Shelter Has Own Success Story

When a small group in San Clemente two years ago sought a loan to put together Laura’s House, a shelter for battered women and their children, bankers they talked with said great--but how are your finances?

“We got turned down everywhere,” said one of the organizers, Beth Apodaca. “We only had about $2,000 at the time.”

But they got a boost when local businessman Kevin Roberts walked through their door and asked what he could do to help. He wound up signing for the needed loan, and the new shelter was on its way.

This Sunday, Laura’s House turns 1 year old. How’s this for a birthday celebration: Last Friday, the board, staff and volunteers held a beach party, built a bonfire and burned the mortgage. Through fund-raising and hard work, they’ve paid off $100,000 still owed for the two-story, four-bedroom shelter before its first year has ended.

Executive Director Sandy Condello told me: “I asked a local bank president the other day, ‘Aren’t you sorry now you didn’t take a chance on us?’ His response was: ‘I never dreamed you could pull this off.’ ”

Apodaca, Condello and Peggy Stroud, who chairs the shelter’s board, talked with me about Laura’s House at its walk-in center at 97 Calle de Industrius in San Clemente. They asked if I’d like to see the shelter, where abused women and their children can stay for up to 45 days. It was a short drive away (the address is secret for security reasons), located in a pleasant neighborhood.

The three of them showed me around--the beautiful upstairs living room with a fireplace, the sun porch under construction, the well-kept kitchen, the children’s activity room. They were proud and enthusiastic about it all. They may well have been disappointed that I didn’t show any enthusiasm of my own.

I couldn’t. I’m afraid I was unprepared for what lay before me. I walked through those rooms with a golf-ball-sized lump in my throat, with little to say for fear I’d choke on the words.

What you see at Laura’s House is children, room after room. Its 18 beds always have more children than mothers. A single parent who didn’t have her children with her loaded her shelves with their pictures. In the kitchen, the most darling child, almost 3, was eating a late lunch. She had the same blond bangs as my own 4-year-old daughter, and the same heart-stealing smile.

I wondered what kind of lunatic father would have created a home life so violent it forced this precious child and her mother into a temporary shelter. You look around at all the eager young faces at Laura’s House and you wonder if the fathers have any idea the damage they’ve inflicted.

One of Laura’s House’s best assets is Samantha McMillen, coordinator for its children’s programs. She’s a veteran of work in shelters. I asked her why she chose to specialize with the children.

“It’s where my heart is,” McMillen said. “It’s hard for me when one of them leaves, but then the bed is quickly filled with another child, and we have to move on, concentrate on that one.”

Stepping Forward: Laura’s House is a product of the Domestic Violence Action Committee of the South Orange County Community Services Council. When Human Options was moving its Laguna Beach women’s shelter to Irvine, committee members saw a desperate need for another shelter to take its place.

Condello and Helen Kendall became co-founders. Stroud told me she showed up at the first town hall meeting on the issue, was so impressed with what Condello had to say, she pitched in to help, and now chairs the board. Apodaca, whose husband is San Clemente Mayor Steve Apodaca, organizes much of the fund-raising.

“I think this shelter has been an eye-opener for many of us,” Apodaca said. “We knew this kind of abuse went on, but until you see it, see the women who have come in here seeking our help, it doesn’t really hit you how serious it is.”

What has impressed all of these women is how quickly the community jumped in to help--donating furniture, money for the mortgage or for operating expenses, plus volunteer work.

“There are a lot of very good people in this area,” Stroud said. With reason to be proud of what they’ve accomplished.

Beach Snow: When was the last time it snowed in Laguna Beach? The city’s Historical Society says it was 1949 (47 years ago!). The first snow fell in the hills on Jan. 10, 1949, and the next day, a snowstorm blanketed the city.

Former Laguna Beach High School student Tom Santley, now of San Marino, recently donated a picture of that snow blanketing the football field. Unfortunately, he says, he only had time for two quick camera shots before heading off to class. The Historical Society is seeking pictures from that snowfall from anyone else. Call Jane Janz at (714) 499-4976, if you’re willing to share.

For the record, former Police Chief Paul Johnson happens to know the last time it snowed in Laguna Beach before 1949--it was 1932.

Happening Place: My wife and I took our two children to Las Vegas last week for a reunion with my mother, my two sisters and their husbands. But Las Vegas couldn’t compare to the excitement we found in tiny little Barstow two hours up Interstate 15 from Orange County.

We’d spent the night at a favorite motel there. As my 13-year-old son and I were packing the car the next morning, a woman in a pickup truck came roaring up to us: Had we seen a woman in jeans carrying a baby? I said no, but my son said yes, he’d seen them, and pointed to where they’d headed. The baby had been kidnapped from the next door Von’s supermarket, the woman yelled out.

Suddenly we saw the woman with the baby emerging from the pool area. As we approached her just to talk, she started running so fast she ran right out of her shoes. Even carrying the baby she easily outran me. But, to my astonishment, my son took off like a gazelle and managed to pass her up. Thanks to his speed, she was trapped long enough that the police had time to arrive and take her into custody. The baby was fine.

Wrap-Up: The organizers of Laura’s House don’t give out the last name of the woman honored with the shelter’s title. They will tell you only that she was a victim of domestic violence who died four years ago. A picture of Laura as a toddler braces its literature, with this inscription: “A little girl dreams of growing up and being loved. But . . .”

Laura’s mother, who was instrumental in getting the San Clemente organizers involved, lives in Costa Mesa. She recently wrote to the shelter’s staff and volunteers: “When I visit Laura’s [grave] this week, I will add six roses to her flowers, one from each of us in her family, and a special one from Laura’s House; how proud she must be.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com