Pacifica’s Adopt-a-Child Project Stirs Tears, Glow

The most popular activity at Pacifica High School occurs at this time every year when the spirit of giving takes hold of students and, as one put it, “you get to see them as they really are.”

There was hardly a dry eye in the place Wednesday morning as 340 seniors at Pacifica High in Garden Grove welcomed 50 mentally handicapped children and 110 underprivileged youngsters with gifts and joy.

In the “Adopt a Child” program, begun 5 years ago by Principal Dan Wise, the entire Pacifica student body brings toys and gifts for children who attend Garden Grove’s Mendenhall School for the mentally handicapped and Clinton Elementary School in the low-income Buena-Clinton neighborhood.

Members of the senior class have the honor of “adopting” the youngsters for the day and spending time with them.

“It was great,” said senior class president Anita Romero, who has been waiting for the special day for years. “You see the students at school every single day, but you never get to see them with children. They are very caring people, and you get to see them as they really are.”

Wise, who began the program on a much smaller scale when he was principal at Garden Grove’s Bolsa Grande High School, said: “I’m not sure who enjoys it the most--our kids or the kids from Clinton.

“They all had their picture taken with Santa Claus and they all get their candy and (Pacifica students) spend about 2 1/2 hours playing with them in the gym.”

The seniors spent the morning playing games with the children, who were bused to the campus on Knott Avenue.

“A lot of the kids at our school don’t see poverty, and (for) many of these children, that’s their environment,” Wise said. “It’s a very emotional experience.”

It was for Anita Romero.

“I had a Mendenhall child. It was very emotional,” Romero said. “She is deaf and could not speak English. We signed to her a lot.”

Using sign language for the deaf she learned in church, Romero was able to communicate with the 3-year-old child. But there was another, more

universal form of communication at work.

“Every single time she got a present she cried,” Romero said. “Before she even opened it, she liked the wrapping and ribbon more . . . and she would cry.”

“I was touched, really ecstatic. She made it really, really special.”

Each of the youngsters received four presents, but the Pacifica gift donations were so numerous that there were an additional 900 presents left, which will be distributed to children at other area schools, Wise said.

Every year Wise surveys the Pacifica student body to determine what they like best and least about life on campus.