Santa Ana’s Yule Exchange: Giving and Good Feelings

The line formed before 6 on Christmas Eve morning.

Mothers pushed strollers, children played in the grass, and the line wrapped around Santa Ana’s Southwest Senior Center into the parking lot.

Waiting for them were a pair of Christmas staples: food and toys.

“It fills our spirit,” said Nancy Izquierdo, there with her children, Alejandra, 5, and Leisha, 2 months. “It’s a very important day for us, and this is a lot of help; something many parents are not able to do for their children.”

The event was the 16th annual CENA -- Spanish for “dinner” and also an acronym for Caring Educators Nourishing All -- where, in one of America’s poorest cities, volunteers gave away 2,500 meals and nearly as many toys to about 450 families Friday.

Targeting low-income residents, the event is organized mainly by people who work for the Santa Ana Unified School District.

“It’s a gift for the parents,” board President Audrey Yamagata-Noji said, “but also for our volunteers. They really feel like it’s Christmas after they’ve come here.”

Rudy Gomez, one of about 200 teachers, administrators, ROTC students, parents and bus drivers on hand to help, agreed. “You get to see the smiles on their faces,” he said. “If they don’t have a meal at home, at least they’ll have one here. It’s a joy to see.”

This particular Christmas joy began in 1988, according to Yamagata-Noji, when she and several others recognized that many parents in the largely Latino district were too poor to give their children gifts. Now, she said, “buying gifts for my family and friends, who probably don’t need anything, is a nice gesture, but this is what I look forward to every year.”

So do the kids.

After spending as long as three hours in line, each family was ushered into a courtyard where the children chose from among a stack of toys (donated by the Marines’ Toys for Tots program) laid out on two long tables.

Next stop was the dining room for a meal of chicken or beef fajitas, rice and beans.

Then came a brief visit with Santa Claus, who dispensed more toys. And finally, each child was given a book and a dictionary.

The books, food and space are paid for by CENA, a volunteer committee that raises about $10,000 annually for the Christmas event.The payoff is the look on the youngsters’ faces as they prance out the door.

“It was fun, and we got lots of presents,” enthused Jesus Estrada, 8, barely able to hold the toy walkie-talkie and golf game piled high in his arms.

His 10-year-old sister, Alma, clutching a dictionary, said: “We will have a fun Christmas and a happy new year.”