Volunteers * Helping hands : Pappas Is Fairview Volunteer of Year

For 25 years, people with mental disabilities who live at the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa have benefited from the volunteer efforts of Steve G. Pappas, 72.

Pappas, who has coordinated annual fund-raising golf tournaments, recently was honored by the center with its volunteer of the year award.

His wife, Ann Pappas, said her husband started hosting similar benefits in the 1960s in Northern California for children whose fathers were in prison.

When the couple moved to Santa Ana in 1970, the center “touched him,” Ann Pappas said. “He said, ‘This is something I can help with.’ ”

Although he suffered a stroke 10 years ago, his wife said, he has continued to organize the tournaments.

The events have raised more than $250,000 in gifts and monetary donations over the past 25 years, said Corrie Rausch, the center’s volunteer director.

Using some of the money, Pappas has helped build a grassy park, named Steve Pappas Park, for the children at the center, located at 2501 Harbor Blvd.

But most of the money has gone to help provide care, treatment and other services.

Nearly 800 people live at the center. The residents, whose ages range from 2 to 83, receive care from both staff and volunteers.

People wishing to volunteer at the center may call (714) 957-5188.

--BY ENRIQUE LAVIN AND MIMI KO CRUZ