Volunteer Work Is Kid Stuff at Laura’s House
When you walk into the sparkling new Laura’s House Children’s Learning Center in San Clemente, it’s not just how spectacular the place looks that impresses you most. It’s how it was all put together by volunteer effort.
Laura’s House in San Clemente is both a temporary shelter and walk-in center for battered women in the south Orange County and northern San Diego County area. Its new learning center--adjacent to its walk-in center at 97 Calle de Industrias--held its grand opening Friday.
The learning center, a longtime dream of Executive Director Sandy Condello, is primarily for the children of its clients. But it goes beyond serving as a day care facility for these mothers as they work, look for employment, or spend time with staff next door. The learning center also includes new computers--for both the children and the mothers. Part of the computer equipment was bought by the city, the rest was donated by corporate sponsors. Mothers will also receive help there in honing their job interview skills. Parenting classes are also scheduled.
I took my 5-year-old daughter, Becky, with me for the grand opening, so I could see the center from the eyes of a child who might spend time there. She couldn’t have been more enraptured if the place had been Disneyland. It’s filled to the rafters with things for children to do. We started out with: “Daddy, do we have to stay very long?” We wound up with: “Daddy, can’t we stay just a little longer, please?”
But what a 5-year-old cannot appreciate is what it took to open the place on a shoestring budget. It took people like Martha Chute, or Mabel and Rick Kacerek, just a few of the volunteers who worked day and night converting an empty shell of a video store into something grand for children. (Laura’s House gives a regular award to volunteers, and calls it the Mabel Award, which gives you an idea how valuable Mabel Kacerek’s contribution has been.)
The volunteers include people like San Clemente City Councilman Steve Apodaca, who stepped forward to serve as big brother to one of the older teen boys staying with his mother at Laura’s House. Apodaca says the young man is a great kid with a lot of enthusiasm. You just know this is a youngster who’s had poor male role models in his life, and desperately needs someone willing to spend time with him.
About the time I’d finally convinced my 5-year-old that we’d overstayed our welcome, I ran into Mildred Daley Pagelow, a member of the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees. She’s also a board member at Laura’s House.
“This place is certainly child-centered,” she said of the new learning center. That’s about the best compliment its many volunteers could ask for.
Not Just a Ballplayer: Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball the year I was born. The Anaheim Angels on Sunday held their own tribute to Robinson at the Big A, on the 50th anniversary of that achievement. Several Robinson family members attended, as well as several of the ballplayers who knew Robinson from the days of the old Negro leagues. I enjoyed meeting them, and hearing their numerous anecdotes about those days.
“Jackie was a great ballplayer, but he wasn’t the best from our league,” said Merle Porter, who knew Robinson from earlier days in Los Angeles, and played first base for the Kansas City Monarchs soon after Robinson left that team. Porter remembers some games where there were more white people in attendance than blacks.
“They just loved good baseball, and we had all the best players,” he said.
Porter mentioned one downside, for him and his friends, to Robinson joining the Dodgers and integrating major league baseball: “We didn’t know it at the time, of course, but it brought an end to our own league. It killed Negro baseball.”
Sammie Haynes was one of Robinson’s closest friends and played on the same Kansas City Monarchs team as Robinson. But the best baseball player in the world, Haynes said, was pitcher Satchell Paige, also from the Monarchs.
“Baseball didn’t have speed guns back then,” Haynes said, “but the Army had a similar gun we borrowed one time. It clocked Satch’s fastball at 105 mph.”
Haynes agreed that integrating baseball killed the Negro leagues: “But I’m telling you, it was worth it. Jackie Robinson didn’t just integrate baseball. He brought much-needed social change to the whole country. That’s why I show up to honor him every chance I get.”
Stars Among Stars: “Noche de Estrellas” means “Night of the Stars” for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County. Its “Noche de Estrellas” gala event at the Disneyland Hotel Saturday night was a chance for it to honor some of the leaders of Orange County. Among those feted:
* Carlos Palomino, who won the humanitarian award. Palomino, born in Mexico, is a former welterweight boxing champion who now devotes much of his time to anti-substance abuse and anti-gang causes.
* Frank Garcia, winner of the community service award. Garcia, owner of La Casa Garcia restaurant in Anaheim, is well known for his annual Thanksgiving feast for the homeless and other fund-raisers for the poor or victims of natural disasters.
The past 12 months have made quite a year for Garcia. He was honored at the White House last May with a Presidential Service Award for his many charitable activities.
* Cal State Fullerton President Milton A. Gordon received the education award. Gordon in the past has been honored by the Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce with its Distinguished Service Award.
* Veteran race car driver Roberto Guerrero won the sports award. A native of Colombia, Guerrero once endured 17 days in a coma after crashing into the wall during tests at the Indianapolis 500.
* Giselle Fernandez, born in Mexico but raised in Southern California, won the entertainment award. She is co-host of Access Hollywood, a new entertainment show on NBC.
* Nordstrom’s stores won the corporate responsibility award, and the law firm of Alvarado, Smith, Villa & Sanchez of Newport Beach won the small business award. The firm’s attorneys have been active in the Hispanic Education Endowment Fund, the Tustin Boys and Girls Club, and the Olive Crest treatment center for abused children.
Wrap-Up: It was a small crowd. A boy with his kite. A couple with a telephoto lens and a bird book. A kayaker. Two young lovers. A mother and grown daughter playing with the crabs in the rocks. My 5-year-old and me. Plus the young woman with the purple streaks in her hair, duly noted by my daughter. Each of us in our own way enjoyed a sunless, overcast day at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point last week. Becky and I had stopped there en route to the Learning Center. It was a wonderful reminder that early April, with the crowds down, often provides Orange County’s best times at the beach.
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
