Winning one for children

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Four big community players have joined forces to form an

unbeatable team. Their game? Helping struggling teens.

With five months left in the school year, Costa Mesa High School has

seventh- and eighth-grade students who are in danger of not moving on to

the next grade with their classmates.

So the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and school administrators

are passing them next door to the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant,

which is wide open and looking for a way to help the community.

Volunteers in the church get the students after school.

They help them with their homework. They teach them to improve their

study habits. They act as mentors.

But they are not alone. The Central Coast YMCA in Newport Beach backs

them up with funding from the United Way and staffing.

Also in for an assist is the Orange County Community Congregation

Organization, which is always looking for ways to help students score

good grades.

Although they began to form this team more than a year ago, their

season began in February, when the tutoring got underway.

Since then, they have been scoring points with more than 30 regular

participants in the Youth Achievers after-school enrichment program.

One of their star pupils is Tony Saulinier, 15, a special-day student

in the eighth grade who said the program has helped him focus and reach

his goal each day of successfully completing his assignments.

“It helps me a lot,” he said. “So I can get done and have free time to

play and do stuff with my friends.”

His mother’s fifth child, Tony said he has seen many obstacles and has

finally found a team that he and his adoptive mother, Kathy Saulinier,

are proud to be a part of.

Members of the team came together Monday to celebrate their continuing

success.

“I’m just thrilled there is a place where students can go and get the

guidance, both academically and spiritually, which they need,” said Diana

Carey, principal of Costa Mesa High School.

The team also heard support and pep talks from Costa Mesa Mayor Libby

Cowan, district Supt. Robert Barbot, Pastor Tim McCalmont of the Church

of the Covenant, and others.