18 to Get Humanitarian Awards

When Jaime Gomez interned with the Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Service in 1985, he wrote a proposal to get federal funding for a shelter for homeless families. He never imagined that the funding would come through, let alone that he would be the on-site manager 3 years later.

Gomez, 34, works as counselor, handyman and peacekeeper at the New Vista Shelter in Fullerton, where homeless families may live for 2 months while they save money for permanent housing. Since opening in 1986, 85 families have been housed at the shelter.

“One type of family that comes in here is the one that fell on hard times about 4 or 5 years ago. They put all of their stuff in storage and live in motels,” Gomez said. “Then they can’t save enough for rent, and they can’t get out of that cycle. The break just hasn’t been there for them.”

Because of his dedication to providing that break for homeless families, Gomez is among the 18 people who are being recognized this year by the Orange County Human Relations Commission for their humanitarian work. This is the 18th year that the commission has recognized people in the community.

Other honorees to be recognized at Sunday’s ceremony at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Center are:

Harriet Tyler, a longtime leader of the Orange County black community who has been involved in community service since 1946.

She was a charter member of the local NAACP chapter, and in 1969 founded Interested Citizens of Santa Ana, a volunteer group that sponsors programs for black seniors and youths.

Over the last 20 years, Interested Citizens initiated the hot lunch program for senior citizens at the Jerome Center in Santa Ana and since 1970 has presented five to six college scholarships a year at its annual Beautillion, a male version of a cotillion.

Tyler, who lives in Orange, has served on the Black Studies Commission at Rancho Santiago College for 12 years and works with the Black Cultural Council at Bowers Museum.

“I am not satisfied unless I am into something,” Tyler said. “One of my goals is to open an Afro-American museum in Orange County. That has been in the back of my mind for a few years.”

Sandra Anderson, executive director of the California Assn. of Bilingual Education, is accepting an award for a team effort by the 20-member Laguna Beach Cross-Cultural Relations Task Force, of which she is chair. The group works to improve communications between the Spanish- and English-speaking communities in Laguna Beach.

The task force was formed in 1987 to help the city deal with Latino day workers and promote a better understanding of their contributions to the community.

“I saw we had a real need to deal with this social isolation in the community,” Anderson said.

Anderson, 43, and a resident of Laguna Beach, said the committee recently completed an orientation booklet for new residents that contains information in both Spanish and English on the services available in the city.

Lenore Durazo spearheaded a program in 1983 at St. Norbert Catholic Church in Orange to provide food distribution and job referrals to the Latino community every Saturday.

And in 1987, Durazo, 53, became the coordinator of the amnesty program at St. Norbert, which has assisted Latinos in filing for permanent residence status.

Durazo says she sees a tremendous need to help the Latino immigrant population.

“Education is very important for them. I find we have a great need for that,” Durazo said. “If they are able to learn to speak English, it will help them find better jobs. These people live from paycheck to paycheck, and most of that goes to rent.”

Dennis Jefcoat says he may be a one-of-a-kind police officer in California. Five months ago, he was assigned by the Costa Mesa Police Department to respond to complaints about contractors hiring day workers and not paying.

Since he started the job, there have been 52 complaints. Fifty have resulted in the workers being paid, one has resulted in an arrest and the other is still being investigated.

“The word has gotten out that you can’t hire these people for several hours or days and drop them off and not pay them,” Jefcoat said.

Jefcoat, 41, of Riverside said the reaction of employers is “deep shock” when they are confronted because they have been able to get away with not paying the workers for so long.

“I would like to see this type of program expanded statewide,” Jefcoat said. “This underground economy hurts everyone. For example, if there are three contractors going out for the same bid, you might have one be the low bidder because they have no intention to pay their workers. Then the legitimate contractors don’t get the contracts, and then they have to let workers go.”

Father Jaime Soto has worked through Catholic Charities and the Orange County Coalition of Immigrant Rights to aid the local Latino community through the amnesty program.

Recently named the county’s vicar of the Latino community, Soto, 33, will oversee the issues affecting the more than 300,000 Latino Catholics in Orange County.

Soto, who lives at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Santa Ana, sees a need to promote the rights of immigrants.

“I am concerned that people have the idea that amnesty has solved everything,” Soto said. “I think these people come here to work . . . and I think there is room for them with us. I hope and pray that more people will share this vision.”

Hyeon Sang Lim, 70, is an active member and past president of Elderly Korean-Americans of Orange County.

He has worked to “narrow the gap between Korean seniors and American seniors.” He led efforts to start an English class for Korean senior citizens and has hosted Korean events for American senior citizens.

Lim lives in Orange and has been in the United States for 7 years.

Fran Marabou Williams is being honored for her work on two social issues--child services and race relations.

Williams, the mother of two, is also the foster parent of a teen-age boy and has worked with the State Foster Parents Assn. and the Children’s Home Society to promote better child care.

Through her business, Marabou Consultants, Williams conducts workshops and seminars for companies and organizations on race relations.

“The issue of race has been more overt and intense recently, with groups doing more separating than coming together,” Williams said.

Williams, 45, of Santa Ana has been teaching in the Rancho Santiago College human development department for 8 years and has served on the Governor’s Committee on Ethnic Change and the Black Business Alliance.

Les Guffey, president of Temple Beth David and a 25-year resident of Westminster, saw the need to unite different cultural and ethnic groups last year.

“Earlier in the year, there was a cross-burning in the area and there were some incidents with graffiti attacking different groups,” Guffey said. “At the time, there was a lot of tension in Westminster.”

To ease that tension, Guffey, 43, formed a neighborhood network that last November organized Harmony Festival ‘88, an event that included food booths, music and dancing reflecting the many different cultures in the city.

