FOR A GOOD CAUSE -- Amelia Stokes

Having just moved from South Africa, Amelia Stokes cannot legally work

in this country. So she gives freely of her time.

Stokes and her family moved to Costa Mesa three months ago on her

husband Stephen’s work visa.

While her husband works and her daughters Taryn, 16, and Sandra, 13,

go to school at Costa Mesa High School, Stokes needed something to fill

her time.

“If you’re not busy, you have no motivation,” Stokes said. “The busier

I am, the better it is.”

The need to keep active and a desire to be around people drove Stokes

to look for volunteer positions in the paper. She quickly found Project

Cuddle, a Costa Mesa-based nonprofit organization.

Project Cuddle, founded in 1990, works to prevent mothers from

abandoning their babies -- many of them unwanted or drug-exposed. It also

offers options for expecting mothers who do not want to raise the child

or are afraid to do it alone.

Although her position does not include the task of cuddling babies --

which some volunteers do -- donating her time as an office assistant has

given Stokes some much-needed direction, she said.

“We’re here to help girls who are pregnant,” she said. “Give them

options other than abortion.”

For a month and a half, Stokes has been going into the office twice a

week for about five hours at a time. She inputs data as it comes in and

organizes and updates computer files.

Stokes said she feels she is a part of something special after reading

a book written by Project Cuddle founder Debbe Magnusen, which serves as

a sort of mission statement for the organization.

“What’s she’s done is quite amazing,” Stokes said.

And helping out at Project Cuddle also helps Stokes.

“More than anything, you don’t want to stagnate,” she said.

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Story by Danette Goulet; photo by Conrad Lau