Cleaning returns early

Jeff Benson

For a night, Costa Mesa’s parks were strewn with sparkler boxes,

smoke-bomb wrappers and discarded repeaters. But only for a night.

Residents awoke Monday to find dozens of teen athletes darting out

of cars and running rampant around baseball fields -- not to create a

mess but to clean one up.

The trash-bag-wielding squad of athletes from Costa Mesa and

Estancia high schools -- mainly from the schools’ boys’ and girls’

water polo, swim, football, soccer and basketball teams -- hit most

of Costa Mesa’s parks between 6:30 a.m. and noon to clean up 17 city

parks, two community centers and a school, after people’s late-night

private fireworks parties. They also earned required community

service hours in the meantime.

But for the two who spearheaded the cleanup, 16-year-old Costa

Mesa High School student Evan Spencer and his dad, Gary Spencer, the

focus was on much more than just required community service through

the school. Evan’s water polo team held its biggest annual fundraiser

over the past several weeks, selling legal fireworks from stands

around the city, and Gary Spencer said the two felt compelled to

clean up much of the mess since some of the parks’ litter resulted

from their sales.

“Since we got the fireworks stands, we thought it was important to

clean everything up, since we’re the ones making booster club money

off the fireworks,” Gary Spencer said. “Since City Council almost

voted against fireworks because of the messes they make, we thought

we’d help.”

Sergio Hernandez, 17, was one of 31 teens involved in the Costa

Mesa aquatics program who helped stuff eight giant trash bags in the

first four hours of the cleanup. At first, Sergio said he didn’t care

for the idea of waking up early to clean, when the water polo team

usually meets at the same time to practice.

“I was like, ‘Aw, man! I’ve got to clean up,’” he said. “But it

really felt good to clean up the community so we can keep our

fireworks every Fourth of July.”

In two weeks, the Spencers recruited 60 people from the two

schools to aid in the post-fireworks recovery. In total, they

recruited 45 students from Costa Mesa High, while another 15 from

Estancia also agreed to participate.

Some Newport Harbor High School athletes who manned their own

fireworks stands in Costa Mesa verbally committed to assisting with

the cleanup in the southern part of the city, but the school’s

athletics programs did little more than remove its own fireworks

stands, Gary Spencer said. Instead, the Costa Mesa Public Works

Department cleaned up that part of town.

“We really thought we’d have close to 150 people in this, but many

stands sent nobody to help us,” Gary Spencer said. “But we’re still

happy with how things worked out, and we hope the city recognizes

those who did participate.”

Costa Mesa Planning Commission member and City Council candidate

Katrina Foley also assisted the Spencers with the cleanup. Foley said

she supports legalized fireworks in the city -- as long as they are

quickly disposed of -- because they promote community spirit and

raise money for school athletic programs.

“In our neighborhood last night, the one thing I think was great

was that you had families coming out and talking to each other,

sitting around and having fun,” Foley said. “I think it builds

community spirit.”

* JEFF BENSON is the news assistant and may be reached at (949)

574-4298 or by e-mail at [email protected].