Countywide : SOS Top Disneyland Service Winner

A Costa Mesa clinic that provides free medical and dental services to the working poor was the top winner Thursday in the 35th Annual Disneyland Service Awards at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

Share Our Selves, which provides health care to 1,800 low-income people each month, received $50,000 from Disneyland, which bestowed $300,000 in awards to 63 Orange County charities. More than 460 groups were nominated.

Receiving special awards of $15,000 each were the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, which supports a home for abused and neglected children, and the American Red Cross of Orange County, honored for the work of its high school volunteers with homeless children and in preparing local schools for natural disasters.

Representatives of all three groups said the awards were especially valuable this year because the recession has increased the number of people seeking help from charitable organizations.

SOS Director Jennifer deLima said many of her organization’s clients hold low-paying jobs that do not provide medical insurance, yet are not eligible for most government health programs.

“The recession has had its largest impact on the working poor, and we are just trying to take care of them,” she said, adding that the $50,000 award will be used to buy medicine and supplies.

William G. Steiner, Orangewood’s executive director, said the recession has made it difficult for his group to raise the last $500,000 of the $3.7 million it needs to complete and furnish an expansion that will increase the shelter’s capacity from 166 children to 235. Its award will go toward that effort.

“It has just been tough for people to give,” he said. “But (the recession is) also increasing need for our services because of the economic stresses that are being placed on families.”

Penny Hughes, the Red Cross youth director, said her group’s award will help continue programs that include Christmas parties thrown by 500 high school volunteers for homeless children and visits by the students to Red Cross shelters. Other students are being trained to run disaster centers at their schools in case of earthquake or other emergency.

Top winners in each service awards category received $7,000. The categories and the winners were:

Cultural Arts--Anaheim Foundation for Culture and the Arts, which promotes community arts projects; Educational--R.H. Dana Exceptional Needs Facility, a Dana Point school for disabled children; Service for Youth--Laurel House, a Tustin shelter for runaway teens; Accomplishment by Youth Groups--Mater Dei High School Christian Service Program, which saw 1,750 of the Santa Ana school’s students donate 46,000 hours to charity.

Also, Special Health Services--Lestonnac Free Clinic, a free health and dental clinic in Orange; Accomplishments by Support Groups--Martin Luther Hospital Guild, which organizes volunteers at the Anaheim hospital; Social Community Service--Episcopal Service Alliance, which operates homeless shelters in South County; Civic Community Service--KOCE-TV Foundation, which supports the Huntington Beach public television station; Service by or for Senior Citizens--Meals on Wheels of Anaheim, which provides meals for shut-ins; Environment, Ecology and Energy--Anaheim Beautiful, which helps remove graffiti in the city.

Five runners-up in each category received $3,000 each.