NEWBURY PARK : $100,000 Donated to Casa Pacifica

Executors for the estate of the late Ventura County philanthropist Bertha Edwin Magrum have donated $100,000 to Casa Pacifica to help build a crisis care center for Ventura County’s abused and neglected children.

Magrum died in August, 1991, and directed that the bulk of her estate be distributed to charities, officials said. Her executors, William and Margaret McDonald of Newbury Park, chose Casa Pacifica for a $100,000 gift because of Magrum’s lifelong sympathy for children living in difficult circumstances, said Barbra Conway, fund-raising director for Casa Pacifica.

Magrum was a resident of Orange County for more than three decades, but lived her final years in Ventura County, Conway said.

The home-like center, being developed jointly by Ventura County and the private, nonprofit Casa Pacifica, will provide care and support for 60 infants and children up to age 17. Most of the children will be wards of the county, taken from their homes by the Public Social Services Agency, Conway said.

About $8 million has been raised to pay for construction of the center so far, including a federal grant of nearly $1 million, Conway said. Casa Pacifica’s directors hope to raise another $2 million to pay for remaining construction costs and to establish an endowment for the center’s programs, she said. Grading has been completed at the site on state-owned property near Camarillo State Hospital, and electrical work is under way. The building is scheduled to be completes by next summer, Conway said.

In recognition of Magrum’s contribution, a day room at the new center will be named in her honor, Conway said.