Community & Clubs: Teens feel good about service

Julie Clayton, a mother of a Newport Harbor High School water polo player, reported that a number of the boys’ water polo team members took advantage of one of their only breaks from practice this holiday to volunteer their time at the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa. The boys woke up early on a Saturday morning to combine their efforts with those of other volunteers to provide a breakfast for many of the area’s needy.

The boys helped in setting up, cooking, serving, cleaning up and in performing other general maintenance needed to keep the kitchen going. Meals are served daily in the dining room, which provides a nutritious meal to homeless, working poor families, senior citizens, the unemployed or underemployed, the mentally and physically challenged, and most important, the children in the neighboring community.

When the players arrived at the soup kitchen, a need was demonstrated for a paper-cutter to enable the volunteers to ready holiday items for the guests. The Newport water polo volunteers saw to it that this need was met and presented the administrators with a top-of-the-line paper-cutter to replace one that had broken, saving the volunteers time and freeing them up to meet other needs. The efforts of the team were greatly appreciated by all involved. But, as it turns out, those receiving meals were not the only ones who benefited that day. The boys felt great about giving back to those in need and expressed the desire to return the next time their practice schedule allows, Clayton said.

Kaiser OTLB delivers!

In a thank-you email to members of the Out to Lunch Bunch, member Annie Younglove wrote, “Ladies, your amazing generosity made the office staff and principal (Kaiser Elementary School) cry this morning!” The OTLB is a group of moms whose children attended Kaiser starting in the late 1970s and still enjoy meeting once a month for lunch, breakfast or a weekend birthday celebration. The moms are Younglove, Ann Alford, Diana Reed, Judy Geim, Donna Wicks, Toby Yockus, Janice Nimmo and Barbara de Boom. Between them, they had 18 kids attend Kaiser; their kids now have 20 kids of their own. This year, rather than presenting gifts to each other, the OTLB members combined their money and adopted a current Kaiser family to share Christmas with.

“The story on this family is the dad died and the mom was left with debt and no income,” Younglove wrote. “My guess is he was a generous and hardworking father because the mom got expensive perfume every year and the kids had Wii. But when he died, all things stopped! The daughter told the principal, Debbie Granger, the family is going on vacation. So Debbie asked where, and the daughter said, ‘Oh, we are going to Riverside. We are so excited! That’s everyone’s Christmas present!’”

Stated Granger, “I had the distinct privilege of dropping off a carload of gifts at the home of an overwhelmed, teary-eyed and extraordinarily grateful mom this afternoon. With my poor Spanish, I related as best I could that the gifts were from some wonderful Kaiser parents who had ‘graduated’ and now had grown children. Your kindness and generosity are going to make this a magical Christmas for a very deserving family.”

Annual meeting of Costa Mesa Historical Society

The Costa Mesa Historical Society’s Annual Installation Dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at the Captain’s Table, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. This year’s featured speaker will be Michael McEnteggart, public affairs officer with the Battleship Iowa, giving a presentation about the ship and his experiences while serving on board in the 1980s. For more information or to order tickets, call (949) 631-5918 or visit https://www.costamesahistory.org.

Service Club Meetings This Week

TODAY

Noon: The Exchange Club of Corona del Mar meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, 1601 Bayside Drive, Corona del Mar, for a business meeting.

THURSDAY

7 a.m.: The 20-member Costa Mesa Orange Coast Lions Club meets at Mimi’s Café, Newport and Harbor boulevards, Costa Mesa.

Noon: The 45-member Kiwanis Club of Newport Beach/Corona del Mar meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. For more information, visit https://www.newportbeachkiwanis.org.

The 95-member Exchange Club of Newport Harbor meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for a program by Jeff Bolt on the “Orange County Toll Road System.” On Jan. 24, Mike Tabbot will discuss “Working Toward a Stable Climate.” For more information, visit https://www.nhexchange.org.

The 40-member Kiwanis Club of Costa Mesa meets at the Costa Mesa Golf and Country Club, 1701 Golf Course Drive, Costa Mesa. For more information, visit https://www.costamesakiwanis.org.

The 55-member Newport-Irvine Rotary Club meets at the University Club, 801 E. Peltason Drive, Irvine for a presentation by GG Thibault, who will discuss the “World’s Oldest Tree, Bristlecone.” For more information, visit https://www.ni-rotary.org.

5:30 p.m.: The 57-member Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. For more information, visit https://www.newportbalboa.org.

TUESDAY

7:15 a.m.: The 58-member Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Club will meet at the Five Crowns Restaurant, 3801 Pacific Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. For more information, visit https://www.newportbeachsunriserotary.org.

COMMUNITY & CLUBS is published Wednesdays. Send your service club’s meeting information by fax to (714) 921-8655 or by email to jdeboom@aol.com.