CHURCH POWER: When the Rev. Tomoji Hirata...

CHURCH POWER: When the Rev. Tomoji Hirata founded a Buddhist church here 30 years ago, it was with just a small group of friends. Now Hirata’s Orange County Buddhist Church in Anaheim has some 900 members. . . . That already guarantees a good crowd today and Sunday, when the church--made up mostly of Japanese Americans--has its annual festival to celebrate Buddha’s birthday. “We get many non-Buddhists,” the minister says. “Many stop by just to learn something about our culture.”

BACK TO SCHOOL: You don’t have to be enrolled to take advantage of what local colleges have to offer. Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, for example, today begins what it calls a “mini law school” for consumers, to run four Saturdays from 9 to noon. First class: Tax tips. . . . At Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa next Saturday, there’ll be a one-day crash course in do-it-yourself investigating. Instructor Susan Vaughn, a licensed private investigator, says it will teach you “whether your mate is cheating on you.”

NEXT STEP: For years Joan P. Miller has been a volunteer for the local American Red Cross chapter. Now she’s joined the staff, doing a job she already knows a lot about: director in charge of volunteers. The chapter has 5,000 signed up--from eighth-graders to a 92-year-old--and Miller says the office gets about 50 new inquiries a week. . . . “We need more, but we’re looking for people willing to take the training. That way they’ll feel more comfortable on the job.”

CRYSTAL JUNGLE: If you shop this weekend at Crystal Court in Costa Mesa, don’t let the orchids, water lilies and turtle ponds throw you. The swanky shopping center hasn’t been made over into a lush greenhouse. It’s a weekend spring garden show, with 50 exhibitors on hand, along with gardening expert Pat Welsh, who will sign her latest book. . . . The merchants, of course, are interested in another kind of green as well--you’ll get free garden tools with $100 purchases.