THE RACE FOR COSTA MESA CITY COUNCIL

Jennifer Kho

Joel Faris spends hours in his yard every week to listen to his

favorite sound.

“Do you hear that?” he asked. “Nothing. This is what I like -- peace

and quiet. Quietness is important to your health, mentally and

spiritually.”

Faris wakes up at 4:45 a.m. every weekday, takes a walk and then

spends time in his yard -- reading the newspaper, pulling weeds and

watering the plants -- before work.

He always likes to read more than watch television, he said, and he

never sleeps in past 5 a.m., even on Saturdays.

Faris, a fourth-grade teacher at Russell Elementary School in Santa

Ana, said he originally wanted to be a journalist.

He was the editor of the Huntington Beach High School Highlight, his

high school paper, and he worked as a newspaper delivery boy. And on a

childhood trip, he went to see the then-new USA Today building in

Washington, D.C., instead of the monuments his friends were visiting.

But Faris said he worried that he wouldn’t make enough money as a

journalist, and entered Cal State Long Beach as a business major.

However, while he was in college, he worked at the YMCA -- which

changed his mind and his major. Faris decided to work with children.

“Being a teacher is a big responsibility, but it’s really rewarding,”

he said. “More and more kids are turning to pastors, teachers, etc. to be

pseudo parents. They can have an amazing impact on their lives.”

Faris and his wife, Suzanne, recently became parents, themselves. In

October, the couple adopted a Latino boy, 2-year-old Matthew, because

they wanted to help children in need. They plan to adopt another child in

the spring and Tuvok, their dog, was also adopted from a Doberman rescue

program.

It is fitting, Faris said, that he became a fourth-grade teacher and a

Cub Scout leader because, after his father died, his role model was his

fourth-grade teacher, who took him to father-son activities with the Cub

Scouts.

His teacher instilled in Faris a desire to help others.

That same desire to help others has also translated into a desire to

be involved with the community, he said, whether it’s by picking up trash

on his walk, going to City Council meetings to speak or writing letters

to the editor.

“I’m an idealist,” he said. “When I look back when I’m 70 years old, I

want to know I left the world a better place.”