Golfers try to keep fundraising on course

Jeff Benson

Golfers at Costa Mesa Public Golf Course are chipping in with the

green, not just on the green.

More than 100 golfers attended the first day of the Costa Mesa

Men’s Club’s 33rd-annual Toys “Fore” Fairview golf tournament

Saturday. Their goal was to raise money to save the Fairview

Developmental Center, one of five state-run care facilities that

houses people with developmental disabilities. The center is

next-door to the golf course.

The tournament has already raised $6,500, but tournament

co-director Jill Dincecco said the total amount raised through today

-- the event’s last day -- will most likely fall short of the $12,000

raised last year.

The state has reduced the number of the center’s residents several

times, even threatening to shut the facility down to make room for

more profitable housing complexes, Dincecco said. The money the

tournament raises each year helps the center provide programs, such

as music, that aren’t funded at the state level, she said.

Bob Zedick, a Yorba Linda resident and Men’s Club board member,

has a daughter who lives at Fairview. Most of the residents are

adults who need clothes and educational programs more than they need

toys, he said.

“These are people who need care 24 hours a day and who couldn’t

function without it,” Zedick said. “It’s not easy to have a family

member put there, but sometimes there’s not a lot of choice. That’s

why it’s important that we help them.”

The purpose of the golf tournament, he said, is to bring the

center’s financial struggles to the community’s attention for the

sake of its residents, some who live with genetic disorders such as

Down syndrome.

“Everybody here has got a good heart,” Zedick said. “I don’t hold

anyone responsible for what’s going on there. Awareness is as good as

raising money.”

Oddly enough, there weren’t any toys involved in the Toys “Fore”

Fairview tournament, Dincecco said.

“We were going to name it Friends ‘Fore’ Fairview, but the ‘toys’

name stuck and no one wants to change it,” she said.

Costa Mesa Public Golf Course charged $70 for Saturday’s round on

the Mesa Linda course and will charge $75 for Sunday’s round on the

Los Lagos course. Modest cash prizes are given away to the top

golfers , Dincecco said.

* JEFF BENSON covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at jeff.benson@latimes.com.