Art Student Boldly Builds Where No Man Has Built Before--’for the Kids’

Like many outer-space fanciers, Steven De Lacy, 22, is a dedicated fan of “Star Trek.”

But unlike the others, De Lacy has his own mock spaceship.

“I had a little time on my hands last summer, so I thought I would spend a weekend making a mock spaceship,” said De Lacy, a senior majoring in art at Cal State Fullerton. “One thing led to another, and 6 months later it was finally done. I guess I got carried away.”

The spaceship’s home is in the hall at the Newport Beach child care center at Christ Church by the Sea United Methodist.

“I thought it would be fun for the kids, and although it really doesn’t look like the Enterprise, the kids think it is,” said De Lacy, who lives in Costa Mesa.

A graduate of Newport Harbor High School, De Lacy works as an associate teacher at the center as well as keeper of the spaceship command center, which features flashing lights and computers and nine control stations.

He is known as “Mr. Steve” around the day care center. “The kids don’t let me be the captain,” De Lacy moaned. “They all want to be Captain Kirk, even though their favorite is Mr. Spock. I stay in the background.”

De Lacy said the spaceship, framed by discarded voting booths, cost $200 to build. The children at the center donated their toy computers, which can speak words and equations, to be part of the spaceship console.

The multicolored flashing lights are donated Christmas tree lighting decorations, and a sound-effects record adds drama to space excursions.

Children sitting in any of the nine control stations can watch an hourlong video of “Star Trek” episodes and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” They are shown on a monitor facing the bridge of the spaceship.

De Lacy admitted that he is caught up in the fantasy of “Star Trek.” “I’m a fan of the program and never missed an episode.”

Diane Shriner, who directs the center, said the spaceship helps to stimulate children’s thinking.

“Part of our job is to let children be children and use their imagination, and this kind of prop helps them do that,” she said.

De Lacy has been working at the center for 4 years. He hopes to have a career dealing with children someday, perhaps writing or illustrating children’s books, he said.

“I’m not sure how this will all fit into my future, but I know I want to work with children,” he said.

Sister Conna Conway just marked her 50th year as a nun, the last 15 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church’s convent in Santa Ana. She celebrated by renewing the vows she originally took.

Despite all her accomplishments during the half-century as a nun, “I feel the proudest of the last 4 years,” said Sister Conna, who created a computer program for her kindergarten-through-

eighth-grade students at the church school.

“We started with one computer, but I knew we would be getting more, so I got some old typewriter to teach the students how to work the keyboard,” she said.

With some grants and generous donors, the school now has 19 computers. Although surrounded by the machines, “I really don’t like to work the computers because there’s so much to learn and I’ll never learn enough,” she said.

Sister Conna, the eldest of 12 children, said it is physically demanding trying to keep up with her active young charges, but she has her own method: “I work out a half-hour each morning with a Jane Fonda exercise tape,” she said.

Acknowledgments--Laguna Beach resident and Jewish community leader Michael L. Meyer has been selected to receive the American Jewish Committee Orange County chapter National Human Relations Award. He is being recognized for his work with the City of Hope and his fund-raising efforts. He is also a trustee of the Newport Harbor Art Museum and is board president of the Jewish Federation Community Foundation. He will be honored May 11 at a dinner in the Irvine Hilton and Towers.