SANTA ANA : 400 Homeless Given Holiday Meal, Gifts

For Roger Worley, the second annual Christmas dinner put on by several charity groups at Mater Dei High School on Sunday afternoon marked a welcome respite from some of the harder realities of the streets.

After all, it was only a few nights ago that Worley found himself dangling off the ground as a garbage truck began to pick up the dumpster in which he was sleeping.

“There I was in the air, just hanging there and trying to get some attention,” said the 35-year-old drifter, who recently made a 2,000-mile trek from New Orleans to the county in search of work.

Though he laughs now, Worley said, such incidents represent the plight of Orange County’s estimated 10,000 homeless men, women and children.

“A lot of the homeless people . . . are just left up in the air,” Worley said. “Things like today really make a difference.”

An estimated 400 homeless turned out at the high school for the charity event. Organizers believe that Sunday’s numbers signal a growing homeless problem for the county.

“We are out there on the streets and get to know a lot of these people, but everyday someone new comes to us for help,” said Sam Boyce, director of Street People in Need, a Newport Beach-based group that co-sponsored the event with the We Care Unit of St. Joseph Health Systems of Orange.

More than 130 SPIN volunteers provide homeless people with regular meals, clean clothes, blankets, first-aid and hygiene supplies and emergency shelter. Volunteers distribute nearly 700 meals a week on the streets.

Those who turned out for Sunday’s feast were given a free turkey meal, personal supplies and toys for children. SPIN provided transportation for the event, dispatching four buses to various points throughout the county.

After receiving a gift from Santa Claus, Wendell and Chris Bennet became wide-eyed in anticipation of giving it to their daughter for Christmas. The Bennetts, on the street for just under a year, will not enjoy many presents this Christmas.

“There is always that big anticipation when something like this comes around,” said Wendell Bennet, clutching the white teddy bear tightly. “It’s not often we get to eat all we want, get things that we need and get served by other people.”

For J.R. Brooks, who has been living out of his car for the past few months, it was the spirit of togetherness that impressed him the most.

“The numbers (of homeless) are growing, businesses are coming down on us, city governments are coming down on us,” he said. “But when you get a flyer like we got telling us we can come here, and everyone volunteers . . . you just can’t beat it.”