Kindness of strangers

For 20 years, Sally Nava Kanarek has given a boost to strangers in need.

This winter, she needed a little boost herself.

Kanarek’s organization, Parent Help USA, runs a Toys for Tots drive every holiday season for disadvantaged families around Orange County. Since the group is nonprofit, it operates the drive out of donated office space. The last three years, Kanarek used the Daily Pilot office on 17th Street in Costa Mesa, but the building was razed this fall.

A week ago, with the toy delivery date fast approaching, Kanarek asked community groups to offer facilities. By Monday afternoon, three had responded. The Toys for Tots drive this month will be based all around town. As a result, it will show off Newport-Mesa’s support for its neediest residents.

“Sometimes people don’t realize that passing out toys is just a vehicle for letting families know that people care about them,” Kanarek said.

The three centers for the Parent Help drive this year will be the Youth Employment Service in Costa Mesa and a pair of Newport Beach locations: Nancy Clark and Associates, a charity group for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, and the offices of Seaside Realty.

Kathy DuVernet, the executive director of the Youth Employment Service, said she was moved to donate space to Kanarek’s drive when one of her board members alerted her to the problem. She has given space in the past for nonprofit groups to hold meetings but had never housed a charity drive before.

“I thought, my gosh, we have space,” DuVernet said. “There couldn’t be a better use for it.”

Most of the toys given to Parent Help will stay in DuVernet’s offices until volunteers distribute them to houses. Clark’s headquarters will store household goods and clothing, and the real estate office will host the Adopt a Family program, in which corporations and other groups take care of a family over the holidays.

After Toys for Tots delivers the goods on Thursday, families may stop by Clark’s office or the Youth Employment Service to fill out wish lists.

The drive offers more than material goods, however.

Parent Help dedicates most of its time to preventing family abuse, and those who pick up items at Clark’s office can take a 20-minute class on peaceful parenting taught by Kanarek.

Clark, who has spent most her life working with victims of poverty and abuse, said offering space to Parent Help was an easy decision.

“We live in a place where people have so much, so to help the people who don’t have much seems like such an obvious thing to do,” she said.

Although most of the families that Parent Help serves are poor, Kanarek noted that abuse transcends all levels of wealth.

“All families are in need of help,” she said. “I think with affluent families, there’s more a sense of ‘How can I resent my children when I’ve got this mansion?’”20051214irgpjmknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Kathy DuVernet, left, Nancy Clark and Sally Kanarek sit with dolls and clothing for the Toys for Tots drive run by Parent Help USA. Youth Employment Services, Nancy Clark and Associates and Seaside Realty have donated space for toy campaign.