Relief donations total nearly $50,000 in aid

Barbara Diamond

There were no strangers at Bluebird Park Saturday morning. The

homeless, the heartsore and the hospitable met to break bread, to

grieve, to console, to donate clothing and to raise funds for the

sorely tried property owners in the landslide area of Bluebird

Canyon.

Donations of food and $10 were encouraged. It’s estimated the

breakfast raised about $25,000. About $16,000 of that came from

T-shirts donated by 13-year-old Jackson Christy, whose father Mark

owns Hobie. The donation is his mitzvah -- the good deed required for

bar mitzvah, which he will celebrate this year.

Hobie’s printers Sundance Graphics worked overtime to get the

T-shirts printed in time for the breakfast. The shirts feature the

Phoenix-like proclamation “Bluebird Canyon Shall Rise.” A Laguna pop

quiz is printed on the back, asking “Which disasters can we

overcome?” and “Would you consider living elsewhere?”

Clay and Kimberly Leeds, whose roots are deep in Laguna soil even

if their rental home no longer is, had given up hope of buying a home

in Laguna and had decided to move out of town. The landslide that

left their residence and her mother’s home uninhabitable changed

their minds. Said Kimberly, “We can’t leave Laguna in its time of

need.”

Haley Stevens had dashed out of her sliding home barefoot into a

bed of thorns. The Stevens’ home is cracked in half, but its owners

discovered their belongings were intact during a 20-minute review

with an escort.

“The fish was still swimming in his bowl,” Diane Stevens said.

“Breakfast was still on the table, and not a glass was broken.”

The family hopes to rebuild.

James Gustafson and James Moore desperately want to stay in Laguna

Beach. “We love it; we called our home Bluebird Haven, but I guess

we’ll have to take the sign down now,” Gustafson said.

The two men are staying temporarily with Patricia Twitty, who is

trying to find free, long-term housing for them. “They still have a

mortgage to pay,” Twitty said. “They are not millionaires.”

Andy Ellison was organizing a fundraising concert to help folk

like Gustafson and Moore.

Freidenrich said he began planning the breakfast moments after he

heard the disaster announced on radio as he was driving to work

Wednesday morning.

“At five minutes to eight Thursday morning, I sent out my first

e-mail blast,” Freidenrich said.

Responses came fast and furious. Boy Scout Troop Master John

Robinson credited Scout Bryan Barwick with arranging for supplies and

setting up about 30 feet of tables on either side of the park. Kathy

Wyatt called on Albertson’s market, which gave generously and

delivered the goods. Rick Weiers, one of the city’s park maintenance

crew assigned to Bluebird Park, arrived at 6 a.m. to open the

restrooms and put out extra trash cans.

Debi Cortez, executive director of the Laguna Beach Relief and

Resource Center and South County Bank executive Anne Morris collected

donations.

Elijah Cassard’s Community Learning Center class raised about $200

from the sale of “One Peace at a Time,” CDs that they wrote, recorded

and first sold last year to raise funds for an orphanage.

“There are so many people to thank,” Freidenrich said. “Everyone

pitched in. I just got the ball rolling.”

Besides laying their lives on the line, the Laguna firefighters

donated $1,000 to the relief fund. Patrick Brenan was on the first

engine into the slide area, with Andrew Hill and Chris Kent.

“I got cut off at the top, but I could see a house moving down the

hill and [Battalion Chief] Jeff LaTendresse and [Motor Officer] Bobby

Van Gorder scrambling up the hill,” Brennan said. “We were all

yelling for them to come back down, but they just kept on going.”

They saved the lives of two people.

SECOND WIND

About 400 people showed up Saturday night for the Island Party at

the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club, which had been planned in April to

raise funds for the Relief and Resource Center. Before the landslide,

there had already been 130 tickets sold. Subsequent ticket sales and

donations will be earmarked for the Laguna Relief Fund by the

coalition, which was founded in 1993 to help cope with the aftermath

of the firestorm and has continued to operate.

The $1,000 donors included Athens Group, the Exchange Club of

Laguna Beach, Steve and Jill Edwards, Hearts of Montage, Peppertree

Lane, Jim Sauls, Village Laguna, the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club,

Young’s Market, which also donated the wine for the fundraiser, the

Laguna Board of Realtors, and affiliates and architect Morris

Skenderian.

Patrick Quilter donated $4,000. The Quilter family bought a $500

table, as did Ed Sauls.

Donors of $200: Glori Fickling, Byron and Donna Bean, Don Beaver,

Johan and Shari Beckett, Jim and Judy Bergman, Don and Joan Trivett

Black, Lorna Cohen, Councilwoman Jane Egly, Mindy Via Gedgaudas,

Stuart Wilson, Woman’s Club President Peggy Ford, board members Lee

Winocur Field and Anne Wood and club members Skipper Lynn and Bev

Hine.

Culinary Arts catered the food and handled the extra load of

guests without a whimper. Chef Susan Irby was in charge.

Miss Linda of Miss Linda’s Dance Castle coaxed almost 60 guests

onto the dance floor to learn to hula. No Square Theatre and

Lagunatics performers and Head Band entertained.

Marcia Bode, a former resource center director, estimated that

when it’s all counted, proceeds from the fundraiser will total about

$25,000 -- almost $21,000 from ticket sales, she said.

The resource center is on Stan’s Lane behind Kubisek’s Antiques,

but the address is 3305 Laguna Canyon Road. The center is not listed

in the telephone directory.

To offer long-term, free or cheap housing or other donations,

e-mail www.lagunarelief.com or call (494) 497-7121. The center is open 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday. Landslide victims may call

for assistance or referrals for psychological support. Monetary

donations to the Laguna Relief Fund may be mailed or dropped off at

South County Bank, 540 S. Coast Highway. For more information, call

(949) 464-2800.