100 Black Men = 1-on-1 Help

Volunteering can be one of those words that means you go out with friends on a weekend morning and help pick up trash at the beach. It can also mean being a Ron Coley.

Coley is president of a group called 100 Black Men of Orange County. Its members enter the lives of troubled young men in the ninth grade--and stay with them until they graduate.

“We don’t give up on anybody,” Coley said. “No matter how much trouble a young man might be in, we’ll be there for him.”

The group is a national organization, begun in 1963, with chapters throughout the United States. It got its name because that’s about how many formed the initial organization to take on community causes. The local group has about 35 members. All of them are involved in some type of community volunteer work.

This week, 100 Black Men of Orange County held its first Volunteerism Reception at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach. Leading the applause for its members’ efforts was Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner and Carol Stone, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County.

“This is quality, quality work these men are doing,” Stone said. “They are into thoroughness, not big numbers.”

Two Saturdays a week, Coley and his colleagues hold meetings with male youths on the grounds of Irvine High School. Right now, 30 boys are involved from Woodbridge, University, Tustin and Irvine high schools. But Orange High School soon will join the program, and Coley says the number of youths will increase to 60.

“We try to work with them on self-esteem, but we don’t make them puppets of ourselves,” said Coley, who works in the county’s budget planning department. “We know they need to explore their own individuality.”

Activities include taking them to athletic events, tours of computer companies, and even symphony concerts. Almost all the young men, who volunteer for this program, are African American. But Coley said it’s open to any minority boy who asks for help.

I asked Coley if he believed the young men enjoyed these sessions with 100 Black Men.

“It goes beyond enjoyment to enrichment,” Coley said. “We hear it from their parents, from the school principals. These are young men who have not had a whole lot of options in their lives. We’re showing them opportunity is there.”

Bobbing Along: Many of you from Santa Ana will well remember Robert C. Bobb, the first African American city manager in Orange County, who left here unhappy in 1986 because he hadn’t received a pay raise throughout most of his 2 1/2-year tenure. Bobb became city manager in Richmond, Va., where his pay jumped from $84,000 to $110,000.

Now the San Francisco Chronicle reports that after 10 years in Richmond, Bobb is returning to California, to be the next city manager for Oakland.

Bobb said of the Santa Ana City Council members when he left here: “I gave them more than they paid me.”

Still Teeing Off: A few months back, I wrote about Chapman University operations and maintenance director John Ferris, who started his own golf tournament to raise funds for Children’s Hospital of Orange County. It was something he had planned with his wife Sue, because CHOC had saved their young daughter Meghan’s life a few years ago when she had a liver complication. But Sue Ferris died earlier this year from breast cancer, and Ferris vowed to push on.

This week, he completed his second golf tournament, at Friendly Hills Country Club in Whittier. Proceeds from this one will go to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

Rich Little’s Next Gig? I try to stay away from writing about bathroom issues, but I have a colleague who’s nuts about this one: Fluidmaster Inc. of Anaheim held a contest Wednesday to see who can best imitate the sound of a flushing toilet. First prize was $1,000.

The whole idea behind it was to promote water savings, by getting people to repair leaky toilets. Fluidmaster, a manufacturer of toilet tank repair parts, claims that one leaky toilet can waste enough water after one year to fill a swimming pool.

The contest was called a flush-off. It ended up in a tie, so a flush-off II had to be held. The winner was Matt Gourley of Long Beach. Spokeswoman Nan Larsen told me that if you closed your eyes, “he sounded exactly like a real toilet flushing.” Gourley’s gimmick: He played a broken toilet. Further details you really don’t want to read here.

Wrap-Up: The Volunteer Center has its own festive occasion coming up, hosting its annual awards luncheon Oct. 16. Its most prestigious award is called Giving Is Living, and this year’s recipients are philanthropists Judie and George Argyros of Newport Beach. George Argyros is one of the county’s top developers.

“This award is for people who do more than just pull out a checkbook,” Executive Director Carol Stone said. “Both Judie and George roll up their sleeves and pitch in.”

Judie Argyros is a founding member of Visionaries, a support group for the Orange County Museum of Art. She’s also active in fund-raising for Orangewood, the county’s home for neglected or abused children, the CHOC Foundation, and a group called the Sophisticates, which funds a juvenile diversion program for troubled youths.

George Argyros is chairman of the Chapman University Board of Trustees and has been active in Boy Scouts in Orange County for many years. They both serve on the board of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and are active with the Doheny Eye Institute.

And if that doesn’t keep them busy enough, they also founded the Argyros Foundation, which provides millions for charity and educational causes throughout the state.

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