‘It will keep the animals out’

Greg Risling

COSTA MESA -- Where Cindy Soto rests, her daughter does not anymore.

Soto’s 4-year-old daughter, Sierra, snuggled up with her mother every

night as they fell asleep. They would curl up with one another, holding

each other tightly.

Now Soto is left cradling a picture of Sierra and her daughter’s baby

blanket when she lies in bed. A dog named Goldie, recently rescued by

Soto from an animal shelter, licks the tears from her eyes.

But from the pain that has consumed her life since Sierra’s death in May,

there shines a light. Fiercely determined to not have her daughter’s

death chalked up as another senseless tragedy, Soto is trying to evoke

sweeping change through a foundation called Sierra’s Light.

The program’s goal calls for creating new legislation to protect children

while educating parents about safety guidelines for child-care centers

and schools.

The undertaking is enormous. Soto’s energy, sapped easily by recounting

her daughter’s death, comes from Sierra and her faith.

“I’m still in the grieving process,” said Soto, as she sat in an empty

dance studio. “I’m focused on the foundation because I don’t want this to

happen to another child.”

From tragedy, an idea arises

Just two months have passed since Sierra was killed while she was playing

with her friends at the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center on

Magnolia Avenue. Sierra and 3-year-old Brandon Wiener were struck by an

car driven by 39-year-old Steven Allen Abrams, who police claim

intentionally gunned his vehicle toward the children. Abrams appeared in

court Friday for a pretrial hearing. He could face the death penalty if

convicted.

Days after Sierra’s death, Soto sought refuge at a friend’s home in

Laguna Beach. There, in the midst of the wave of emotions, the idea of

the foundation sprung forth.

Soto asked for her computer at home. She began typing proposals and

getting the names and numbers of local and state legislators.

Soto began setting the platform: mandatory safety requirements to

physically protect schools and child-care centers, tapping funds from

Prop. 10 to renovate facilities, and special enhanced provisions for

criminals who willfully hurt children.

Soto hasn’t stopped there. She proposes a community-based campaign that

will support existing centers to receive assistance from various groups.

By involving different aspects of the community, Soto hopes the results

will provide a safer environment for children.

She has spent nearly every day drafting proposals since Sierra was

killed. She enlisted the help of legal and child-care advocates. Her

vision was being realized.

Then, on Tuesday, it happened again.

A gunman, reportedly bent on killing Jewish people, shot four children at

a community center in Granada Hills. Soto’s frustration grew. She worked

more furiously.

“In light of the Granada Hills tragedy, we are determined more than ever

to see these foundation goals achieved,” she said. “We have a job to do

and a purpose. Now is the time we need to make change.”

Soto is a firm believer that solid walls should be erected around

day-care centers as visual barriers. Some parents balk at the idea,

noting that children would feel caged. Soto said the Granada Hills

incident adds further weight to her argument.

“Walls with bars can keep a car out, but they can’t stop an Uzi,” she

said. “Having solid walls won’t cage our children. It will keep the

animals out.”

Soto’s foundation would like to see steps similar to what the federal

government took after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Of the 108

facilities that have preschools, all of them have changed their safety

measures and adhere to new guidelines.

California legislators have been receptive to Soto’s proposals. Gov. Gray

Davis said in a statement this week following the Granada Hills shooting

that change is on the horizon.

“We must work to make the places where our children gather safer and more

secure,” Davis said. “We must continue to demonstrate that the good and

decent people of California stand firmly against the forces of

intolerance and evil.”Dr. Sheri Senter, a child-care consultant who sits

on the foundation board, agrees that renovations to centers and schools

are imperative.

“Through the foundation we are trying to be a catalyst for change,” she

said. “We want to make sure existing child care centers improve their

safety both with their entrance and physical parameters.”

A star only she can see

Most of Soto’s days are spent working on the foundation, although she

still teaches classes at her dance studio. With the amount of work still

ahead and the reminder of her daughter’s death fresh in her mind, simple

tasks are sometimes hard to accomplish.

“If I can get up to take a shower and make a few phone calls, that is a

good day for me,” she said.

For Soto, the wounds torn open by the tragedy won’t heal in the near

future. Abrams’ trial is pending. A memorial plaque will be placed at the

child-care center where Sierra and Brandon were killed. Her life has

taken on an entirely different look and feel.

She doesn’t drive by the center, let alone the streets that surround it

only a half-mile away from her dance studio. She hasn’t kept in touch

with the center’s teachers. The thoughts of the tragedy are too painful.

Soto will always have her daughter in her heart and on her mind. She

wears a gold ring on her right index finger that honored her recent

graduation from Cal State Fullerton. The gem she picked was a blue

sapphire, Sierra’s birthstone. Under the right lighting, a hologram in

the shape of a star twinkles inside the stone. It’s hard to see the star

most of the time. Maybe only Soto can see her daughter’s favorite shape.

“I miss her more every day,” she said. “I know my daughter would support

what I’m trying to do. She would probably say something like ‘you go,

Mommie.”’

* For more information or to make a donation, contact Sierra’s Light

Foundation, PMB 481, 1048 Irvine Ave., Newport Beach 92660 or call (714)

546-7747.