FOR A GOOD CAUSE -- Art for children’s sake

-- Story by Mathis Winkler; photo by Sean Hiller

For Colleen M. Rashford, it all began with a passion for biking, a

dislike of trash and a desire to give disadvantaged children hope for the

future.

A project manager at a computer distribution company, the 34-year-old

Costa Mesa resident jumped on a colleague’s suggestion to check out

Operation Clean Slate. The nonprofit organization cleans up neighborhoods

and helps disadvantaged kids paint murals in schools, parks and along

bike trails.

Annoyed with the state of glass- and trash-covered bike trails in

Orange County, Rashford decided to volunteer for the organization. Over

the last seven years, she’s helped coordinate more than 30 mural projects

and now serves as Operation Clean Slate’s vice chairperson.

“I’m really good with computers,” Rashford said during a conversation

Tuesday.

“But I’m not a great artist,” she said. “By standing aside and holding

paint brushes and cleaning paint brushes, I can help people do what they

like to do.”

Her first mural -- a skater seemingly jumping out of a wall -- went up

in Huntington Beach, along the Santa Ana River Trail. Other murals have

depicted deep sea themes, maps and a smoking dinosaur as part of a

tobacco prevention program.

At schools, the whole campus usually participates in painting the

murals and the kids receive T-shirts or mugs with the mural’s image as a

reminder of their work, Rashford said.

“I justify my existence of working on the phone and computer by

working on these outside activities,” she said. “I have a lot of energy.”

In fact, Rashford’s got enough energy to volunteer at a whole range of

organizations, including an adult day care center in Garden Grove and her

company’s “feed the homeless” program, she said.

When asked what she gets out of her volunteer work, Rashford at first

appeared puzzled by the question.

“I guess just the satisfaction that people that did not get the same

opportunity that I had at least get a chance to dream,” she said.

Rashford offered Zoie as one success story.

A student at Century High School in Santa Ana, the girl had lived with

her family in crammed quarters, Rashford said. Since then, Zoie has

received a full scholarship to Whittier College and has come back to her

old school to urge kids not to skip class.

“I had a childhood that was like Mary Poppins or Beaver Cleaver,”

Rashford said, adding that she grew up in Placentia. “I’d love to make

life easier for these people to have the opportunities that I had.”