FOUNTAIN VALLEY : A Woman With Key to Helping Others

Shirley Symonds has helped raise money to buy computer equipment for youngsters with cerebral palsy. She arranged for a 9-year-old girl with brain cancer to attend an Alan Jackson concert and meet the country singer.

During the past 25 years, Symonds’ service to her community also has included organizing rummage sales, participating in sing-alongs at a retirement home and collecting wheelchairs, walkers and crutches for the elderly.

Her philosophy is, “You can’t change the whole world, but you can change the corner where you live.”

Because of her efforts to make Fountain Valley a better place, Symonds was recently named Citizen of the Year for 1994.

“It’s a great honor,” said Symonds, a 31-year resident. “It makes you feel good.”

The award is given each year by the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The City Council recently presented Symonds with a key to the city. “I will wear it with pride. . . . It’s really a treasure,” she said of the key, fashioned as a lapel pin.

Symonds was nominated for the award by the Omni Service Club, a community service organization she helped found in 1979.

For the past 15 years, the club has been instrumental in raising money for various community service projects that benefit disabled and disadvantaged children and senior citizens. Symonds, immediate past president, said the club raises about $10,000 a year.

“We just like to feel like we make a difference in the community,” she said.

Symonds, an executive assistant at an Irvine computer company, also has been on Coastline Community College’s Foundation board since 1984, was co-founder of the college’s alumni association, and has been active in raising money for a college scholarship program.