Irvine : Minority Group’s New Chapter Raises $5,000

Two hundred people attended Sunday’s inaugural fund-raiser for the newly formed county committee of the national United Negro College Fund, “another indication of how Orange County is changing,” a committee spokeswoman said.

Sonja Larkin-Thorne of Brea, the new committee’s vice chairman, called Sunday’s kickoff event at the Irvine Hilton “very successful.”

“We raised $5,000, and that will go into the United Negro College Fund to help the 40 member colleges around the nation,” said Larkin-Thorne, an aide to Assemblywoman Teresa Hughes (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of the Assembly Education Committee.

Moreover, she said, the turnout reveals what she has known for a long time: Orange County is “not hostile to minorities. . . . It’s our home, and we feel welcome here.”

She added: “I’m black, and I’m raising my 6-year-old son here, and we love it. He’s getting a great education in the public schools here. I have to commute into L.A. and to Sacramento, but it’s worth it to live in Orange County.”

Patrick A. Rhodes of Lake Forest, a corporate account manager, similarly praised Orange County as “a great place to live . . . a place I’d recommend to other minorities.”

“I moved here from Boston three years ago,” said Rhodes, 49. “When I told some of my black friends, they said, ‘Oh! Orange County!’ They acted as if I were making a mistake. But I really like it here. It’s a very good place to live. The public education is wonderful.”

The United Negro College Fund has affiliates in all states, and in most large metropolitan areas, but never before has been represented in Orange County, the two new officers said.

“Now we’re going to be a permanent organization in Orange County,” Larkin-Thorne said. “We’re going to have meetings and be raising more money.”

Cal State Fullerton President Jewel Plummer Cobb and UC Irvine Chancellor Jack Peltason were featured speakers at the kickoff event.

Larkin-Thorne said the $5,000 that was raised Sunday came from a raffle of donated items and contributions, and she promised that the new committee would hold more such events.

“We feel at home here in Orange County,” she said.