Offers Pour In to Help League Hit by Robbery : Theft: Existence of Santa Ana football group is threatened after about $10,000 worth of fireworks it was selling to raise funds is stolen.

The vice president of a junior football league that faces possible extinction because of a Fourth of July fireworks theft said Sunday that he is gratified at the outpouring of support in the wake of the crime.

One likely outcome will be a spaghetti dinner or pancake breakfast put on by the Newport Elks Lodge to raise money for the struggling league.

“I didn’t expect any of this,” said Ken Brown, vice president of Santa Ana’s Junior All-American Football League. “I’m going to fight like hell to keep this going for these kids.”

The league suffered a financial disaster about 1:30 a.m. Saturday when about 10 men believed to be gang members drove up in four cars to a fireworks stand at 1500 W. 1st St. As one of them pointed a .45-caliber handgun at a security guard, the rest stole about $10,000 worth of fireworks the league was selling there.

The annual fireworks sale is the football league’s major fund-raiser of the year and was expected to net up to $4,000. The money was to be used to buy uniforms and pay insurance and charter fees to allow the league’s six teams to play in the Orange County League.

In addition to losing the profit, Brown said, the league owes the company from which it bought the fireworks about $4,000 for the material stolen.

“This will shut our league down if we can’t come up with the money” by Aug. 3, Brown said. On that date, practice begins for the football league’s season. The league has about 100 players, ages 7 to 14. More than half of them are from low-income homes and about 90% are Latino, Brown said. “It keeps them off the streets,” he said. “These kids down here don’t have anything to do.”

In addition to the offer from the Newport Elks Lodge, Brown said, he had received offers of help from the American Legion and several concerned individuals. “One lady said she’d send $20,” he said.