Ikea may donate furniture to schools

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Ikea is finalizing an agreement to donate furniture to

city schools if the Home Ranch project is approved, company officials

announced Monday.

Don Collins, the project manager for the proposed Costa Mesa Ikea,

confirmed the company is in the process of developing a program to give

the schools gift certificates to use at the Costa Mesa Ikea. Certificates

would range from $6,000 to $8,000 for elementary schools and $10,000 to

$12,000 for the middle and high schools, he said.

“We want to demonstrate that Ikea is a good corporate citizen,”

Collins said.

Although Collins supports the idea, he was not the one who made the

initial announcement.

Home Ranch supporter and parent Bonnie Saryan outlined the proposed

gift to area schools during her four minutes of publiccomment at Monday’s

City Council meeting.

“You mention it in public and then they can’t say no,” she joked.

Seriously, Saryan continued, school officials, parents and Ikea

representatives were working together to put Ikea furniture in local

schools.

Saryan, who has twin daughters at Costa Mesa High School and a son in

college, shared pictures of the Paularino Elementary School library,

which is stocked with Ikea furniture.

The elementary school raised money to buy the furniture, but the same

looks could be achieved for free if the Home Ranch project were approved,

she said.

“What about the schools on the other side of town? They would benefit

so much from a gift like this,” Saryan said.

The mother of three stressed the need for comfortable study

atmospheres, saying students will learn better in a pleasant, clean

atmosphere.

The Home Ranch project would convert about 93 acres of the Segerstrom

family’s lima bean field off the San Diego Freeway into a mix of

single-family homes, office and industrial space, and a flagship Ikea

furniture store.

Opponents to the Home Ranch project have consistently balked at an

earlier $2-million offer to Costa Mesa schools by the Segerstrom family

in return for approval of the project.

The donation is not an incentive for project approval, rather a

demonstration of the company’s commitment to help its surrounding

community, he said.

“It’s something we’re working on, something we plan to do wherever

we’re going to be,” Collins said.

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .