KOREATOWN : Shatto Park Holiday Party Draws 600

Driving along the Santa Monica (10) Freeway three years ago, hairdresser Grace Munoz looked around at the blighted pockets of the Mid-City area and had a vision.

“It was, like, three weeks before Christmas,” she recalled. “I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to put together a big party for homeless people and needy families?’ I thought it would be a great idea, with music and everything, just to give them some love.”

When Munoz arrived at her relatives’ house and excitedly related her idea, they thought she had lost her mind.

But last Sunday marked the third annual realization of Munoz’s dream, as more than 600 children and adults flocked to the Shatto Recreation Center in Koreatown to receive free Christmas meals, food bags, clothes and toys, and to hear live music at what has come to be known as the “Shatto Park Christmas Party.”

Needy parents lined up with their children around the park’s sandy playground to receive toys from a volunteer Santa; others stood around tables, laden with food trays, munching on turkey dinners.

Volunteers were busy handing out plates, assisting people as they rummaged through piles of donated clothing and distributing bags filled with fruit and non-perishables.

“This is great, because right now we have neither money nor work,” said Maria Rosales of Westlake, holding her two small sons’ place in the toy line while the boys played in the sand with other children.

Both Rosales and her husband are unemployed, and receiving a toy was going to give her sons at least a little taste of Christmas, she said.

For the past two years, Munoz has been assisted in sponsoring the event by People in Progress, an alcohol-and-drug intervention and recovery center based in the Westlake area. The organization provided security and several volunteers as well as some of the food and clothing, while Munoz procured the rest of the food from local restaurants and clothing from private individuals.

St. Vincent Medical Center donated cookies for dessert, and most of the 700 toys donated came from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Ads were placed in local newspapers, but the event was publicized mostly through the 2,000 flyers distributed in the community by Munoz and her volunteers.

“That’s how I’ve really gotten to know this neighborhood, by passing out flyers,” said Munoz, who lives in Century City and works in Beverly Hills.

“I don’t spend a lot of time in this area, but I think there is tremendous need here, and there are many homeless people.”

The first Shatto Park Christmas Party was put together in the three weeks following Munoz’s vision on the freeway, with the assistance of several friends. Each year since, with support from local charities and nonprofit groups, a steadily increasing number of people have found their way to the park, many of them finding out about the event by word of mouth.

Deborah Jones came all the way from South-Central after hearing about the Christmas party through a friend in church. As she stood in line with her two daughters, she and the girls joked about what they wanted for Christmas.

“I don’t really know what I want, but my first choice is I wish I could get a car,” giggled 9-year-old Mika, as 2-year-old Shawntae looked ahead toward the toy table with wide-eyed anticipation.

“Oh, are you getting it for me?” Jones, said laughing.

Jones was glad the girls could get a little more than her limited income will allow.

“They’ve got a few things,” she said, “but a little extra will help.”