipment.

Much of Money Spent

With its $15,500, the Boys’ Club of Laguna Beach overhauled its 18-year-old gymnasium, installing a new floor, new bleachers and a coat of paint.

Most local groups have already spent their torch relay money. “It’s back to begging for the Special Olympics,” Evans joked.

The Harbor Area Boys Club, based in Costa Mesa, put its share of about $25,000 directly into last year’s general operating funds, a spokesman said.

But there are other Olympics-related programs that should affect Orange County. The national Boys’ Club organization set aside a $1.2-million endowment from its share of the torch relay money. Like many organizations, Boys’ Clubs were obligated to split torch relay earnings with national headquarters.

Jim Miller, a spokesman for the Boys’ Club regional office in North Hollywood, said the particulars of a national program, to be funded from endowment interest earnings, are now being formulated.

Foundation Funds

“It won’t be a grant program, but one in which we hope to provide coaching, training, image enhancement and leadership in developing Olympic sports skills,” Miller said. “We want to take the residual that’s been set aside and put it to use every year.”

Many youth groups will also be able to apply for an estimated $90 million from the Amateur Athletic Foundation, established by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee to administer 40% of the LAOOC’s profit for youth sports programs in Southern California.

Villanueva at the Santa Ana YMCA plans to ask the foundation for $50,000 to start club teams in different Olympic sports at his branch, including track and field, so that aspiring athletes can train in their sport year-round. “We’re sure a lot of kids will tap into that,” he said.