Giving HOPE to Women, Children in Need

Gayle Knight stood in the doorway ready to greet every guest who came to Saturday’s fund-raiser for HOPE, a nonprofit organization she founded last year. Knight, who lives in Seal Beach, founded the organization to provide assistance to ill or disadvantaged women and children, and HOPE assists the families with food, shelter and mentoring.

It began eight years ago when Gayle and her husband, Bill, started to use their own home in Seal Beach as a shelter for sick children and people in need. “We would hear about people who needed help,” Knight said. “They would come to us.” After a couple of years, Knight came in contact with the Thomas Shelter in Garden Grove. She and her husband began arranging afternoon activities--picnics, outings and church visits--for families in the shelter. Today more than 30 women and children from the shelter participate in the weekly activities, and Knight has founded a program to assist women as they come out of the shelter.

“We’re trying to make their lives a little easier,” Knight said. “Nobody needs to struggle.” The program, Bridge of Hope, helps women in the first couple of months as they start to manage on their own. Volunteers provide financial help as well as emotional support.

Sara Luis, 26, came to the Thomas Shelter two years ago while pregnant with her second child. She found a job selling auto parts and moved out of the shelter. Despite a recent promotion to assistant manager at the store, she finds it difficult to make ends meet. “Gayle knew I was not going to make it with two little girls, and I couldn’t, so she pays half of my rent,” Luis said. “She calls me every day and we talk about everything.” Knight, who last week received a philanthropy award for her work with HOPE, said she wanted to expand the programs.

HOPE also has become a presence in the neighborhood where the shelter is located because of its after-school tutoring and activities. One volunteer, Eric Adams, said the organization, in conjunction with community policing programs, has helped clean up the four-block area. Every week, between 40 and 50 children and teenagers come to the homework clinic or participate in other activities at the center such as job training and computer workshops, Adams said.

“There is no trash on the street,” Adams said. “It’s a visible difference. . . . When I first started, the children said, ‘I can’t, I won’t.’ Now it’s ‘I can, I will.’ ”

Louise Roug can be reached at (714) 966-5977.