‘Just Giving Back to the Community Now’ : Volunteers: Recovering alcoholics help rehabilitate run-down residences as part of Costa Mesa’s Neighbor to Neighbor cleanup program.

On his 46th day without alcohol Saturday, John Frazer was picking weeds, working off a debt and seeking peace of mind.

Frazer, along with seven other men from Larson House, a sober living center in Garden Grove, were among dozens who volunteered to clean yards, paint houses and build fences as part of the city’s Neighbor to Neighbor cleanup program.

Two months ago, Frazer lived on the streets. He went days without a meal and tried to drink away his troubles. But with the help of Serving People in Need and the fellowship he found at Larson House, Frazer now has a grasp on sobriety.

“I’m just giving back to the community now,” Frazer said, surveying the back yard of the Jacaranda Avenue house where the group worked. “Now I always want to be of service.”

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A few yards away, Steve McRae, 42, was working with Larson House residents to rebuild a fence that was knocked down four years ago during a storm.

“Our old ways of living were to take and take and take,” McRae said. “But when you come into sober living, you don’t have anything. Your life is all screwed up, and you have nothing, and they give you so much.”

For the last four years, Neighbor to Neighbor has selected 30 to 40 mobile homes, apartments and houses to clean up, paint and repair. Using a $3,000 Community Development Block Grant, the program is able to get twice as much value because of the number of volunteers, said Paul Miller, housing rehabilitation consultant for the program.

Saturday’s cleanup was one of the program’s smaller events, but up to 1,000 people turned out for Neighbor to Neighbor’s April cleanup.

“I think the people in this city really do care and want to keep it nice,” said Mark Karonda, a Costa Mesa planning commissioner who led the men in building the fence.

“People really do care, and when they’re given the opportunity to volunteer, they will jump right in there,” Karonda said.

T.J. Lush was eager to volunteer to work on the yard on Wilson Street. Like Frazer, he said, he too needed to pay a debt.

“I owe for all the times I took,” said Lush, a Vietnam War veteran. “I took welfare; I took food stamps and sold them to buy alcohol, and now I owe.”

“Now, because of SPIN and Larson House, I’ve got a place to stay and a little self-respect,” he said.

Linda, who asked that her last name not be used, watched from inside her house while the men worked.

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“This is like a gift from heaven,” she said. “It’s better than winning the lottery.”

At another site where volunteers had spent the morning at work, Charles Westerhaut stood with tears in his eyes as he and his wife, Carol, watched about 40 people clear away mounds of debris. Both are disabled, and since Charles Westerhaut’s surgery four years ago, their back yard had become a small jungle.

“This was a godsend,” Charles Westerhaut said. “It’s emotional, seeing them all out here to help me.”

The group clearing the Westerhaut’s back yard on Wilson Street included several local real estate agents but was mostly composed of teen-agers from Saving Our Youth and the Key Clubs of Costa Mesa and Estancia high schools.

The volunteers cleared away enough debris to fill two 40-foot Dumpsters, cutting down dead branches and mowing a dried lawn that had not seen sunlight in years. Boys captured tiny lizards and dangled them at the girls.

“If [the cleanup] was at your own house, you wouldn’t want to do it, but if there’s a lot of people, then that makes it fun,” said Enrique Pinon, 17. While they worked, Charles Westerhaut offered the teen-agers a bicycle and a racquetball racquet they had unearthed.

“I’m really proud of these guys,” said Oscar Santoyo, the director of SOY. “They have busted their butts. Also, this morning we only brought eight kids over here; all the others just showed up.

“It goes to show how much they really want to help.”