Annual Brooks Street party is full of heart and memories

Brooks Street residents threw a birthday party Saturday threaded with equal parts celebration and remembrance.

By 10:30 a.m., a section of the Laguna Beach street turned into a gathering place for about 200 neighbors, many dressed in red, white and blue garb, to catch up with one another and honor the country’s 239th anniversary of independence from British rule. They also recognized the sacrifices made by U.S. military veterans.

Residents watched as Eric Jensen, a retired U.S. Navy pilot who flew combat missions in Vietnam, raised the American flag in his frontyard and then listened as 21-year-old Aliso Viejo resident Ricky Moczygemba played taps.

Resident Howard Hills started the event in the mid 2000s, and neighbors, including Steve Cohn and wife Jacqui, volunteered to organize each year’s festivities when Hills moved in 2008.

The event took on added meaning in 2008, when Mark Metherell, a former Navy Seal and Brooks Street resident, was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.

Metherell, a 39-year-old husband and father, was on assignment as a military contractor when the bomb exploded, the Orange County Register reported at the time.

Hills was Metherell’s neighbor. Metherell mentored Hills’ daughters when they were growing up, he said.

“Mark was a man of few words, but when he spoke, his words were enduring,” Hills said while standing on the steps at Brooks Street. “He was a man of unlimited courage and indomitable faith. He once told me, ‘I wouldn’t be doing this [serving as a Navy Seal] if I was afraid of what might happen to me.’

“He lived his faith, lived the truth.”

On Saturday, people took to the ocean for the annual paddle-out in honor of Metherell before a barbecue and potluck at Jensen’s house.

Jensen’s wife, Jo, said she appreciates days like the Fourth that draw neighbors together, but said the camaraderie represents the everyday character of Brooks Street.

She commended neighbors who took care of the couple’s house in early 2014, when Eric was hospitalized with a staph infection.

When Eric was released, neighbors told Jo they would have dinner with him and otherwise help, if needed, so she could fly to England to celebrate her mother’s 90th birthday.

“I’ve never known a community like this one,” Jo said. “The friendliness, support. Everyone is there for everybody else.”