COSTA MESA : Bountiful Harvest for Child-Abuse Center

It’s strawberry season, and a Huntington Beach-based strawberry company plans to donate at least $600 to the Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Center by the time June rolls around.

Before granting a permit for a strawberry stand on the west side of Newport Boulevard near Triangle Square, the city’s redevelopment agency asked the owners of Sunshine Strawberries to make a donation pledge to some nonprofit organization in the county.

“It’s a city ordinance,” said Paula Schaefer, administrative assistant for the redevelopment agency. “If you sell a single agricultural product on the agency’s land, then we require that you make a donation. It’s just like a fund-raiser.”

So Bruce Gitmed and Sam Allen, the owners of the Sunshine Strawberries, agreed to give some of their proceeds y to the Child Abuse Prevention Center at Newport Boulevard and Santa Isabel Street.

Robin Beskind, a caseworker at the center, said the money is welcomed: “We’re partially funded by the county. And it’s frightening to think what kind of impact the bankruptcy is going to have on us. So this money will certainly help out.”

Gitmed, whose company has been in operation for 10 years, just hopes that the stand brings in the estimated $20,000 that he and his partner are expecting this year.

The stand, which opened last week, will close the first week of June.

“As long as it doesn’t rain a lot, we should do OK,” Gitmed said. “But if it rains, then people usually don’t stop to buy our berries.”

The Child Abuse Prevention Center sends volunteers to the homes of abused children in the hope that things can be worked out with the families.

Volunteers are especially needed in Anaheim these days, said Beskind.

For more information about the center, call (714) 722-1107.