Fund will aid family of nanny

Lauren Vane

A memorial fund has been created for Olimpia Sastre Ordones, 27, of

Santa Ana, the woman killed while crossing South Coast Highway in a

crosswalk on Oct. 27.

Local families who knew Ordones have set up a fund to collect

donations to care for her family’s financial needs.

Ordones was on her way to Steve and Amii Schenk’s house in Laguna

Beach when she was killed. Steve Schenk said Ordones had been working

as a nanny for their children for only six weeks.

Schenk said the idea for the fund came from all of the families

who knew Ordones.

“I can’t tell you a family that needs help like they do,” Schenk

said.

Schenk recently returned from a visit to Ordones’ family and said

that the children are now in the custody of Ordones’ sister, Yolanda

Zainos, 36, of Santa Ana, who was also injured in the accident.

Schenk said Zainos was released from the hospital Tuesday.

“The sister who was hit in the accident is on her back in bed and

in and out of consciousness,” Schenk said. “She’s just happy to be

alive,” he said.

Schenk said that Zainos’ husband is taking care of his wife, their

own children and Ordones’ children, ages 7 and 2, in a one bedroom

apartment in Santa Ana.

Schenk said Zainos and her husband are the wage earners in the

family and now both are unable to go to work.

“They have custody of the two little ones and they can’t go to

work,” Schenk said.

So far, Schenk said the response to the fund has been amazing.

“We just put the word out on Saturday, and just from Saturday,

we’ve had over 60 or 70 letters in our mailbox,” Schenk said.

Schenk said he even received a donation from two boys who had sent

their allowance.

“The word is only starting to get out there,” said Kari Nies, a

Laguna Beach resident who also employed Ordones as her nanny.

“Our family is devastated,” Nies said. “The whole family is

grieving. There are so many families she worked for.”

Donations can be made to the Olimpia Sastre Ordones Fund, account

number 0097602576, at any Bank of America branch. Schenk said the

bank does not want donations to be mailed to the branch, instead

deliver donations directly to the bank or mail them to:

Steve Schenk, 550 Mountain Road, Laguna Beach, CA 92651. Schenk

said people with questions about donations for the family should call

him at (949) 525-5111.

There was a private memorial service held Wednesday night,

followed by a candlelight vigil at the scene of the accident. “We’re

having the vigil because we want the community to know that she was

someone who was very important to us,” Nies said.