This Summer, Caring Is In, Carefree Out : * Many in O.C. Are Showing Their Compassionate Side

One doesn’t have to look far to see the many ways in which Orange County has been showing its caring side during these dwindling days of summer, the season associated with carefree living and relaxation.

Signs of concern for others are all around as ordinary citizens extend a helping hand, or prompt public officials to do better, or plan better futures for those less fortunate at home and abroad.

A week ago in Santa Ana, dozens of volunteers gave up a summer Saturday to assist the beleaguered homeless who have been living in a shadowy tent city beneath the halls of county government. A new anti-camping ordinance has targeted this homeless population, and volunteers took down tents, helped stack personal belongings and collected trash. They also gathered dozens of shopping carts and distributed food.

The cleanup program was coordinated by Operation Fresh Start, a group of citizens, church members and business owners who have been raising funds and trying to find shelter and rehabilitation programs for the hundreds of homeless people who must move on and who are in need of assistance.

The organization even raised funds for bus tickets for those wishing to rejoin their families elsewhere. That included a trip for one man who is making his way to Bolivia.

The Orange County Bar Assn. has also donated money, and the law firm of Morrison & Foerster funded the purchase of 30 duffel bags. One notable contribution of $100 was reported from Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters, obviously a point person in the difficult balancing act of law enforcement and compassion.

In Orange, the site of another uncomfortable flash point involving needy homeless folks, the City Council made a laudable move to form an ad hoc committee to help find a new site for Mary McAnena’s five-day-a week food line that previously had been in W.O. Hart Park.

The council, facing complaints from neighbors, forced McAnena to stop feeding people in the park earlier in the summer. But the council has now named several officials, residents and activists to begin trying to find other places for McAnena to do her important work.

It’s good to see the city begin to mobilize its clout and resources to help McAnena rather than stymie her work. Her seven years of effort will not go to waste if others help out in finding a new home.

And in Newport Beach a week ago, residents gathered to sing songs and urge international action for the millions of people at risk of starvation in Somalia.

Among the group were Shirley Williams and husband, Sumner, who have been active for years in the south Orange County chapter of RESULTS, an international organization aimed at fighting poverty and hunger. They have begun a letter-writing campaign designed to urge international intervention to end civil war in Somalia and provide relief supplies.

Last month, eight women from Newport Beach and Irvine journeyed to Kenya. Their idea was not to impose Western values or culture on the Third World, but to help provide education in health, sanitation and AIDS, and to assist in reducing infant mortality in a land where it is so high that mothers do not name their children until they are 1 year old.

All these efforts show the compassionate and caring faces of Orange County as summer winds to an end. We celebrate the Labor Day weekend, and salute those for whom helping others is a labor of compassion and concern.