After a golden evening of nostalgia and gratitude at the Senior Center last Thursday, when the Rotary Club honored her retiring husband and two other worthies, effervescent, ubiquitous Janet Chabola adroitly summarized her feelings in a note to a friend:
“Sorry I didn't have a chance to chat with you. Going to large events is an extrovert’s nightmare. One is compelled to speak with everyone, and no one gets enough attention! Agh!”
Isn’t that always the way when you invite 130 of your closest associates to a Community Heroes celebration, the kind that special persons spend a lifetime earning?
Besides Jerry Chabola, athletic director of Culver City High School who has retired from 80 percent of his duties, the Rotarians elaborately thanked:
• Jim Rodrigues of Santa Maria Barbeque for years of community dedication and,
• Father Gregory Boyle, founder of East L.A.-based Homeboy Industries for 20 years of rescuing those who need to be reeled back into the mainstream.
Mr. Rodrigues, known for his modesty, has owned the popular restaurant at the intersection of Irving Place and Culver Boulevard for 11 years. Even if, when he was introduced, his eatery was identified as “Santa Barbara,” Santa Maria BBQ still is the only restaurant in town bearing the name of the community north of Santa Barbara, where Mr. Rodrigues lived for 21 years.
Mr. Rodrigues was saluted for his uncommon generosity – “if there is a fundraiser, a school event, a charity, a group that needs help, Jim will be there feeding the crowd.”
His Business Is Saving
Since 1992, Father Boyle quietly, effectively, has been retrieving thousands – younger and older, mostly men – of those who have strayed into gang life and other threatening streams that send them to jail and prison.
Unable to appear, the priest dispatched one Vance Webster, an eloquent mid-50s blue ribbon reclamation project, who found Homeboy Industries 2 _ years ago.
Evicted from home by his mother at 12 years old because he consumed time she preferred to spend with her boyfriend, he served 29 years in prison by the time he was in his early 50s.
Her never killed anyone – but he remained true to those who did. Cradling loyalty as his primary value, Mr. Webster said he was incarcerated for refusing to identify the trigger man.
During his talk, the room that had been clattering with noise since the arrival of the first guest, even as the program was progressing, suddenly hushed. No one moved or whispered throughout Mr. Webster’s dramatic story.
It was, without challenge, the most memorable moment of the Community Heroes event.
He related his tortured journey and his remarkable fealty and gratitude to Father Boyle with a simple eloquence that wetted eyes the breadth of the room.
Ultimately, Mr. Webster and his mother reconciled.
As his prison setence was ready to expire, he was down to 72 hours before his release, and he scarcely could contain himself. .
Almost too excited to sleep, he made it to 48 hours in the countdown. At 2:30 that morning, he was startled to be rousted from bed by a prison guard who said he had a telephone call.
His sister was on the line. “Mama died tonight,” she said.
Chills of sympathy streaked across the jammed room.
In his deeply blended mixture of despair over the loss of his mother and exhilaration at being a free man, Mr. Webster found Father Boyle. At an unlikely juncture, his life was redeemed. He is a college student, no doubt to the amazement of ex-peers.
At the end of his extemporaneous speech, as he reveled in his succinct sojourn into freedom, he deserved and was lavishly treated to a standing ovation from the crowd. Until 30 minutes before, they never had heard of Vance Webster. It was not likely any ever would see him again.
(To be continued)
