CANOGA PARK : Latchkey Program Chief to Be Honored

Coco Mendoza remembers very clearly what it was like when she was a latchkey kid.

“It was very lonely,” said the 25-year-old director of a city-sponsored after-school program at Canoga Park Elementary School. “One time I even lost the key to the house.”

Next week, the board of directors of the LA’s BEST program will present its Al Minturn Humanitarian Award to Mendoza for her work with “latchkey” children. Led by Mendoza and others, LA’s BEST offers free after-school programs at 19 schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Mendoza’s strength, program spokeswoman Tammy Sims said, is her commitment to the children.

“Coco has the biggest heart,” said Sims. “We’re really lucky to have her.”

LA’s BEST, which runs the programs at three other elementary schools in the Valley, offers activities such as crafts, cooking, music, art, science and a homework lab for students with working parents.

The majority of the funding to serve the 3,800 students enrolled in LA’s BEST--about $2 million a year for operational costs--comes from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. Additional funds for activities such as music, dance, drama and field trips come from fund raising in the private sector.

Barbara Gutierrez, principal of Canoga Park Elementary, said Mendoza has made the program a success.

“She is a compassionate and dedicated young person,” Gutierrez said. “She hasn’t lost the essence of what it means to be a child.”

Mendoza’s parents, who emigrated from Mexico when she was a year old, worked full time--her father for General Motors and her mother as a seamstress. The responsibility of coming home to an empty house, she said, was daunting.

“Sometimes parents push (children) to grow up too fast,” Mendoza said. “I just want to make them happy and let them be little kids.”