The Angels Living Among Us

Southern California takes pride and joy in its many angels, who put others first and give generously both in this holiday season and throughout the year.

Angels, of course, come in all sizes, shapes, colors and ages. Take 11-year-old Marko Moreno, who planned and cooked a holiday dinner this month for the homeless in a North Hollywood shelter. The sixth-grader solicited volunteers and contributions of food to put on the meal, served to about 30 families.

Christmas feasts will be laid out for the poor across the region today, thanks to volunteers like Marko. Charitable people will deliver gifts of blankets and warm clothing, and some needy children will get toys. The spirit of giving is abundant.

Holiday giving arrived early for hundreds of children at Raymond Avenue Elementary School near Florence and Normandie, the South-Central Los Angeles intersection where the riots began in 1992. Christopher Keith, a Westside animation specialist, has made a mission to the area for the last three years, carrying an inspirational appeal for youngsters to stay in school. He distributes hundreds of books, toys, musical instruments and other gifts.

Some angels are heroic. When holiday lights decorating a Buddhist shrine touched off a fire at a Garden Grove home earlier this month, Sam Burleson rushed in to rescue his neighbor, Dang Thi Nhien. Nhien’s family of seven was left homeless, but thanks to Burleson, nobody died.

Bravery sometimes exacts a price. Jorge Elias of Reseda helped to free Los Angeles Police Officer Martin Guerrero, who was trapped in a patrol car after a November crash that killed his partner. While Elias was helping in the rescue, someone stole his automobile and the work tools in it. Galpin Ford replaced the car, and the Los Angeles Police Protective League replaced his tools.

For angels, distance is no barrier. Last April’s horrific bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building led Laguna Beach businesswoman Donna Jackson, a native of Oklahoma, to reach out to Daina Bradley, 20, who lost her two children, her mother and her leg in the blast. The Orange County woman established a trust fund that raised $22,000 for Bradley. Jackson brought the bombing victim here last month so she could meet and thank those who had helped her.

For many Southern Californians, doing good is simply a way of life. Dance studio owner Trena Johnson helped a young ex-con named Ethan Allen Thomas Jr., who wanted to become a journalist, get a part-time job at The Times after he went to her La Cienega Boulevard business believing it was the office of his parole officer. Friendly and ambitious, Thomas was working hard toward his goal when he was shot to death in his home last month.

John Whiteley, a UC Irvine professor of social ecology, has traveled to Russia more than 30 times in the last eight years, bringing with him more than $500,000 in medical supplies from donors in Orange County and elsewhere. He has also arranged for Russian scientists and researchers to come to the United States to learn technological skills that could help them deal with environmental problems, especially those stemming from nuclear radiation.

Aurora Castillo, the cofounder of Mothers of East Los Angeles, now an octogenarian, still fights for a clean environment and to improve her community in other ways. Another angel, Maurice Stein, a Toluca Lake makeup artist, spends his retirement helping burn victims look beautiful.

The best gifts do not come wrapped in fancy paper. The best gifts to society are those people who share good tidings and their time, talent and wealth, today and every day.