Baldwin Is Big Hit With Children On And Off the Field : Football: Costa Mesa coach loves working with kids whether it’s teaching, coaching or playing Santa Claus at a Tijuana mission.

Tom Baldwin calls himself a selfish man.

Upstairs in an almost barren room of the Tijuana Christian Mission, the “selfish man” puts on a Santa Claus suit. The air in the room is a bit stuffy, with a trace of disinfectant. Outside, the temperature on this December day approaches 90.

After pulling the baggy red pants over his blue jeans and slipping the jumbo-sized red coat over his T-shirt, Baldwin stops, looks at the false beard on the bunk bed and shakes his head.

This is where Baldwin draws the line.

“I’m not putting that on until we go downstairs,” he says. “I’m already sweating.”

Below, the sound of children singing filters through the plywood floor. They are waiting for Santa Claus.

Baldwin fixes the beard to his face, wipes his sweaty brow and then slings a bag of gifts over his shoulder. He descends the stairway to the cheers of children.

A selfish man?

“I’m selfish because this makes me feel good,” says Baldwin.

For the last five years, Baldwin has played Santa Claus at the Tijuana Christian Mission. It’s an odd hobby for a football coach, especially a veteran of 22 high school seasons.

But Baldwin loves working with kids, whether it’s coaching, teaching or playing Santa.

“When you watch kids develop and see them change and see them grow, it’s exciting,” said Baldwin, who has coached at Costa Mesa High since 1983. “The X’s and O’s of football have always intrigued me. But football is also a vehicle for me to work with kids.”

Playing Santa Claus has the same result, it’s just a different vehicle.

During the day, Baldwin passed out gifts, acted as pinata director and gave plenty of hugs and kisses to the more than 50 children who reside there.

“Tom has some sort of aura about him when it comes to kids,” said his wife, Carol. “I’ve seen children who hate everyone but their mothers run right into his arms the minute he walked into a room.”

The trip to the mission is not a once-a-year-gig for Baldwin. He and a group of Orange County residents have made the mission a year-round project. Besides organizing parties for Christmas and Easter, they make regular visits to drop off clothing, food and other supplies.

“People are always saying what a great thing I’m doing for these kids,” Baldwin said. “But I’m not sure if I’m doing it for them or myself.”

Baldwin has been involved with the for more than 20 years, but indirectly at first.

The Santa Ana church where he taught Sunday School helped build the chapel in 1968 and the children’s dormitories in 1973. However, Baldwin never saw the mission until 1984 and, then, only at the urging of his wife.

Carol Baldwin became acquainted with the place through her hair stylist, Laurie Diehl, in 1982.

Diehl had been helping the mission since 1977, providing supplies and organizing Christmas and Easter parties. In December 1982, she was soliciting sponsors to buy gifts and asked Carol Baldwin if she would donate a present.

The following Christmas, Carol went to the orphanage for the first time. But her husband stayed home to watch football on television.

“Tom will watch sports, any sport, every chance he gets,” Carol said. “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday--every day of the week. But I knew if I could get him to go down there once, he would be hooked.”

Baldwin joined the group during Easter 1984 and, as his wife predicted, he fell in love with the mission. The following Christmas, he played Santa Claus for the first time.

Two years ago, he took over the planning of the Easter party to ease Diehl’s load.

“My wife and Laurie kept trying to get me to go and I kept putting them off,” Baldwin said. “I wanted to stay home and watch the Rams on the television. Now I wouldn’t care if they were playing in the Super Bowl, I would still go to the mission.”

On Dec. 3, the Rams were playing against the Dallas Cowboys. But Baldwin, his wife, Diehl and approximately 25 other people were in the parking lot at Costa Mesa High.

About half the group were veterans, having made frequent pilgrimages to the mission. The others were newcomers, many of whom were volunteers from Baldwin’s classes.

The group got into cars and trucks and headed for Mexico. After a brief stop at the border to pick up ice cream, the caravan reached its destination.

The Tijuana Christian Mission looks like an old motel, but, other than needing a fresh coat of paint, it is well maintained.

Buildings surround a courtyard on four sides. There is a driveway with a gate that allows cars to come into the center of the complex.

When the group arrived, kids, teen-agers and young adults ran from all directions to greet the volunteers. After 10 minutes of hugging, the vehicles were unloaded.

The ice cream, cakes and bags of gifts were taken to the dining room; the blankets and clothes to the office of Martha Lopez, the director of the mission. These would be distributed later.

In the dining room, which had a concrete floor and white picnic tables with bench seats, children poked at the gifts. They each receive two presents, one from Santa Claus and the other from a sponsor.

Diehl and the Baldwins get people to buy a gift of no more than $10 for each child. Along with the present comes a photograph of the sponsor.

“I’m not saying these kids are going to treasure that picture always, but it shows them the face of someone who cares about them,” Baldwin said.

With the help of some of the older kids, a pinata was strung up in the court yard. Baldwin directed the smaller kids as they took their turns swinging at the pinata.

“It’s amazing to watch the older kids,” Baldwin said. “They help with everything. They string up the pinatas and do all they can to help the smaller ones. They remember when they were the little guy swinging at the pinata.”

With the little kids flailing away at the pinata, Baldwin slipped away. He went upstairs and began to get dressed as Santa Claus.

This was his favorite part of the day, when he got to hand out the gifts. After changing into his borrowed costume, Baldwin listened for the children’s singing, his cue to appear.

“I don’t think there’s any way we could keep Tom from playing Santa,” Diehl said. “That’s his job and he’s very selfish about it.”

After dressing, Baldwin set up shop in the court yard. Each child was called up and handed a gift bag, which contained candy and a couple of small toys. Baldwin treated each child as if he or she were his own.

Other than a few tugs at Baldwin’s false beard, the kids were all well behaved. Lopez, who has been at the mission since its inception, supplies plenty of love, but also insists on discipline.

“A few years ago there was this one girl who had come right off the street,” Carol Baldwin said. “When she first got there, she would try to steal anything you had. That’s what she did to survive on the streets. Now she’s a beautiful little girl who is very giving. She goes around and shares her pinata candy with everyone.”

Baldwin has already begun planning the Easter visit. He has an administrative assistant at Costa Mesa High working on some of the details, and has been trying to arrange a deal at a toy company to donate some gifts.

“The people of Mexico have seen plenty of examples of the ugly American,” Carol Baldwin said. “It’s nice to show them the caring American for a change.”

Even if some of them think of themselves as selfish.