“The purpose of the Harmony Festival was to bring the community together to show that they can share their different cultures,” Guffey said.

Because of the festival’s success, another will be held Nov. 27 at the Westminster City Hall mall.

Joycelyn Dixon, a Costa Mesa artist, has worked for 3 years in the Artist in the School and Special Studio programs for the Santa Ana Unified School District.

Dixon, 38, along with fellow artist Helen Seigel, goes throughout the 25 elementary schools in Santa Ana, teaching art to students and showing teachers how to continue the art projects she establishes.

In the Special Studio program, Dixon goes to six different schools annually and selects 15 to 20 students from each and works with them for 20 weeks. At the end of the 20 weeks, the students hold an exhibit of their work. Dixon says the program is helpful for children with learning problems who might be visual learners and helps get around language barriers with the different ethnic groups in the community.

“I tell the students that they can tell stories through art,” Dixon said. “They use their minds to visualize and convey stories and messages. It is like another language. That is why I think it’s so important.”

Dixon said she would like to see the program expanded so that it can reach more students and teachers.

Not one to look away from a problem, Sylvia Easton has worked for more than 2 years with the Irvine Task Force for the Homeless in an effort to help the growing homeless population in Irvine.

The task force currently is housing 77 people, 30 of whom are children, in 10 apartments and two houses that have been donated. The task force helps each family save enough money for rent and aids them in any way they can “to help them get back on their feet.”

Despite the task force’s work, Easton said the growing problem is too much for the private sector to fight alone.

“I would like to see massive government intervention. I would like to see them fully realize the situation,” Easton said. “They need to know that the private sector can’t do it alone. People give meals around Thanksgiving and Christmas time to the homeless, and they think that’s enough. It doesn’t even scratch the surface.”

After Ron Mincer suffered a broken neck in a car accident 24 years ago, he noticed the lack of accessibility and acceptance for the disabled.

For 18 years, Mincer, 52, has fought to improve architectural access to buildings and has worked with the California Paralyzed Veterans Assn. and the California State Department of Rehabilitation. He is also a volunteer with the Junior Disabled Learn to Fish Program, which takes about 800 disabled children on fishing trips each year.

Along with accessibility, Mincer, a resident of San Juan Capistrano, said the disabled need better health care and more education.

“When the disabled seek employment, they don’t get hired as quickly as others,” Mincer said. “They need a bachelor’s degree and sometimes a master’s. In other words, they have to be above average.”

Since Bob Gentry was elected mayor of Laguna Beach in 1982, he has worked on such issues as the homeless, human rights and the environment.

As the first openly gay elected official in Orange County, Gentry, 50, pushed for the first ordinance of its kind making it illegal to discriminate against people with AIDS or those who have tested positive for the HIV virus. The city also started a program to open shelters for the homeless when the temperature goes below 40 degrees.

“The issues that are most important to me are those that affect the environment and rights violations,” Gentry said. “I see these as being tied together under the umbrella of quality of life in Orange County.”

To combat the AIDS epidemic, Gentry said more physicians and facilities are needed to treat AIDS patients. To promote better awareness, Gentry said more education is needed to end “society’s myths” about the gay and lesbian community.

Because of her love for children, Laurie Prins opens her door to about 15 elementary school-age children a day after coming home from her part-time teaching job. “I try to provide a learning atmosphere for these kids,” Prins said. “The big thing is giving them opportunities. You would not believe how many kids I taught to swim last year. My goal is to help them be successful, to help them feel good about themselves.”

At her home in Fullerton, Prins, 33, provides such services as tutoring children of low-income families. She gives out food and clothing and anything else she receives that has been donated.

Prins said she hopes that providing children with high self-esteem will keep them away from gang activity.

After the controversial shooting of Frank Martinez by Westminster police on July 15, Rodney Burge saw a need to ease the tension between the Latino community and the police.

He organized Manos Unidas, a community organization that raised money to help the Martinez family. Since then, Manos Unidas (united hands) has worked on voter registration drives, established scholarship funds and launched an anti-graffiti program.

Burge, 30, said his main concern is that the police not view all Latinos as gang members. Manos Unidas is trying to set up a meeting with the Westminster police chief to discuss ideas on restoring the respect of the Police Department in the Latino community.

“We want to bring the community back the way it was in the ‘50s and ‘60s--close-knit,” Burge said. “We would like to have a police liaison, so we can know the police that work in the area. I agree that police should do what they can to subdue violent people. But we would like them to approach people with a more friendly attitude on routine patrols.”

Ignacio Salgado, 23, is an outspoken advocate for the rights of day laborers regarding wages and housing. Salgado, of Santa Ana, has worked with law enforcement and the Fair Housing Council on dealing with day-labor problems and has spoken before the state Labor Commission on the problem of day workers having to go without pay.

Jonathan Ruiz, 17, was one of the students who formed the Rainbow Coalition of El Modena High School to plan activities to bring different ethnic groups together and to provide an a open dialogue among the groups. Ruiz lives in Santa Ana.

Frances Munoz, 58, a Municipal Court judge and a member of the board of the Hispanic Development Council of United Way, is being honored for her work with the amnesty program.

With her help, more than 400 cases were filed with the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the first phase of the amnesty program. Munoz lives in Corona del Mar.

A special award will be given to Pacific Bell for its help over the past 10 years to the Minority Business Council, AIDS Discrimination Posters, Youth Expo, Hispanic Dropout Report and the YWCA Hotel for Homeless Women. Reed Royalty, area vice president, will accept the award on behalf of Pacific Bell.