Hearts and Hands : Human Chain Event Heats Up in County

Courtesy of a man she has never met, Vernice Magruder and 74 other Orange County homeless people will join the Hands Across America human chain Sunday through the City of Orange.

“I think it’s beautiful, it just brings tears to my eyes,” said Magruder, 31, an unemployed accountant from Placentia who found herself without a home or job and no way to care for her two daughters just a few months ago.

Wouldn’t Have Believed It

“Two months ago, you never could have proved to me that I would be in this position,” added Magruder, who lives at Martha House, a shelter for women in Orange.

On Thursday, at the nearby Christian Temporary Housing Facility family shelter, Magruder was enlisting street people who had come in for showers to use the $10 tickets for the human-chain event. Steve Marshank of Culver City had donated the 75 tickets.

From where she sits today, after a serious illness left her on the streets, Magruder considers Hands Across America and Marshank in particular “a blessing” to drive home the message that there are people in need.

And creating civic awareness of the national event was the name of the game across Orange County Thursday, as a van bearing the emblem of the Coca Cola Co., a corporate sponsor, rolled through some of the six local cities that will be traversed with a 20.2-mile chain, composed, sponsors hope, of 26,664 people.

La Habra High Tops State

La Habra High School students had already gotten into the spirit, raising more than $2,500 for the campaign, more than any other California high school. Coca-Cola officials stopped by Thursday to honor them and show their appreciation by offering to bus 1,000 of the 1,750 students to Long Beach early Sunday morning to help form the final mile to the Queen Mary.

“It’s totally awesome, I feel so good inside,” said La Habra High’s student body president and campaign organizer Rob Willis, 18. “I’m proud of my school and everyone who has been helping out. . . . I’m sure the total is getting close to $3,000, and money still keeps coming in!”

“It’s creating a feeling of unity in our school, in our city, in America,” the La Habra senior said, declaring: “It’s the best event that has ever happened.”

Meanwhile, as $10, $20 and $35 tickets sold like hotcakes over jammed telephone lines at “Hands” headquarters in Los Angeles and Ticketmaster outlets Thursday, Orange County police were busy making last-minute plans to ensure the safety of hand-holders who will line up in normally busy intersections at the stroke of noon Sunday.

Police from Yorba Linda to La Habra advised that event participants should get to their places a bit early--between 11 and 11:30 a.m.--and be prepared to stay a little late because of probable traffic jams.

In Anaheim, Sgt. Tom O’Donnell delivered a warning to street vendors who are expected to be drawn to the charity event. More than seven miles of the chain will course past such major tourists draws as Anaheim Stadium and Disneyland.

“We’d like to let illegal vendors know we’re going to be making arrests for anyone selling goods without a license,” O’Donnell said. “We will be making arrests, and we will be confiscating goods to be used as evidence, if it is appropriate.”

“We don’t want people making money off this event at the expense of the poor and hungry,” he added. “We are trying to make sure people can enjoy this event.”

The Anaheim City Council already has agreed to absorb the estimated $2,000 to $4,000 cost of bringing in an extra 40 officers and traffic controllers to police the human line, which will enter Anaheim at Katella Avenue, wind through the stadium parking lot, down State College Boulevard to Chapman Avenue and on to the Crystal Cathedral in neighboring Garden Grove.

Organizers have given numerous complimentary tickets to the Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled in Garden Grove. Many participants are expected to take advantage of special parking arrangements being made for the handicapped at the stadium parking lot, organizers said.

In Fullerton, where the line will course northward before snaking west in La Habra toward the Los Angeles County line, Coca Cola representatives and city officials joined hands Thursday and sang the theme song, “Hands Across America,” one of three tunes to be sung in unison across the United States on Sunday with the aid of radios and on-site prompters.

“We’re ready to go!” an enthusiastic Sgt. Rex Stricklin said Thursday.

Virtually the entire police traffic bureau will be on duty Sunday, with extra help from police cadets and Explorer Scouts lining the 4.9-mile route through Fullerton, Stricklin said.

Event organizers on Thursday said one of the bare spots in the Orange County line remains along the northernmost portion of Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton, but Stricklin expressed confidence that there will be a good turnout.

In La Habra, Police Capt. Mike Burch voiced frustration at being unable to get crowd estimates from event organizers. He said: “Things are progressing nicely, but I don’t know whether we’re going to have 50 or 50,000.”

Burch estimated that it would take about 5,000 people to cover the 3.8-mile L-shaped route through La Habra along Harbor Boulevard and Whittier Boulevard west to the county line. Burch said that about a half-dozen officers will be brought in early for extra coverage, along with about 30 cadets and police reservists.

“Hands” organizer Diane Wilson said the Orange County portion of the line was about three-fourths complete Thursday afternoon, with interest seeming to grow by the hour.

“People are registering like mad, at Ticketmaster outlets, and our toll-free line is so busy it’s pretty hard to get through now at all,” Wilson said. “We have had groups in the community selling tickets, and over the weekend we hope to distribute passport tickets that would allow people to get in line and contribute what they thought was appropriate afterward.”

Along the route, Wilson said, there will be event coordinators every tenth of a mile to help direct those who just happen to show up. Most of them are expected to be volunteers from such local civic groups as the Jaycees and the Rotary and from churches.

Wilson, 46, a public relations specialist from Irvine who is volunteering her own time, called Hands Across America “the most wonderful thing I have ever been involved with.”

“Everyone seems be aware there is a problem with hunger and homelessness in this country,” she said. “And they seem to know this is a way they can participate to help toward resolving it.”