Lesson Shared on Helping Youngsters

Banker Gordon Luce and ninth-grader LaRon Snelling shared the stage at the San Diego Omni last Thursday as a symbol of an unusual pact formed between a group of the city’s leaders and some of its less-advantaged but ambitious youngsters.

Snelling led his audience of 250 in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance that opened the third annual Project I Believe benefit dinner, which Luce chaired.

The heavily underwritten event was expected to add more than $50,000 to the Project I Believe scholarship fund, a program created in 1987 by former City Councilman William Jones that guarantees a college or vocational school education to any of the 68 members of the 1987 graduation class of John F. Kennedy Elementary School who complete high school and earn the grades necessary to enter higher education. To date, all but one of the students have maintained contact with Project I Believe and participate in its required activities; before the establishment of this special program, it was projected that 40% of them would not earn a high school diploma.

Earning an Education

Jones, who earned a masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business earlier this year and now is investment manager and assistant to the chairman of Prudential Realty Group in Newark, N.J., flew in to applaud the youths, parents, volunteer role models and civic leaders who work together in Project I Believe.

“I want all the students to feel encouraged that they can succeed, because they’re in those difficult, tender years right now,” said Jones. “I remember how I felt when I was in the ninth grade. If these kids earn the right to go to USD or UCLA or any other college or vocational school, they will go. None of them will be denied an education for lack of money.”

Fellow board trustees Larry Cushman, Patrick Kruer and Glen Roberts joined Jones at the dinner. “This is a great program that not only gives these kids a chance, but lets them be examples to their peers,” said Cushman. “Most of us feel this a real hands-on project.”

Several well-behaved, well-scrubbed students attended to give presentations of their Project I Believe experiences and seemed confident and self-assured, if a little awed by the surroundings and crowd. As the crowd sat down to dinner, Luce gestured at a group of students seated quietly nearby and said, “They’re our future, you know, and that’s why this program is so important to the community. I believe in it, and I hear so many good stories about it. Getting kids to study is the answer to all the problems in this country.”

The meal of chicken in raspberry sauce and bananas Foster provided a respite from a long round of introductions and speeches, but the audience gave its full attention when students Irma Gomez, Marlon McWilson and Charoun Soukhaseum rose to describe the lessons learned from Project I Believe.

The guest list included organization board directors Steven Paull, Sister Sally Furay, Barry Schultz, Mary Powers, Steven Kuhn and William Hill; the Rev. George Stevens; Norma and Dr. Sam Assam; Dr. Rodney Hood, president of the National Medical Assn.; Gladys and Tip Calvin; Barbara Hartung; fish taco czar Ralph Rubio; Councilman-elect John Hartley, and role model Jaime Mercado, a one-time dropout from Mar Vista High School who now is principal there.

As a child, Angel O’Brien dreamed of becoming the first woman to play professional baseball.

O’Brien instead grew up to sing rock ‘n’ roll with the ever-hot Mar Dels, but she proved that she can still slug a mean ball at “Be a Kid Again,” the Sept. 26 benefit given at the Clairemont Mesa Family Fun Center by the Tuesday Club auxiliary to the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation. CAPF will share the proceeds of about $10,000 with Oceanside’s Casa de Amparo crisis shelter for abused children.

The point of “Be a Kid Again” was to allow supporters in their mid-30s and above to make a brief return to childhood, and O’Brien took a break from the Mar Dels’ stage show to slam 60-m.p.h. fastballs at the batting cages. Some of the male party-goers, who themselves had taken a whirl in the cages, stood by with jaws agape as O’Brien, dressed in a short black cocktail dress and spike heels, calmly nailed pitch after pitch.

Childhood Fantasies

Those whose childhood fantasies extended beyond baseball battled in the bumper boats, toured the three miniature golf courses and dropped tokens in the video games before heading up to dance to the Mar Dels and feast on burgers, pizza, popcorn and other youth fare.

“You can be an adult tonight but remember the days when you were growing up,” said chairman Sharon Wilson. “The best part is that the funds we raise will allow today’s children to enjoy their childhoods now.”

The Family Fun Center, which operates until midnight every day of the year, closed to the public for the first time in its 20-year history to accommodate the 300 guests. “This is definitely a different evening for us,” said amusement park spokesman Ken Kobane. “Normally, we provide clean-cut fun for kids and grandparents, but tonight we’ve got a full house of big kids. It’s worth it for the cause.”

The committee included Bonnie Garrett, Suzanne Willert, Drew Robinson, Kyle Ciani, Tom Goode, Bob Purvin, Barbara Owen, Vicki McNutt, Elaine Goldstein, Paul D’Heilly, Mark McDonald, Diana Nadel and Joanna Cunningham.