THE LAST WORD:Kind hearts beat in Newport-Mesa

When it seems that war and terrorism and campus shootings and scandal are winning the day, along come a few kids and a good neighbor who prove that the human spirit is still noble and kind and caring and alive and well in Newport-Mesa.

Take Nico Coetzee for example. The owner of the Met-Rx Gym in Costa Mesa started a charity fund for the widowed wife and now fatherless 2-month-old daughter of Eduardo Rodriguez, a car wash manager who was killed in an accident last week.

Three Newport Heights Elementary third-graders — Jojo Stassel, Claire Olmstead and Olivia Zehnder — made a pact in 2005, when their young friend, 5-year-old John Taggert, died of a disease. The pact was that they would donate their hair to Locks of Love, a group that creates hairpieces for children who suffer from a medically induced hair loss.

Finally, we have teens Leila Pozin and her friend Charlotte Gadbois, who have organized a soccer tournament and fundraiser called Kids Helping Kids. The event, to be held today at Sage Hill School, has already raised $18,000 toward finding a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Yes, just when it seems the world is without hope, leave it to those from Newport-Mesa to change all of that.