COUNTYWIDE : Assistance League Helps Young, Old

Every morning, Ina, a 90-year-old Leisure World resident, looks forward to her phone call.

Without fail, at 10 a.m. a Tustin Assistance League volunteer calls to chat and make sure everything is OK.

“It makes your day when you’re alone, and I feel safer,” said Ina, a 20-year Tustin resident who asked that her last name not be used.

“I hate to wake up not knowing if someone is going to get in touch with me during the day,” she said. “It’s a nice feeling knowing someone will call and wants to know how you are.”

Ina is one of 13 subscribers to Telecare, one of several philanthropy programs run by the Assistance League. Telecare provides daily reassurance calls free to seniors and shut-ins who live alone.

Caroline Willsie, who chairs the three Assistance League philanthropies, said many of the Telecare subscribers say they are able to continue living alone because they know someone will call them every morning.

“I couldn’t be happier,” said Ina’s daughter Joanne, whose work entails frequent travel. “It’s very reassuring to know that someone is checking on Mom every day when I can’t do it myself.”

The league’s other programs include Operation School Bell, which provides clothing for needy children in the Tustin school district, and SAT Seminars, inexpensive classes that prepare high school students for the college boards.

The SAT review classes are held four times a year and are taught by math and English teachers from Tustin.

The league charges $25 dollars a class, compared to other college preparation classes that cost hundreds of dollars.

“It puts it in the range of anyone,” Willsie said.

The 103 active members of the league volunteer regularly for both Telecare and Operation School Bell, which has clothed needy children since 1968. For the last two years, Operation School Bell has provided attire to more than 450 Tustin children from kindergarten through high school.

“It’s such a wonderful thing,” Willsie said. “The kids get so excited. Many have never been shopping; they have only had hand-me-downs.”

Children who benefit from Operation School Bell must be recommended by a high school teacher or principal, and all requests go through their school nurse.

Children arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in shifts of about five children every 45 minutes to select clothes. A minimum of four volunteers work with each group, helping the children pick clothes that fit them best during what the schools have come to call “shopping sprees.”

Each child receives two outfits, along with a new backpack filled with supplies. Ninety-five percent of the clothes are new, Willsie said, bought wholesale.

“We try to make it special for the kids, so they’ll feel good about it,” Willsie said. “They always give us a big hug when they leave. It’s very rewarding for us, and it makes the children so happy.”