Soup kitchen warms their hearts, too I...

Soup kitchen warms their hearts, too

I would like to comment on Lolita Harper’s column about the

Someone Cares Soup Kitchen (“One foot in the Thanksgiving soup line,”

Dec. 1). I have been a once-a-week volunteer for more than four

years, and while this wonderful place helps those in need, it also

provides a place for people who want to help themselves by helping

others less fortunate.

We have the regular volunteers, who have been coming for years,

but we get many high school and college kids who are doing their

service credits, and I think they get a great, eye-opening experience

that we hope they will use to their benefit.

We also have those that need to do community service hours because

of some trouble they have gotten into. They also get a great

experience, and many of them come back even after their hours are

completed. We are very thankful for the many organizations and people

that support the soup kitchen financially, but it’s the volunteers

who really work the hardest to help give our guests more than just

something to eat.

We give a friendly hello, we know their names, and we give them

something that food can’t give them -- we give them respect.

I have taken both my young nieces to the soup kitchen with me so

that they can see not every child has a beautiful, warm house to

sleep in at night. The soup kitchen is starting its toy drive for

Christmas, and this year has been especially hard, so when you are

out shopping for your children, please buy one more gift and bring

it, unwrapped, to the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen on West 19th Street

in Costa Mesa.

All of us who volunteer out of love, thank you.

LINDA DEPAUL

Costa Mesa

Noisy planes? Do what Newport did

Laguna Beach has a real problem with noisy transport airplanes

climbing out over the city from John Wayne Airport starting at 7 a.m.

nearly every day of the week, (“Noise from low flights raising

hackles,” Coastline Pilot, Nov. 21.)

The simple solution, of course, is to open an El Toro

international airport, because then the overflights will be gone, as

they were when the Marines were flying. But there are other options

for controlling the noise. Laguna Beach can ask the airlines to turn

their engines down while passing over the city, as they do while

passing over Newport Beach.

When the pilots learned they do not need all that power to take

off and climb, the complaints from Newport Beach citizens decreased

dramatically, as they will at Laguna Beach. Power cutback is the

solution to noise until El Toro opens and the overflights stop.

DONALD NYRE

Newport Beach