A Happy Line : Thousands in County Let Their Fingers Do the Fund-Raising for the Homeless

Jacque Nunez didn’t care if Sunday was the due date for her second child. Hands Across America would have to come first.

At the stroke of noon, the 33-year-old schoolteacher from La Puente bounced from side to side, her hands stretched overhead and clasped with those of her relatives from the Juaneno Indian tribe of San Juan Capistrano.

“This is about all of us pulling together as a nation,” explained Nunez, who chose her spot on Katella Avenue in the City of Orange to be close to her mother’s home--and a good hospital.

‘Louder, Louder’

Exhorting her was her pompon-waving mother, Mona Sherrill, 55, of Orange. “Louder, louder,” shouted Sherrill to a dozen of her children, their cousins and assorted clan members who gathered Sunday to help raise money for the hungry and homeless.

They were among thousands upon thousands of people--well-heeled, disabled, homeless, retired--who turned out in Orange County Sunday to participate in a brief but moving coast-to-coast event designed to raise money for America’s disadvantaged.

With only intermittent breaks along the 20.2-mile route, they joined hands along bike paths, across railroad tracks and busy thoroughfares, up the aisles of the Crystal Cathedral and on Main Street in Disneyland for a 15-minute celebration of support for their fellow man.

Crowd estimates varied from 20,000 to 40,000 along the Orange County route, which stretched from Yorba Linda through six cities before reaching Los Angeles County via Whittier Boulevard in La Habra. Police and other observers reported breaks in the line, especially along the Santa Ana River bike path near the Riverside County line, and along Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton.

Along the banks of the nearly dry Santa Ana River in Anaheim Hills, organizers jogged along the route at 10 minutes before noon, unsuccessfully trying to move people clustered near major cross streets into the gaps.

But in Fullerton, Police Lt. Larry Lewis said that about 6,000 people turned out along a six-mile stretch of Harbor Boulevard and called the line “95% successful.”

No accidents or unusual incidents were reported, although authorities in Anaheim, Orange and Garden Grove said that traffic remained heavy for about an hour afterward but was coaxed along by the extra manpower called in to police the crowds.

“No problem,” said La Habra Police Sgt. Joe Milazzo. “We had a good strong line for four miles and no breaks at all. People came out of the neighborhood and grabbed hands. It filled in with no problems.”

It was an event that involved even those who hadn’t plunked down their $10 to $35 to stand in line.

As the crowds sang in unison in the City of Orange, a 100-yard segment of the human chain rolled forward into the middle of busy Katella Avenue, then back like a tide, to make way for a line of cars, some filled with people honking and cheering them on.

Some Weren’t Happy

Other drivers passed in stony silence, their windows rolled securely up, as they glared disapprovingly at crowds who dared to block their path.

But for most, it seemed to be a stirring, emotional experience.

“It’s perhaps the best demonstration of people power,” said Ed Bank, 58, of Irvine as he surveyed the crowds from beneath a shady tree along the Santa Ana River bike path in Anaheim Hills.

“The government strives, but they don’t seem to be able to do as much as we can. In early America, everybody helped each other; they didn’t wait for some city or state. It’s about time that we the people start to show we can handle things just as well as the government. And I want to be part of it.”

At the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, more than 3,000 churchgoers and handholders crammed into pews and folding chairs. The Hands Across America video played on a huge screen in front of a well-heeled crowd. Many parishioners clutched copies of “The Possibility Thinkers Bible” by the cathedral’s pastor, the Rev. Robert Schuller, along with home video units and an assortment of the latest in camera technology.

Near the bike path in Anaheim Hills, Norma Libby, 71, of Yorba Linda prepared to take her place in line with her two companions, “Tiffany and Louie,” 2 Yorkshire terriers.

A Show of Paws

“They didn’t contribute, but I’m just going to sneak them in,” Libby said. “I thought they should join hands, too--paws, I mean.”

She disappeared into a gaggle of young and old, some clad in bikinis and others carrying backpacks. Most were clustered in groups, leaving long empty stretches that raised concerns among line marshals.

Enthusiasm seemed directly proportionate to the volume of portable radios, which carried updates as the noon hour approached, then later helped coach the suddenly shy participants.

