IN THE MIX:

I’ve driven past the Assistance League I don’t know how many times.

I’ve seen stories for years about charity events for its benefit and read B.W. Cook’s mentions of the Debutant Ball aside pictures of young women glowing in the spotlight.

But I never knew.

I never knew the organization funds programs that pay for kids to go to special camps and subsidizes day-care facilities. I never knew it houses a school uniform giveaway program.

I never knew that alongside its thrift store and consignment shop is its dental office. The office provides low cost care for Newport Mesa Unified School District students.

The students are referred by a school nurse or are found during routine visits by the clinic. Parents are able to apply for care at the clinic and pay $20 or even $10 for the work.

It seems the volunteers involved in the organization have several impetuses for being there that seem to get intertwined.

They want to give. They want to help children in need. Then they find that the social aspect of the group has its own benefits. They show up to help in the thrift store and end up making a social day of it.

To be clear, that storeroom is pretty packed, so women like Beth Fleming, who has been volunteering for four years, have plenty of work to do. But on their breaks, they have a social gathering in the lunch room complete with treats from home.

It doesn’t surprise me that the volunteer efforts have that feel. It’s how it should be and how you’d think it would be.

What did surprise me is the depth of what the group does for the community.

Incoming President Ann Rogers showed me around and told me the thrift store is the biggest fundraiser for the organization and brought in about $300,000 last year. It’s part of an unending effort to help whatever community is in need.

It started in 1940 as the Harbor Branch of the Assistance League housed on Balboa Peninsula.

Since then the concerns and demographics of the community have changed, but the needs have continued to be addressed and often met by the group.

The Assistance League raises most of its money through its thrift store and the consignment store next door, Treasures.

Inside Treasures on Consignment you’ll find, well, treasures. People either give the league items to sell for them and will receive a percentage of the sale or they donate the items outright.

One of the managers of the shop, volunteer Sharon Boudreau, told me the story of a man who gave boxes and boxes to the League to sell. He had inherited them from the old family line back East. He had no idea what was in the boxes.

As volunteers opened each dusty, cobwebbed box they found literal treasure after treasure. Chinese artifacts and heirlooms passed down from “the wife of President John Adams.”

The silver plate prompted the volunteers to call the donor back and ask him if he was sure he wanted to give up such valuable things and historical pieces.

He said, “Well, aren’t you lucky.”

That’s when they called the appraiser.

In the end the shop earned about $42,000 that month and still has some of the Chinese pieces available.

The group also raises funds through charitable events.

This year the chamber of commerce is donating raised funds from its wine and cheese tasting event to the League. And the League has a pretty fun plan to raise money in March.

It will hold a Dancing for Tomorrow’s Stars with community leaders paired with professional dancers being critiqued by a panel of judges.

That’s the kind of stuff that makes me wonder if charity isn’t more about the parties than it is about the people helped, but after meeting some of the women involved in the back rooms I’m pretty confident they have their hearts in the right place.

Some come for social interaction, some because they have a drive to contribute to their community and some because it’s a high school requirement. The end result is the same.

With about 10,000 children helped last year, they have apparently created a method of assistance that works.

ALICIA LOPEZ teaches journalism at Orange Coast College and lives in Costa Mesa. She can be reached at [email protected].