MISSION HILLS : Students Receive Quake Donations

Most remember the images: children living in Red Cross shelters, accepting donations of sweaters and sandwiches, clinging to parents in the tent cities erected after the Northridge earthquake.

Touched by the images, groups ranging from California counselors to Kansas quilters sent donations to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the children, once they returned to school and home.

On Wednesday, starting at an East Valley school, the district began handing out backpacks filled with books, crayons and games to the children who know the feel of a regulation cot.

Ana Maria Rincon, 5, clung tightly to her mother when her name was called in the auditorium at Langdon Avenue Elementary School in Woodland Hills.

“Go on,” her mother urged in Spanish. The audience was small--only a dozen students sitting in the front row also waiting for their backpacks--but Ana Maria remained shy.

She grasped the hot pink-colored bag with her name taped on the front and rushed back to her mother, Rogelia Rincon, who spent 15 days in a shelter with Ana Maria and her other child, a 2-year-old.

Joann Zgonc, LAUSD’s project coordinator for homeless children, said the district knew of 422 youngsters who spent time in the emergency shelters.

“That means there were probably many more we didn’t know about,” she told the students.

Zgonc said the backpacks included a flashlight and a personal care kit, should the students ever need them in case of another emergency.

“I think all of us learned after the earthquake that we need to prepare a little better,” said Zgonc, who will take backpacks to 19 other schools throughout the district.

Dan Balderrama, principal of Langdon, said about 25 students from the school that serves 1,500 students spent time at shelters. Only 14 of those students returned, he said. Others moved to other schools within the district or moved from the area, Zgonc said.