Overtime With a Smile : Workers Give a Saturday to Brighten Up Kids’ Shelter

In his job with the Fluor Corp., Paul Conrado has supervised the construction of multimillion-dollar petrochemical projects in Saudi Arabia and Alaska, among other places.

Saturday, Conrado managed a project of a smaller scale, directing about 2 dozen volunteers as they set up a sandbox, swing set, slide and jungle gym at a private center for abused and neglected children and teen-agers in Fullerton.

“We like to treat this just like any other project,” said a smiling Conrado, wiping sweat from his brow.

But this project is different. Nobody gets paid. Nobody makes a profit. And almost everybody has a good time.

That, at least, seemed to be the consensus among the 600 employees from about 40 Orange County companies who gave up their Saturday to participate in the fifth annual Corporate Combined Volunteer Project.

Much-Needed Overhaul

The recipient of this small army of laborers was the Florence Crittenton Service Center of Orange County, which received an instant and much-needed overhaul, inside and out.

Groups of volunteers, including carpenters, secretaries, accountants and engineers, swarmed over the small center on Harbor Boulevard. They painted walls and railings, tore out overgrown shrubbery and planted new trees and plants, refinished wardrobes--and, with the help of some vastly overqualified folks like Conrado, put in that new playground.

“Hey, we need a Phillips screwdriver over here. Anyone got one?” shouted Lance Semer, 35, of Irvine. Semer, an accountant for Avco Financial Services in Irvine, was performing several tasks at the center.

“I’ve been digging ditches,” said Semer, adding that he gave up “sleeping late” for the privilege. “The last project like this, I dug ditches. I seem to be well suited for ditch-digging. Normally, I sit behind a desk, though, so this is a nice change of pace. I’m into it.”

As was Karen Johnston, an employee of Beatrice/Hunt-Wesson in Fullerton. “It’s hard getting yourself up at 6:30 on a Saturday and out here, but it’s fun . . . and very fulfilling,” said Johnston, painting trim at the back of the center. “You meet people and make friends, both in and outside the company.”

The Crittenton center serves 50 girls up to the age of 14, and 27 toddlers and infants. It was selected by a Corporate Volunteer Project committee, which reviews applications from nonprofit groups throughout Orange County beginning each summer.

In the past 4 years, the project volunteers have done work at the Discovery Museum in Santa Ana, the Santa Ana Zoo, Camp Axelrod in Silverado Canyon and the Canyon Acres Residential Center in Anaheim.

Two weeks ago, the Crittenton center was drab and darkened by out-of-control shrubs. Volunteers spent May 6 tearing out plants--they trucked away 1.2 tons of garbage--and priming the center’s walls for Saturday’s beige with smoky-blue trim paint job. At another site the center recently bought a few blocks away on Valley View Drive, a group of volunteers cleared land and built a wooden gazebo.

Dr. Agnes Trinchero, executive director of the center, said the effort already has had more than a cosmetic effect.

“The girls are quite curious about the volunteers,” Trinchero said. “They ask, ‘Why would they do that?’ They can’t believe that someone would do all this just because they like children.

“These kids have been exploited,” she said. “Over 80% were abused. When you give them a nice setting and some respect, they get a great feeling of their own self-esteem.”

The girls who live at the center went with staff members to a camp in Big Bear while the work was being done, Trinchero said. The toddlers and infants were taken to nearby motels.

‘Can Hardly Wait’

“I can hardly wait to see their faces when they get back,” Trinchero said.

The project can strongly affect volunteers’ lives as well.

Mike Tierney, a tall, powerfully built carpenter for the Unisys Corp. in Mission Viejo, was on the verge of tears as he described his role in the project.

“Sure, we give up something to be out here,” said Tierney, the supervisor of a painting crew Saturday. “But we get so much in our lives, and you have to give something back.”