Dissatisfied with self-conscious mumbling that passed for group singing, Jan Kenter, 39, of Huntington Beach leaped out of her place in line and shouted, “Come on, you guys!”

Swaying left and right, Kenter played cheerleader: “Rock and Roll! Up and Back!” Soon all who could see her sang and swayed in unison.

At Disneyland, activity came to a near halt as visitors ignored the usual attractions to gather and form unofficial lines, holding hands and singing along, as “We Are the World,” “Hands Across America” and “America the Beautiful” rang out over loudspeakers.

In the official line, which proceeded up the Main Street trolley tracks to the central plaza in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck and Pluto linked hands with another 2,000 park employees, relatives and friends, all of whom wore special Disneyland editions of the Hands Across America T-shirts.

Mike Davis, Disneyland’s manager of entertainment, was in place with his wife, Lynn, near the castle. The event, Davis said, was “a fabulous opportunity to join up with people all across America for something that’s worthwhile.”

With Head Bowed

Ten-year-old Crystal Mauz sang with her head bowed. She had to, in order to read the lyrics from a sheet of paper firmly anchored between her pink sneakers.

The youngster gripped the hand of her uncle, Mark Feary, a Disneyland marketing manager, who brought two daughters, two nieces and five nephews to the park. But she knew exactly why she had come. “To make a human chain to New York for people who need homes and food,” Crystal said.

Feary compared Sunday’s event to the Olympic torch relay through Disneyland for the 1984 Summer Olympics. “It’s just a very special event,” he said.

Out on the streets of Orange County, it took a while for a sense of unity and purpose to take hold.

Line marshals Frank and Betty Pritchett of Huntington Beach were the first to arrive at their monitoring post at the corner of Katella Avenue and Glassell Street in Orange at 9 a.m. By 10:30, people were barely trickling into the area and the couple was dismayed that their part of the line would be broken.

By 11:30, however, droves of people surged toward the line, clustering up at first until the Pritchetts urged them to stretch out.

Nearby on Katella, Bob Tripp wandered among the growing clusters of people, his video camera recording both voices and action of the event as it slowly took shape outside a motorcycle shop.

Tripp, the 38-year-old owner of the cycle shop, explained that he and his family came more out of curiousity, although he hadn’t contributed to the Hands Across America campaign.

Not Sure About Donation

Asked if he would now make a donation, Tripp answered: “I don’t really know very much about it. I don’t know what they plan to do with the money.”

“Of course, we’ll contribute,” said his wife, Gayle, 35. “I came because I felt like there’d be a good energy flow.”

Under a Katella Avenue shade tree, 9-year-old Brendon Jones of Irvine gazed from under the brim of his “Mao” cap, which his grandparents had just bought for him at the Great Wall in the People’s Republic of China.

“I’m here to raise money for the poor,” the freckle-faced Brendon said with a toothy grin.

His father, Douglas Jones, 37, a vice president for a financial planning firm, said he came out Sunday “to demonstrate to my kids that they can make a difference, but not if they stay at home.”

“There’s certainly no downside to it,” he declared.

But some disadvantaged people were uncertain as to what impact the event--and the funds it raised--would mean for them.

Said Fran Holland, a homeless mother of two boys from Garden Grove who took part in Sunday’s demonstration:

“This may just be a temporary uplifting of the spirit, and that is certainly not going to help people in my situation.”

Holland, 42, has been staying at the Christian Temporary Housing Facility in Orange with her sons for the last two weeks.

‘Yesterday’s News’

“What they do with the money they raise is out of our control, and I don’t expect anything from it,” Holland said Sunday night. “But unless people get involved and follow up on this, it’ll be buried--it’ll be yesterday’s news.”

Some participants hoped it wouldn’t. Several people who stayed behind at the once-crowded Anaheim Stadium parking lot to pick up trash kept mumbling the words to the “Hands” theme song and shaking a victory fist to those who passed.

“It turned out great,” said Betty Pritchett, 54, an instructional aide for handicapped high school children who took part in Sunday’s event.

“This is what America is all about,” said Frank Pritchett, 57, a quality control engineer for Hughes International of Newport Beach. “We’re a nation that cares.”

Times staff writers Maria L. La Ganga, Mark Landsbaum and Sheldon Ito contributed to this report.