A Lesson in Understanding : Sixth-Graders Learn About Plight of the Homeless While Sharing Spirit of Valentine’s Day

They were unlikely Valentines.

She, an 11-year-old from Grant Elementary school in Hollywood. He, a 32-year-old unemployed computer operator eating lunch at a mission for the homeless downtown.

They met just for a moment. He gave her a smile; she gave him a wide-eyed gaze and a card of red construction paper.

In the entryway of the Los Angeles Mission, after her sixth-grade class helped serve lunch Thursday to the homeless and the residents of low-income hotels, shy Anna Cordova said the trip downtown was an elementary school’s attempt to bring cheer to those “who don’t have enough.”

She and 25 classmates helped serve ham, rice and green bean lunches to about 240 visitors at the mission near Los Angeles and 4th streets. Later, some students cleared tables, emptied trash cans or washed dishes. Anna joined a group of classmates who handed handmade Valentines to visitors as they left the mission.

Jeff Coley said the card he got from Anna made him “remember what Valentines used to mean.”

Coley stays in a hotel a block away from the mission. Last Feb. 14, when he was working at the Chase Manhattan Bank near Battery Park in New York City, he and his girlfriend spent the lunch hour together in a restaurant across the street from the World Trade Center, Coley said.

“We had the hearts, the flowers, the candy,” he said, as he read the message on Anna’s card--”We give our heart to you.”

“The school kids bring some perspective back to life,” Coley said. “It’s usually so hard edge down here.”

Anna’s teacher, Don Zengierski, said the downtown visit was arranged by the Los Angeles Unified School District and the mission to allow students to see the conditions under which some people must live.

“Before we came down, there was a lot of discussion about what it means to be homeless,” Zengierski said. “A subject we talked about was why homeless don’t get jobs. . . . Some of the kids said they thought homeless people are lazy.”

But Zengierski would challenge them with reasons some people might be homeless or destitute--sudden loss of family, mental illness, physical disability or diseases such as drug addiction or alcoholism.

“We try to teach them people aren’t always getting the same breaks,” he said.

Because he has yet to establish permanent residency here, Coley, who arrived in Los Angeles a month ago, said he has had difficulty finding a full-time job.

“Naturally, most employers want to know where you are at,” he said. He also said he has taken temporary jobs unloading freight and landscaping while he waits for employment records and recommendations to arrive from back East.

Walking away from his encounter with the Grant students, Coley smiled slightly and said he was optimistic about taking the county civil service examination in the spring.

His Valentine Anna said, “I think he looked happy when he left.”