Showing that someone cares

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA - With a full plate in front of him, Bill Merrill exuded

kindness and holiday cheer.

He paused, a bite of turkey speared on the end of his plastic fork.

“See that lady over there,” he asked. “She’s an angel -- that’s Linda.

There are a lot of people here like that. They are the most giving, nice

people in the world.”

Merrill, 78, is a regular at the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa

Mesa, which served nearly 1,000 Thanksgiving meals on Thursday and gave

each patron a bag of groceries to tide them over for a little while.

With no family nearby, it was an obvious choice for Merrill to get a

hot, delicious meal at what has been one of his favorite haunts since

moving to Costa Mesa a year ago.

Merrill hails the soup kitchen as “the best restaurant on the street,”

but it is not the food as much as the customers and volunteers that make

the place special to him.

“The clientele are very interesting people, all with different

experiences and life stories,” said Merrill, giving a nod at various

diners and relating vital information on each. “I find them delightful

and kind, but they have troubles because many are living below the

poverty level.”

But for each patron Merrill could identify Thursday, there were two he

could not. And for each volunteer he knew, there were seven he had never

seen.

Not an uncommon occurrence on a holiday, said George Neureuther,

development director for the soup kitchen.

Holidays such as Thanksgiving triple the number of people that come in

to eat, Neureuther said. Many are the working poor, who can not make it

during the soup kitchen’s daytime hours.

The number of volunteers goes through the roof, he said.

“I wish the support was there the other 362 days of the year,”

Neureuther said. “We have over 80 volunteers here -- on a normal day

we’re lucky if we get 10.”

Some of Thursday’s volunteers came a long way to heat up stuffing and

serve mashed potatoes and gravy.

The cheerleading squad from the University of Notre Dame, who are in

town for a football game at the University of Southern California on

Saturday, spent several hours serving food, cleaning dishes and greeting

guests.

“I haven’t been home [for Thanksgiving] in eight years,” cheerleading

coach Jonette Minton said. “We always go to a shelter or soup kitchen.”

At every away game and event the squad attends, Minton takes students

into the community to volunteer.

“I started taking the students into the community to interact so we

could bring Notre Dame into the communities that might not come to Notre

Dame,” she said. “But I also do it so students can get a life lesson and

listen and share and hear their stories.”

And it is that same diversity that Merrill cherishes, that makes

students enjoy their time at the soup kitchen too.

“I love it,” said cheerleader Dan Fremer, 22. “It’s a good chance to

interact and a time people can be freed from their problems.”