Giving what little he had

COSTA MESA — When the man approached Stephanie Chang at her church a few months ago, she thought he was asking her for a handout. He opened his hand to show three coins and said something about a dollar, so she started to head for her car to retrieve one for him. Then he called her back.

She didn’t expect what happened next. The man — a common patron at the Lighthouse in Costa Mesa, where Chang volunteers to feed the poor — held out his hand to Chang and asked, “Will you take one coin to honor me?” She obliged, and the man told her he wanted her to use it to buy food for the kitchen. At first, Chang thought the coin was a quarter, but when she looked closer that night, she realized it was a full dollar.

Over the next few months, that dollar made the rounds. Chang, who placed it in a pink jewelry bag, passed it from one member of her church to another, as each one told others the story of the nearly penniless man who had given up his last full dollar.

For a while, Chang didn’t want to know who the man was — she liked the mystery surrounding the coin. But Saturday, she went ahead and sought him out when the diners arrived at church, and it didn’t take long until she recognized him.

“This is your coin,” she told her benefactor, holding the coin up in its bag with the ribbon on top. “We’ve been taking this coin everywhere. I’ve been sharing this coin with everybody.”

“Oh, I didn’t know,” the man said in amazement.

Within minutes, the mystery donor had a name and a story. Carlos Ramirez, a Costa Mesa resident who once worked at McDonald’s, a factory and a stockroom, had fallen out of work and lost his home in January. He was waiting for cataract surgery — he sported thick glasses to the church Saturday — but said he planned to seek a job after his eyes were fixed.

He had been inspired to give money to the church, he said, because he considered the members like his family. Even though he was down to his last handful of change, he wanted to express his thanks.

“I had about two quarters left,” Ramirez said. “Maybe I had a cup of coffee after that. But I wanted to give the church something, because they are so kind.”

The Lighthouse in Costa Mesa at 1885 Anaheim Ave. offers breakfast Monday through Friday and dinner Saturday afternoon; on Sunday, the church diverts guests to the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen nearby. Pastor Dale Fitch said the church, which recently had to repair part of its roof, is seeking a new building and trying to raise funds to do so.

The homeless feeding program, Fitch said, began a few years ago when he realized how many homeless people lived in the neighborhood and how many attended his church. At one point, he set up a coffee pot outside his office with a sign reading “Free coffee,” then added pastries and other food when he noticed the pot emptying quickly.

The Lighthouse also provides shelter for more than a dozen homeless people, who sleep on the church’s second floor. Fitch said 11 of them have found jobs again since coming to live there.

“Ultimately, our goal is to get people off the street and break the cycle of homelessness,” he said.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.