Countywide : Orangewood Says So Long to ‘Chief’

There’s nothing John Poynter can do about the parade of black eyes. Nor can he mend the tiny arms fractured by abusive parents.

But in his own unique way, the chief cook at Orangewood Children’s Home has touched the lives of countless hundreds of children in Orange County. Simply put, he bakes each child a cake on his or her birthday.

Poynter, 67, is retiring July 31, ending a 10-year career at the home for abused and neglected children in Orange. On Thursday, the employees and children of Orangewood threw a tearful, surprise farewell for the man known to many simply as “Chief.�

“I try to do something for the kids,� Poynter said. “Some of them have never even seen a birthday cake before. It gives them a lift, but it gives me a lift too.�

Poynter’s cakes are legendary. If a child likes cowboys, he transforms colored icings into a scene on the range with horses circling a corral.

He has fulfilled countless requests for Ninja Turtles and Morphin Power Rangers. He even uses an airbrush for more intricate designs.

The cakes give kids who have been physically abused or neglected a rare occasion to celebrate.

Katheren Dickinson, 22, who spent three months at Orangewood when she was 16, said Poynter’s cakes bring back fond memories.

“It was a time for people to be recognized on their birthday,� she said. “There was a lot of sharing that went on.�

Poynter says he first came up with the idea for making the cakes 20 years ago when he worked at a children’s home in El Monte.

“I saw the cakes that they were buying and I figured I could make a better cake than that,� said the gravel-voiced former Navy chief petty officer.

Members of Poynter’s staff had nothing but praise for their retiring supervisor. They recounted the time that a gangly, wide-eyed teen-ager standing in the cafeteria line told Poynter he liked his flight jacket.

Poynter removed the jacket and draped it over the boy’s shoulders. He later told his co-workers that he could always buy another jacket.

“He goes out of his way to do things for the kids,� said Jodie Harris, 62, who helps prepare meals for children on special diets. “He’s like family. We’re sure going to miss him.