SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Community Celebrates Safe Return of Victim : Homecoming: Party is neighbors’ first chance to share emotions with Paula Harrington, kidnaped and taken to Arizona in June.

It was the party of a lifetime.

Residents of this 1,500-member community gathered Saturday at Val Verde Park to celebrate the return home of Paula Harrington, 26, a real estate agent kidnaped and taken to Arizona by an armed man in June. Her safe return a few days later was met with jubilation by residents, many of whom scoured the nearby hills for her, but the party was the community’s first chance to celebrate with her.

“It’s just such a miracle she’s home and safe,” said DeeAnn Tippetts, owner of the real estate office in Castaic where Harrington was working when she was abducted. “You just can’t believe it.”

Hugs and thank-yous flowed freely between Harrington and more than 100 friends, family members, law enforcement officers and others at the five-hour party. For Harrington, it was a reminder of the best part of an experience that has many dark memories.

“I try to focus on each day, and when I get down, I focus on what’s around me,” she said.

Saturday’s party was no back-yard barbecue. Five regional bands of various types performed onstage, sheriff’s officials and volunteers showed up on horseback and set up a display of rescue equipment, and dozens of hot dogs and plates of Mexican food were handed out from nearby grills.

The event was actually two parties that merged during two months of planning.

Harrington said she started planning a party a couple of months ago to thank law enforcement officers and the dozens of residents who helped authorities search for her and distributed thousands of flyers throughout the Southland.

Local residents, meanwhile, were making their own plans. Shane Coleman, president of the Music Channel, an organization that arranges special events, said he wanted to give Harrington a proper welcome home.

“When Paula made it back from her abduction she told me about what happened, but the whole conversation was about how it brought the community together,” he said.

Harrington was abducted June 29 while showing houses to a man posing as a prospective buyer. She was found tied up two days later in a motel room in Gila Bend, Ariz.

Her suspected abductor, Timothy Daniel Shue, 38, was arrested July 6 after he allegedly displayed a handgun to a dancer in a topless nightclub in Utah. He was extradited to California and is scheduled to stand trial Dec. 6 in Los Angeles on one federal charge of kidnaping and could receive life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Harrington surprised local law enforcement agencies by giving them custom plaques she had made after her return home. One was handed to Harvey Cantor, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detective bureau chief, whose last major case was the search for Harrington.

“I wanted you to have this so you would always remember me,” she told him.

Cantor, who owns a stack of plaques after his nearly 30-year career, said this is one he won’t soon forget.

“This is the first time in my career I’ve had the pleasure of being honored this way by a crime victim,” he said.

Harrington has quit her real estate job, at least temporarily, saying the stress of trying to show residences was too much to bear. But she said she may have taken a step on the road back to normalcy when, with with the help of a co-worker, she took some former customers to view homes three weeks ago.

“I was so anxious and scared I almost turned around on the freeway,” she said. “But by the time I finished, it was fun. I said to myself, ‘You did it.’ ”