Organizer Hopes Orange Event Will Raise $5,000 : Benefit for Shuttle Victims’ Families Planned

Like most people, Mike Fleming says, he was devastated by the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger and the deaths of its seven crew members.

“After a while, when the thing really starts to sink in, you want to do something,” Fleming said Wednesday. But what?

The answer to that question, he says, came when he discovered that apparently little was being done to help the astronauts’ families.

“I was really amazed that, other than the schoolteacher, they’re not getting anything,” he said.

So the owner of Holiday Skating Center in Orange has taken it upon himself to do something and, in the course of the project, he has found that he is part of a larger effort on behalf of the surviving families.

“Friday is a semester break for the school kids in Orange and, since they’re not going to be in school, we’re going to put on a benefit,” Fleming said.

“I got in touch with one of the PTA leaders here in town and she thought the idea was fantastic. Everyone’s sort of jumped in with both feet and this thing has really snowballed. There’s a lot of community support for it.”

Fleming said he is expecting 500 elementary school children for the event and “our goal, and I think it’s realistic, is to raise $5,000 this weekend. I really think we’re going to do it.”

Skaters will be charged admission, but all of the proceeds, as well donations the children are being urged to gather from families and neighbors and any other contributions that are made over the weekend, will be forwarded to the Space Shuttle Children’s Fund being organized in Washington.

The fund is still so new, Fleming said, that he at first had trouble locating it.

“I heard something on a network news program about a trust fund being established, but I couldn’t remember the name of the bank that was handling it,” he said.

First, he called the three network-owned stations in Los Angeles, and all referred him to their headquarters in New York City. The networks suggested that he get in touch with National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials at Cape Canaveral. NASA officials, in turn, referred him to their Washington offices.

“That’s when I finally got through,” Fleming said. “The fund was just being formulated when I called the bank.”

The fund is being administered by American Securities Bank, P.O. Box 0150, Washington, D.C. 20055.