Straight from the heart

Newport Coast Cares came into existence two years ago when residents

Laura Giffin and Brigitte Tehranchi decided they wanted to help

children. Together, they came up fund-raising ideas and a beneficiary

called Corazon de Vida, an orphanage in Mexico.

The two are working with other volunteers now to create the third

annual Newport Coast Cares Halloween Carnival that takes place in the

parking lot of the Pavilions Shopping Center off Newport Coast Drive

and San Joaquin Hills Road.

City Editor James Meier met Giffin at the Pavilions shortly after

she took her picture at the Fiore flower shop in the center that also

helps the group out. They discussed Newport Coast Cares and orphanage

that has received about $75,000 since the group’s inception two years

ago.

How did Newport Coast Cares come about?

It was the brainchild of my friend Brigitte Tehranchi. She and I

decided together about three years ago to throw a local benefit to

help a cause, but weren’t sure which cause to help.

Really feeling that the community is so fortunate here and that

there’s so much extra wealth and that we’re all so very lucky, we

were just sitting at the pool one day and both of us were saying we

could pinch ourselves that we had so much to be thankful for.

So we decided to throw a Halloween party. Our initial goal was to

have 100 people come and pay $5 each and we could give a whopping

$500 to some charity. We thought that would be super. We also thought

we’d ask for some extra clothes to donate.

So that was our first vision three years ago. Both of us are

stay-at-home moms right now who used to work. I used to work in

advertising, selling advertising, all the way until I got married and

had kids.

We’re both committed to staying at home right now with our young

children, but at the same time, we’ve got some extra time to put

toward it, so that’s why we’re doing it. We’re not making any money

personally.

How did you come up with the beneficiary?

I had a friend, Karen Miller, who was a hired baby sitter that I

used a couple of years ago and the baby-sitting job developed into a

very close friendship. She is one of the many volunteers who go down

on a once a month bus trip to play with the orphans [in Mexico].

She was telling me about the work she does. I heard about it and I

resisted getting involved because I thought it would have to be

depressing. I said, “I don’t know how you do it, Karen, but why don’t

you take these clothes next time and give them to some of the kids.”

What I started finding out was that she would come back with

pictures of these children wearing Jake’s and Kyle’s old shirts with

a big smile on their face so glad to have something cool and new. I

started noticing that there’s an instant gratification to this work,

that the goods got to the people who needed them and that the kids

were really cute. They’re not just depressing hard luck cases.

They’re really important, special little treasures.

They’re being provided for. They have a good roof over their heads

and square meals. They have all the potential that had when I was a

little child and I would like to help just nurture them along.

When did planning begin on the first Halloween Carnival?

We were planning to do it at the Coastal Canyon clubhouse and they

have a strict policy that you can’t rent it out for fund-raising,

which is fair. We belong to the clubhouse because we live in the area

and a lot of people do, too. They felt that if everyone brought all

of their fund-raisers to it, it would be booked up all the time.

So Brigitte and I thought we could do this and it wasn’t really a

fund-raiser. We were hoping to get $500 and some gifts. And we had

some conversations with the people at the clubhouse and we thought we

could do it legitimately, though that’s not the intent of that

clubhouse.

What happened was, a week before the event, we got the plug

pulled. So at the last minute, we moved it to Newport Coast

Elementary School’s multipurpose room across the street. They were

nice enough to let us go there. So that began the first. It was full

of challenges because of the move.

When did planning begin for the group’s Halloween Carnival?

We’re almost constantly planning from one event to the next. We

finished the spring carnival and those of us who are involved have

regular conversations. We had our first actual official meeting

[Thursday night] with most of the chair people and we sat down and

really got specific. From this point up until the event [1 to 7 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 25], it’ll be in high gear.

There’s also going to be a mobile haunted house in the parking lot

on that Friday through Sunday. A company called Bloodline Productions

is going to donate that for us. It’ll be open for three days and

tickets will be $5. We’re looking for someone who wants to be the

sponsor of that. That would be about a $2,000 sponsorship.

Are there any other events on the way?

Here’s what we want to do. We’ve realized that this is really

growing bigger than we first had imagined. We realized that the

community here is so astonishingly generous that all we have to do is

take a leading role and people will help us. We’re just stunned at

how much this has grown and how many people want to serve and help

and do good for no other reason than to help other people.

So, with that, we would like to take Newport Coast Cares and, by

the middle part of next year, go through the proper procedures to

become incorporated into a nonprofit. Right now, that’s our name, but

we don’t have a bank account or any of that status. We don’t really

need one....

[But] Once we do that, we’d like to become more of our own entity

and we would like to continue to support Corazon de Vida with these

carnivals twice a year, forever. Our hearts are very attached to the

children there and we know the work is good and that the money goes

where it needs to go. I could never see us cutting them off as the

signature event.

But when we get this nonprofit set up, where we’re running as a

fully functional entity, we’re thinking we’ll be open to doing other

local charities throughout the year. We’re thinking if other people

join Newport Coast Cares and have a strong desire to help, for

example, hearing-impaired children in Costa Mesa or something, that

we’re already set up and can do that. We could set up other

fund-raisers to support those particular causes.

We’re especially geared toward children’s causes and a lot of us

are stay-at-home moms who are feeling like we’re really benefiting

from teaching our children that you have to give back. So our kids

are very involved in this work.

That’s another part of Newport Coast Cares is that, as much as

possible, I’ve taken my kids to Mexico and they attend the carnival

and see the pictures of the orphans and understand why we’re doing

this. So we try to give them that good example.

How is the money used at Corazon de Vida?

Well, it takes about $5,000 a month to run an orphanage of 100

children. It’s not much. So when we pull in $25,000, that feeds 100

children for five months. Not just food, but all their utilities and

all their needs.

The best way to feed them there is with cash purchases at the

[warehouse stores] down in Mexico. People think they can give you all

of their old cans of pumpkin pie filling and that’s going to feed all

of these orphans, but when you have 100 children sitting down at the

same time for a meal, it has to be a mass quantity of the same stuff.

So the director of Corazon de Vida oversees that cash being spent

to purchase food down there in bulk and then it’s delivered.

Any final thoughts?

These are just little treasured people who deserve better. They

need someone to look out for them. I feel like in some small ways

that this actually pays off.

If anyone is reading about this and feels like this is something

they want to get involved in, we are really interested in corporate

underwriting, especially corporations or foundations that would like

to have their names on this event. We’re looking for that. We’d love

for, let’s just say, someone to give $5,000 cash. That would really

help us. Not to grovel too much, but if someone’s out there and

they’ve got that burning in their pocket, we’d love to hear from

them.

We’d also love to hear from volunteer.