Marisa O’NeilFive-year-old Sandra Ocaranza stood patiently in...

Marisa O’Neil

Five-year-old Sandra Ocaranza stood patiently in line with other

kindergartners at Pomona Elementary School on Friday, waiting for a

Christmas present from another child she’d never met.

When she got to the front of the line, a plush doll of the lioness

Nala from “The Lion King,” which was half her size, was waiting for

her. She smiled widely and threw her arms around the animal, hugging

it tightly.

The toy was only one of 500 donated by students and parents at

Corona del Mar’s Harbor View Elementary, a school about as different

demographically from Pomona as one can get.

“Newport-Mesa is one of the most diverse [school districts] in the

country,” Pomona student aide Jennifer Zanchez said. “Parts of it are

very, very rich, and this school is very, very poor.”

Harbor View, which sits on a hill surrounded by

multimillion-dollar homes only blocks away from the beach, adopted

Pomona, which is on Costa Mesa’s predominantly Latino Westside, as a

sister school about 10 years ago, Pomona Principal Julie McCormick

said. Since then, Harbor View has donated Thanksgiving food baskets

every year and, for the past two years, given wrapped gifts to every

child at Pomona.

“This is really neat for our kids to know that there are kids out

there who don’t have as much as they do,” said Harbor View Parent

Faculty Organization President Tamie Rus said.

Rus, other Harbor View parents and fifth-grader Madelyn Corso

helped distribute the gifts in Pomona’s multipurpose room on Friday.

Each class lined up, the boys on one side and the girls on the other,

to get the goodies, which were grouped according to appropriateness

for age and gender.

Each child took one gift and then huddled together with

classmates, wondering what was beneath the colorful wrapping paper.

Five-year-old Gwendi Perez, nicknamed “Peanut,” shook her small

present next to her ear.

“What do you think it is?” teacher Jenni Taylor asked.

“Candy?” Gwendi guessed.

“I think maybe it’s a puzzle,” Taylor said.

Juan Carlos Muro, 6, had a very particular idea about what his

package held.

“I think I have cars!” he said with a grin.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.