Just Kids for a Day : Volunteers Throw Party for Homeless Children, Families

Children scampered across the lush lawn of the Unocal Research Center, searching through the bushes, squealing with delight when their hands landed on colorful plastic eggs that contained candy or tickets, which could be exchanged for gifts.

The children, all students of Project HOPE (Homeless Outreach Program for Education), and their families were attending a springtime festival thrown by the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County, Unocal, Walt Disney Co. and 17 other businesses.

For five hours Saturday, the grounds of the modern-looking research center were abuzz with activity. It was often difficult to distinguish between the 120 volunteers and the estimated 175 guests, who were homeless. Everyone mingled easily.

A country music band performed Western tunes, while guests learned the 10-step on a parquet dance floor placed on the grass. Brightly dressed clowns roamed among the tables, juggling and offering balloons.

Food was plentiful--hot dogs, barbecued chicken, pizza, potato salad, cole slaw, corn on the cob, fresh fruit salad and an endless supply of drinks. Colorful Easter baskets awaited the children when they left.

“If not for the school (Project HOPE), the kids would never have a holiday,” said Joyce Steward, 35, a homeless mother of three children ranging in age from 8 to 14.

The event was produced by the Corporate Caring and Sharing Program, an alliance of 65 corporate volunteer programs, which has served the community for eight years under the guidance of the Volunteer Center.

In the past, the corporate group has worked on construction and renovation projects for nonprofit organizations, such as the Discovery Museum and the Women’s Transitional Living Center, a shelter for abused women and their children.

But this year, the group decided to attack the problems of homelessness and hunger. Each Saturday from March until May, the corporate volunteer group will conduct events to assist the homeless. The group conducted a potato gleaning project for St. Patrick’s Day and will end with a food drive.

“We wanted to do this because of the lack of awareness that we have a large homeless population in our county,” said Diane Stockton, director of client services for the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County. “About 400,000 people in Orange County are at the risk of being hungry.”

“We’re going through difficult economic times and the (homeless) population is increasing,” said Milan Palovich, Unocal manager of community affairs. “Corporations are aware of this, with the downsizing of companies and such.”

“How many of us are just a paycheck away?” asked Patty Randall, an adviser for Disney volunteers.

Pat, 35, a certified nursing assistant whose two children who are enrolled in Project HOPE, was one of those who thought that being homeless was something that happened only to other people.

But she and her boyfriend have had difficulty maintaining steady employment, and they moved with her children to a motel in March. In less than one month, they have moved four times, seeking cheaper motel rates.

“One of the most frustrating things is the attitude of people,” she said. “They think you’re either on drugs or too lazy to work. I used to think that until I became homeless.”

Seated nearby at the picnic was Steward, who has been living in motels since 1983 when her children’s father walked out on the family. She said she has given up on looking for a job because she lacks job skills and could not make enough to feed her three children at a minimum-wage job.

She receives just enough welfare money to cover rent and food and lives in a Garden Grove motel. The last nine years have passed quickly for her.

The children “have grown up so quick,” she said. “Just living in (motels), you see drug dealers, prostitutes. My eldest son is the man of the family. And it gets to me because he shouldn’t be doing that.”

She said she is thankful for Project HOPE, which provides education to homeless children who might otherwise not receive steady schooling.

“I could never think about sending my kids to college, but at least now they’ll have a chance,” Steward said. “They’re my whole life and I’m sorry I have them in this situation, that they have to live like this.”

Project HOPE, which is a joint effort of the Orange County Department of Education and the YWCA, started in February, 1991, and serves about 18 Anaheim children, from kindergarten through eighth grade.

The children are picked up by vans and delivered to the YWCA in Orange, where they are served breakfast. From 9 to 11:30 a.m., one teacher and one instructional aide conduct classes in the First Presbyterian Church of Orange next door. The children are divided into three classes, according to age, and the instructors rotate from one room to the next.

“Many of the children are from two-parent families,” said Terri Donaghey, program coordinator for the YWCA. “Many (parents) have lost jobs. Many are willing to work. They can get a job at $5 an hour, but it doesn’t pay the rent.”

Project HOPE provides “an opportunity for the children to continue their education, and we offer a stability, a consistency they don’t have in their lives,” Donaghey said.

In addition to the school, Project HOPE operates a mobile educational unit--the only one in the country--which goes to parks, motels, shopping malls and other places to reach homeless children. The van provides workbooks, pencils, paper and other learning materials.

Teacher Ann Robinson, who conceived the idea of Project HOPE with Red Balfour, a principal of the County Department of Education’s Community Home Education Program, tours the city in one of the two vans, which are equipped with computers, a video cassette player and desks. She regularly meets about 35 children a week.

“We see in the media the single male and female homeless person, but what I don’t think people realize is how many homeless families there are,” Robinson said. “Parents hide the fact because they fear having their children taken away from them.”

Pat, the homeless mother of two, said she loves the program. It was like pulling teeth to get her 10-year-old son, Joseph, to go to school before he was enrolled in the program, “but now he wakes up at 6 in the morning, waiting for the bus.”

The most recent addition to Project HOPE is a mobile teen-parenting program for Spanish-speaking mothers, ages 14 to 18, that started last September, said Susan Liberman, a teacher. She teaches English language skills and basic math to the girls, who often lack transportation and child care.

“I give the parents a lot of credit,” said Danny Uematsu, 12, whose family lost their Fontana home when his father was laid off from his construction job. “They could just leave them or give them up for adoption.”