Youth project honored

COSTA MESA ? The barricades still gleamed in the sun Thursday afternoon on Shalimar Drive, a remnant of the days when police blocked off most entrances to the street as a way of keeping out drug dealers and other troublesome drivers.

Inside, however, the signs of change were visible. Children played peacefully in the street, kicking soccer balls and riding roller skates. Graffiti was barely noticeable. In front of the Shalimar Learning Center ? an after-school haven that opened 12 years ago to help rescue the neighborhood from gangs ? a group of people in business attire gathered around an enormous check.

Earlier this month, the Ameriquest Mortgage Co. named Shalimar as one of the winners of its Create Your Legacy grants, which provide funds for educational programs that benefit low-income youths. On Thursday, administrators from the center held a check presentation ceremony, officially recognizing the $15,000 for which Shalimar youths successfully applied.

"You guys are a great example of kid power ? of what kids can do when they work together," said Alexis Denny, a community relations specialist for Ameriquest who presented the check.

During the ceremony, held in front of the Shalimar center, Denny, Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Katrina Foley and others made brief remarks. The center netted $15,000 for its two-part project ? $10,000 to upgrade its high-school computer lab and $5,000 to renovate the soccer field near Rea Elementary School ? and will commence work on it this summer.

To apply for a Create Your Legacy grant, centers had to submit proposals for both an after-school program and a project to improve their surrounding neighborhoods. Students at Shalimar created a video presentation in which they acted as reporters, covering a story on their center's run-down facilities. The idea for the soccer field project came naturally to the students, many of whom had attended Rea in prior years.

"Really, the dream of the kids was going down the drain because soccer is a big part of us," said Yuliana Gallegos, 15, a ninth-grader at Newport Harbor High School.

Gloria Hardy, the principal at Rea, seconded Yuliana's remarks.

"Even when we hire new teachers, we ask, 'Do you play soccer?' " she said, getting a laugh from the crowd.

Founded in 1994, the Shalimar Learning Center sought to provide a safe after-school haven for children in what was then a rough and gang-infested neighborhood. Randy Barth, the head of the mission committee at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, rented an apartment for elementary school students, then two others for middle school and high school groups.

Over the next decade, enrollment grew at Shalimar as the neighborhood's crime rate plummeted. In 1997, Barth expanded the Shalimar program into a nonprofit organization, Think Together, which founded more than a dozen after-school programs throughout Orange County.

Shalimar was one of two Costa Mesa learning centers to win the Create Your Legacy grants, which Ameriquest began awarding this year. The Wilson Street Learning Center, located nearby, was the other recipient out of 36 nationwide.