Save our Youth donor steps forward

COSTA MESA ? He arrived last Friday at the Save Our Youth center, short and bespectacled and talking in a thin, scratchy voice.

The mysterious speaker has been a constant presence on the Westside for 12 years, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the center. Few, however, could pick out his face or name. To nearly all the program’s students he helped scrape together funds to become the first in their families to attend college, he was known simply as the anonymous donor.

Then, on Friday, at Save Our Youth’s annual scholarship banquet at Rea Elementary School, the anonymous donor revealed himself. True to form, he spoke softly and sat down quickly.

“When we started this program in 1994, we thought all we needed was money, and we’d have a big success,” the mystery man told the crowd. “I’m not knocking money ? it’s very important. But we also needed students and staff who were very dedicated.”

So after a dozen years and countless lives changed, the benefactor of Save Our Youth turned out to be David Gelbaum, who made headlines two years ago when he was revealed as the donor of $20 million to the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, not to mention a leading land conservationist. In late 1994, Gelbaum approached Save Our Youth, which had opened the year before to stem gang violence in Costa Mesa, with a proposition: He would award money to students at the center every two weeks, with the amount depending on grades and other factors. Then, when students graduated from high school, they would get a college scholarship equal to all the money they had earned previously.

Over the years, that amount has risen into six digits. When Gelbaum finally visited Save Our Youth on Friday, he came on a particularly stellar night: the amount of scholarship money given, topping $35,000, was the highest for a single year in the center’s history.

Gelbaum gave a brief speech to the crowd at the start of the evening, first speaking in Spanish and then in English. After his remarks, delivered in a hoarse near-whisper, the crowd in the Rea multipurpose room gave him a standing ovation.

“On behalf of Save Our Youth, Mr. Gelbaum, we are eternally grateful,” executive director Trevor Murphy said. “Because of your generosity, we have sent so many kids through secondary school and to college who might not have had the opportunity.”

Gelbaum’s role as the Save Our Youth benefactor has already been known ? or suspected ? by a few in recent years.

In October 2004, a Los Angeles Times article about Gelbaum revealed him as the donor of $20 million to Orange County schools. When a former Newport-Mesa principal heard about the pending story, he told the Daily Pilot that Gelbaum and his wife, Monica, had given the funds anonymously to the district.

The Daily Pilot’s resulting article mentioned that Gelbaum had given money to Save Our Youth, though it did not specify the nature of the contribution. Last June, the Newport-Mesa seniors who graduated from Save Our Youth learned about their donor’s identity ? at least, enough to thank “Mr. Gelbaum” in their farewell letters upon leaving the program.

Still, Murphy and board member Jean Forbath said that most people in the Rea multipurpose room had no idea who their supporter was until he took the stage.

“He’s my idea of a real philanthropist, who gives from the heart and doesn’t look for recognition,” Forbath said. “There’s no plaques on the wall, no buildings named after him. He really knows what philanthropy is.”

Gelbaum, 57, a Newport Beach resident and UC Irvine graduate, made millions on Wall Street by regulating hedge funds to protect companies from financial loss. Over the last decade and a half, he has donated to children’s charities and helped to conserve more than 1,000 square miles of California wilderness.

His shyness is as famous as his generosity. Although Murphy invited him to Save Our Youth’s scholarship banquet both this year and the last, he didn’t know until the last minute Friday if Gelbaum was going to show up. For that matter, he didn’t even know what Gelbaum looked like.

“I don’t think he’s ever spoken in public to any organization he’s benefited,” Murphy said.

He and Forbath said they hoped the once-anonymous donor would remain a familiar figure at Save Our Youth events. Forbath added, however, that she didn’t consider it likely.

“We’d love to have him more visible,” she said. “But that’s not his personality, I think.”