CLEANUP HITTERS

The adage, “Charity begins at home,” actually begins at somebody else’s house for the Los Alamitos softball team.

Participating in the national Christmas in April program, more than 40 players from Los Alamitos spent Saturday cleaning up the grounds of a Long Beach home in need of serious attention.

“I thought it would be a great team-building activity and would make an impact on the players’ lives,” said Renee Bergeron, Los Alamitos’ second-year coach. “You can’t take life for granted. Sports can teach you so much more and this is the perfect opportunity to give back.”

According to Amelia Urbeck, board member of the Long Beach affiliate of Christmas in April, the house on East 55th Street was to be condemned if it wasn’t repaired. It is occupied by Colleen Davis and her family. Davis, who has recovered from breast cancer, says she has 15 life-threatening ailments.

The last year has been tragic for her family as well. Her mother, Lois, is in the beginning throes of Alzheimer’s Disease. Colleen’s husband, Audrey, who made a good living as a designer, fell 20 feet from a ladder and suffered brain damage that has left him disabled. Her son, Christopher, 16, was hit by a car and, though he had no internal damage, “had really bad road rash like you wouldn’t believe,” Colleen Davis said. She also has two daughters, Desiree, 8, and Summer, 7.

“My plan is to leave the house to my children,” Davis said. “To me, it’s the most beautiful house in the world.”

It was built in 1893 and has been in Davis’ family for five generations. It belonged to her late grandmother, Kathy Coleman. “It meant so much to her and me,” Davis said. “I can remember being a child and wanting to live here so desperately.”

The 2001 goal of Christmas in April is to rehabilitate 7,800 houses and nonprofit facilities, specializing in those associated with the elderly, economically disadvantaged and disabled.

The Long Beach affiliate worked on 10 homes and two nonprofit facilities on Saturday.

Rehabilitating the Davis home will be done in stages. The Giffins’ softball team is batting leadoff in that effort.

“That means so much,” Davis said. “Kids today, especially public school kids, have a tendency not to care and be wrapped up in themselves. I’m amazed. For them to tackle something like this. . . . I am so eternally grateful to them and amazed they would take the time to do this. There are no words to thank them.”

The Griffins’ good deed began with Bergeron watching television. “I had seen Habitat for Humanity on ‘Oprah,’ and I thought it was a great way to get into the community,” Bergeron said. Jonda Matrone, mother of one of Bergeron’s health students, Jade Matrone, connected Bergeron with Christmas in April.

“I like it because it’s a nonprofit thing,” said sophomore Kristin Crenshaw. “We’re not doing it for anything, but for [the family]. We heard [originally] that we’re going to do this, and thought we were going to build a house, and thought it would be pretty strenuous. But we’re just cleaning it up. But knowing that it’s going to be taken down if we don’t do it motivates us more.”

The Griffins filled two dumpsters.

“It’s sort of like a jungle--lots of gardening,” Bergeron said. “We’re just trying to make it look livable.”

Senior Mackenzie DeLeon said she and a friend had hoped to distribute turkeys at Thanksgiving, but her plans fell through. She’s glad this opportunity arose.

“We get to help and give back to the community, and it’s always good to help someone,” DeLeon said. “It’s good to help the family and know we’re doing something that will help them out, and will also bring our team closer together.”

The players hit a home run with the family they helped.

“They were great kids,” Davis said. “I could have adopted any one of them. They worked so hard”

And for one day, they made a difference.

“So many times for a school, publicity is something negative,” Bergeron said. “I thought this could be something positive. These girls have a different side of themselves to show.”