He’s the Best School Chum a Kid Could Have

Until Robert Mirvis came along three years ago, history textbooks at the 135th Street School in Los Angeles were so old that they did not include the fact that U.S. astronauts had landed on the moon a quarter century earlier.

Thanks to his efforts, students at that school and two others not only have up-to-date books, but reading labs, math labs, science materials, computer equipment, globes and a host of other educational tools. Mirvis is the creator of the Los Angeles Adopt-a-Class program, which recruits businesses to donate funds for badly needed teaching aids and school supplies.

The owner of MGT Industries, a Los Angeles lingerie manufacturer, Mirvis, 58, conceived the idea after a conversation at a party with the daughter of family friends, who was teaching in the inner city. “They had no materials, no books,” he recalls being told. “She said she was spending her own money to buy paper.

“Three or four weeks later, I was in a restaurant and was talking to a man who teaches ninth-grade math in the north Valley. He said he had one textbook for every three students, and it was 22 years old. I said, ‘How do you assign homework?’ He said, ‘We don’t.’ ”

Motivated by these encounters, Mirvis contacted Helen Huang, principal of the 135th Street School near his business, and offered her financial assistance. Upon hearing her needs, the program, which allots $2,000 per classroom to fulfill a teacher’s “wish list,” was born.

Following a year’s wait to attain nonprofit status, the first materials arrived at 135th Street School in September. The enterprise later expanded to include the 153rd Street School for children with disabilities and the Raymond Street School in South-Central Los Angeles. Forty businesses and individuals are contributors.

Her teachers went “hog wild” when they first heard about the wish list, says Huang, who overcame her initial leeriness when she realized that Mirvis’ proposal was sincere. “I even had my wish come true. I said, ‘If I could have $2,400 to buy a storage container,’ because we’re vandalized so frequently. We got a 27-foot-long one that holds all of our supplies. It’s vandal-proof.”

Requests are scrutinized carefully. Some are turned down, among them one for staplers intended for use in an administrator’s office. Others pass muster upon investigation, such as a request for tricycles, which help teach motor skills to children who had never seen them before. The program also provided $700 needed for a second-grader’s special hearing aid.

In his office, Mirvis produces a large handmade photo album of the schoolchildren who reap the program’s benefits: kids improving their literacy skills at reading labs; youngsters smiling while using CD-ROMs at computers; others at microscopes or playing with puzzles. Other purchases include multicultural textbooks, library books, encyclopedia sets, workbooks, slides of animals, insects and plants, videotapes and an audio cassette player.

The students benefit beyond those material elements. “The morale among the teachers was just overwhelming,” Huang says. “Their enthusiasm and encouragement directly influence the kids.”

Mirvis estimates that it requires about $90,000 to implement the program at a school and $10,000-$20,000 to maintain a school each year thereafter. Every dollar raised goes directly to the purchase of materials. Mirvis’ company pays administration and fund-raising costs. His employees use company time to order items from catalogs, keep track of the purchases and pay the bills.

Some of the businesses Mirvis recruits make donations well above the $2,000 minimum. One company provides the 135th Street School with all its copier paper and periodically invites Huang to its warehouse to make other supply selections; another donates trucks to transport goods to schools.

“Education offers hope for the future. Everyone should have a chance for a good life,” says Mark Weinstein, owner of California Supply in Gardena, which makes paper and packing products and sponsors two classrooms. “Bob proves that one person can make a big difference. He goes around behind the scenes, sees an area that needs addressing and instead of talking about it, gets involved. I’ve been to meetings with him and the teachers. He gives them hope that they can pass on to the kids.”

Says Mirvis, who hopes to expand Los Angeles Adopt-a-Class to refurbish entire school buildings, “We’re here for one thing, and that’s to help these kids. The teachers are there. The kids are there. If they don’t have the materials, what can they accomplish?”

* This occasional column tells the stories of the unsung heroes of Southern California, people of all ages and vocations and avocations, whose dedication as volunteers or on the job makes life better for the people they encounter. Reader suggestions are welcome and may be sent to Local Hero Editor, Life & Style, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053.