CSP News

Turn on love lights
Sponsors help youth shelter through several halogen snowflakes, whichwill light the pier and Main Street.
Huntington Beach Independent

By Josh Aden
Published Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:08 PM PST

It’s doubtful temperatures in Huntington Beach will ever dip low enough for a holiday snowfall, but downtown Surf City will still be graced with snowflakes.

The Huntington Beach Youth Shelter is partnering with the city for the 11th year to Light a Light of Love as they line the pier and Main Street with large halogen snowflakes. The snowflakes will illuminate the streets throughout the holidays.

“It’s the way the city always brings in the holiday season,” said Elsa Greenfield, the shelter’s
director.

The snowflakes are already installed on light fixtures downtown, but they won’t shine until the
lighting ceremony Sunday, during which the area will be blacked out, allowing the snowflakes to be in the spotlight.

The festivities begin with a children’s parade down Main Street to Pier Plaza. Various children’s groups will start at Orange Avenue, including the Boy and Girl Scouts, Junior Lifeguards, and the OC Children’s Song and Dance Group.

The Ocean View High School Marching Band will play in the parade as well as provide
entertainment at Pier Plaza. Of course the star of the parade is always a special Surf City Santa, who joins Mrs. Claus riding a fire truck. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be at Pier Plaza for the pier lighting and will be available for pictures with children.

There will be a countdown — à la New Years Eve in Times Square — to the official lighting at 6 p.m. Greenfield expects more than 4,000 for the event.

Each snowflake is sponsored by different groups or individuals, and raises money for the Youth Shelter’s crisis intervention programs. The sponsors get a sign under their adopted snowflake. This year there will also be small hand-held snowflake wands available for a donation at Pier Plaza. The small snowflake donations will allow anyone to support the shelter, even if they can’t afford the $600 to sponsor a large snowflake.

“Everybody can light up a little light of love for the shelter,” Greenfield said.

The event brings families from all over Huntington Beach to celebrate helping the shelter’s children. Greenfield says it’s always amazing to her to see the willingness of people to donate their time and talents to their cause.

“It just shows what’s right about Huntington Beach,” Greenfield says.

The shelter serves as a temporary residence for runaway, homeless and displaced children 11 to 17. The 12-bed facility serves children from all over Orange County who end up homeless in Huntington Beach. According to Greenfield, “Cities that have beaches are magnets for runaways.”

Children are referred to the shelter by police and hospitals, and are sometimes even walk-ins.
Aside from housing and nutrition, the program also provides counseling for kids and parents, skillbuilding classes, and private tutoring.

The main goal is to reunite families and, failing that, to put the children in a situation where they will be cared for and given the opportunity to succeed.

“Instead of having them unsafe on the streets, they have a place to go as a safe haven,” Greenfield said.

"An Unexpected Source of Art in an

Unlikely Spot, Deserves a Look"

The Laguna Beach Independent

By Jennifer Erickson-August 19, 2005

With so much art out in the open at the Sawdust Festival, it is easy to overlook art displayed behind glass in niches around the festival grounds. But one Display in particular deserves a closer look. The wall near the restrooms holds  display of art that represents the tip of the iceberg that has been in formation for nearly a year over at 980 Catalina.

This year, for the first time in a display box at the Sawdust Festival, are two pieces of art created by temporary teen residents of the CSP Youth Shelter of Laguna Beach. Something has been going on over at the youth shelter, and the public display of these two pieces are just a fraction of the whole.

These pieces, a timeline and collage, are entitled "Art as Therapy," and are filled with beauty and raw emotion.

Last September, the Assistance League of Laguna Beach began a number of art-related programs for the teens at the CSP Youth Shelter and they have caught on like wildfire.

Every Monday Assistance League members hold an art class, rotating between a crochet/knitting class (popular to both genders, believe it or not), rock painting, snip and tie fleece pillow covers, macramé bracelets and chokers, and outings to the golf range. Then there is bi-weekly Saturday sand sculpting in fall, winter and spring. And right now they are supplying the teens with disposable cameras to encourage photography.

The weekly volunteers of the Assistance League were so impressed with the art being created by the teens that they were compelled to contact the Sawdust Festival board to investigate the possibility of exhibiting some of the pieces.

With the much-appreciated assistance of Tom Klingenmeier and Eleanor Henry, who took the time to see the art and get the necessary approvals, the idea has become a reality. Thanks to them, the entire community  has a chance to experience the dramatic art being created at the shelter.

The Assistance League members are not, however, ready to rest on their laurels. They hope to gather enough art (collages, photography, timelines, poems and painted rocks) to hold an entire show at the Laguna Beach Art Museum in the fall or winter of this year. So far, the outlook is good!

What the Assistance League volunteers have done is to offer the teens at the CSP Youth Shelter an outlet for their emotions, a chance to express themselves creatively and an opportunity to participate in the community. According to Tonja Becwar, Volunteer Coordinator at the shelter, "The gentle and compassionate personalities of the Assistance League members are welcomed by the teens. The teens at the CSP Youth Shelter, as well as the staff, are extremely appreciative of the generosity of Assistance League and look forward to their future interactions."

So the next time you go to the Sawdust Festival, look for the display in the wall by the restrooms and think about the expressive teens who are behind it and the Assistance League volunteers who got them started down this creative path.