Playing Santa Year-Round: L.A.-Area People Who Care

The holiday season brings forth a fount of goodwill and charity, but every day, in all parts of Southern California, gestures of generosity and caring abound, little noticed beyond the communities served.

Take Earl Rubell, a volunteer pediatrician at the Venice Family Clinic. After spending eight years sailing around the world, he began to wonder what he would do with the rest of his life. The answer: treat 40 or 50 low-income patients a week without regard for their ability to pay. He and other volunteer medical professionals have become a growing part of the medical safety net for the working poor.

Low-income housing and homeless shelters are another sector in need. Orange County contractors, developers and building supply firms have stepped in to form a private, nonprofit group called HomeAid that constructs “transitional housing” to help the homeless, especially families, get back on their feet. All materials and time are donated.

Produce from farmers’ markets has become increasingly popular and sensible, but that pesticide-free freshness comes at a price. Bringing the cost down and delivering fresh vegetables and fruits to low-income families is the aim of Market Basket, a cooperative effort of the Southland Farmers Market Assn. and UCLA’s Department of Urban Planning. Farmers cut their prices on abundant seasonal produce and UCLA students package and deliver a heaping “market basket” to families for $10 to $15 a week, depending on ability to pay. That’s good business and charity where it counts.

Similarly, bountiful gardens now grow in a formerly trash-strewn vacant lot in the Westlake area, thanks to the efforts of local resident Nola-Marie Mott. An office supervisor in the Department of Corrections, she organized residents at nearby halfway houses to clear and till the lot. “There was tons of garbage. There were cars that were abandoned. It was a real chore,” Mott said. Now, 19 poor families have large vegetable plots, and their only cash expense is $5 a month for water.

Shirley Bebereia, an indefatigable teacher at Century High School in Santa Ana, runs a holiday food distribution program. She identifies the poorest of the poor and coordinates assistance to make the season and life in general a little brighter for families.

At Altadena parks, Percy Brown Jr. became a well-known community youth leader and volunteer at 18 after spending a difficult childhood in a string of foster homes. His father was killed as a teenager and his mother was addicted to drugs. Brown turned the long hours he spent at parks into a life of volunteerism. At a recent Altadena Town Council meeting he handed out certificates of gratitude to community members who helped at the parks, and he commented, “As a foster child, without parents, you guys have been my parents.” What he learned, he is teaching to others.

In culturally and ethnically diverse Los Angeles, the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center helps to resolve conflicts and offers services in Chinese, Japanese and Korean as well as in Spanish and English. Marcia Choo and her tiny staff of support people and multilingual volunteers undertake a delicate job on a shoestring budget.

Personal and grass-roots efforts like these help knit together communities in a spirit of humanity shared by all, year-round. Season’s greetings!