Residents Rally Against Illegal Drugs : Volunteers: Mission Viejo tackles the problem with a celebration while Santa Ana neighbors confront the pushers.

Whether it was the smell of hot dogs, the cheerful colors of the carnival set against a deep-blue sky or the swarm of kids running excitedly through the festival grounds, ex-drug addict Monte McConnell knew that life didn’t used to be like this.

Life for McConnell used to be an endless blur of drugs and booze.

A recovered addict, McConnell was one of dozens of volunteers who shared their addiction memories at Saturday’s anti-drug festival at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. The event drew over 1,000 people.

Across the county in Santa Ana, another anti-drug event took place Saturday as residents marched down a street reported to be frequented by drug sellers. The marchers sought to send a message to the pushers to stay away.

At the Saddleback College festival, McConnell recalled that when he was hooked on drugs and booze, it was difficult enough for him to count the days or even notice the weather. There was a time when he never would have participated in any rehabilitation program or tried to get help for his addiction.

“I would have laughed,” admitted McConnell, a 45-year-old Santa Ana resident. “Then I would have had another drink.”

Now, after a long climb back to sobriety, McConnell said the fair “is helping me as much as I’m helping anybody here. It’s more fun than getting high used to be, and I am enjoying every minute of it.”

Saturday’s fair culminated Red Ribbon Week, a series of drug-awareness events sponsored by several community organizations throughout Orange County. Backed nationally by Parents for Drug-Free Youth, the second annual event had its beginnings in 1985 by the drug-related murder of federal drug agent Enrique Camarena in Mexico. The youth-oriented festival was highlighted by a soapbox derby and other contests, live music and a daredevil skateboard demonstration.

At least half of the festival volunteer staff came from Saddleback’s drug and alcohol studies program, said Richard C. Wilson, chairman of the Saddleback College Human Services Department.

Over 400 students are enrolled in the program, which is the largest in California, Wilson said. Many of those students are recovering addicts, he added.

“This is the first time for a lot of these people to experience an event with this kind of color and vigor,” Wilson said.

The fair gives recovering addicts, most of whom have a good attitude, a chance to become role models for others, McConnell said.

“It’s a way for them to avoid getting involved in drugs and kind of volunteering to get back into life,” McConnell said.

Wilson agreed as he ducked to avoid a bright red balloon being tugged along by a small child.

“Fun is by far the best form of drug education,” Wilson said.

Meanwhile, in Santa Ana, about 35 people marched and chanted anti-drug slogans at the intersection of Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue, a busy drug trafficking area where neighbors say dealers openly hawk cocaine and marijuana. The demonstrators wore red ribbons on their arms as well.

Waving signs that read “You Deal, We Squeal,” the demonstrators came mostly from nearby neighborhoods and walked along Bristol Street as part of a noon rally, sponsored by Santa Ana’s citywide organization, COP, Community Oriented Policing.

The intersection--home to a gasoline station, a fast food chicken outlet, an auto parts outlet and a 24-hour convenience store--is a favorite connection for dealers and their customers, police said. The drug peddlers blatantly sell to customers who drive by the intersection, said Lt. Dan McCoy.

“It’s one of the main areas in the city where street dealers are known to congregate,” McCoy said. Drug dealing is not new along the Bristol Street intersection, which is the target of a redevelopment plan by the city. On Brook Street, a block north of McFadden Avenue, police installed a concrete barrier two years ago to prevent dealers from easily escaping raids there.

On Saturday, the anti-drug demonstrators circled the Brook Street concrete barrier and dared drug dealers to cross their path. None did.

“The dealers whistle at you or come right by your car to sell you some cocaine,” said resident Philen Bolden, who has lived in Santa Ana for 36 years. “It’s becoming worse and worse.”

The rally is a way to get residents actively involved in ridding their neighborhoods of drug dealers, said Nancy Inglechard, one of the event organizers.

“We want to show these drug dealers that we’re not going to let them stay in our streets any more,” Inglechard said.

Times staff writer Lily Eng contributed to this story.