STANTON : Group Effort Pays Off for Community

Graffiti covers the cement basketball court at Victor Zuniga Park, as if the free-throw lines were drawn specifically for the painted signatures.

But the adjacent handball court is conspicuously clean, devoid of spray-paint.

“That’s our handball court,” explained Isaac Peralez, 15, who lives across the street. “We didn’t want to (mark) it up.”

Youths in the Benedict Tract neighborhood fought more than a year for the handball court, attending City Council meetings and promising to keep the court free of graffiti if the city built it.

The handball court, which was finished in February, represents just one of the many achievements of Standing Together Now, a group of Benedict Tract residents who united to improve the neighborhood by providing area children with healthy activities as alternatives to criminal ones.

Formed two years ago after one of several drive-by shootings took the life of a 16-year-old neighborhood youth, Standing Together Now has organized beach parties, camping trips, football and baseball games and a handball tournament for the kids, all on a shoestring budget of donations.

The group holds neighborhood cleanups and helped raise money for a local girl in need of a bone-marrow transplant.

As the community service group nears its second anniversary, its successes are obvious. Neatly trimmed lawns front the houses in the mostly Latino neighborhood bounded by Beach Boulevard, Katella Avenue, Date Street and a line of railroad tracks.

Kids like Peralez and Yolanda Gomez, 16, talk hopefully of going to college to better themselves. “I want to go to USC,” said Peralez, a Western High School student.

And troublemaking youths from other cities are staying away, realizing that neighbors are watching out for each other, Gomez said.

“A year and a half ago, you felt unsafe walking down the streets there,” said Councilman Joe Harris, an active member of Standing Together Now. “Mothers didn’t even want their kids going to the park. Now you see kids playing all over the street.”

The group was formed by 10-year resident Mary Lara after she saw young John Casillas gunned down in front of her home in July, 1990. “When you see a boy shot, and you’re holding him, and you know it didn’t have to be this way, it kind of shocked me into action,” said Lara, a mother of two.

Lara began by holding Bible studies for local youths. But the ball got rolling when she enlisted the help of Fernando Leon, a local businessman with a talent for relating to youths.

Initially hesitant residents soon were drawn by Lara’s and Leon’s enthusiasm and ideas. Weekly community meetings were held. City leaders and other volunteers also got involved.

Up to now, activities have been funded mostly by rummage and bake sales. The group is seeking nonprofit status to raise money on a larger scale for grander projects like a neighborhood center with arts and sports programs.

Lara said another key goal is finding part-time jobs for the teen-agers, several of whom serve as group officers.

“This neighborhood is all families,” Lara said. “I love this neighborhood. I don’t want to see it become a negative place to live. What we do here, anyone can do anywhere. It doesn’t take a bachelor’s degree to put together a baseball game. I just takes an ‘I care. I want to help. What can I do?’ ”