First in a series
[img]849|left|Sadie Cerda||no_popup[/img]To find Culver City’s Senior Citizen of the Year, upon entering the sprawling property of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church, trail the strains of dreamy “Moonlight Serenade” up the ramp, down the corridor and into Sadie Cerda’s office.
Over in a corner by the window, 1260-AM radio was playing one of the big pop hits of 1939, the summer that Mrs. Cerda turned 11 years old.
The mellifluous music from1260 formed the proper nostalgic backdrop for an updated report on one of the most admirable persons on the west side of Los Angeles.
Nostalgia is her chosen life’s work — feeding hundreds of the poor and homeless who remember, many of them tearfully, when they could afford to feed themselves.
Isn’t it shocking to learn that the organization widely known as SAVES, St. Augustine Volunteer Emergency Services — begun in 1973 by Mrs. Cerda and her late husband Conrad — serves 800 families and individuals every month?
The recession, as many know, executed a crash landing in Greater Culver City.
Two years ago, before the recession started, Mrs. Cerda said SAVES was serving upward of 500.
Isn’t it equally shocking that ostensibly prosperous Culver City, where luxury cars outnumber visible beggars a thousand to one, should be home to so many of the desperate and destitute, a jolting reminder of nearness to the edge of normalcy.
Diminutive and massively kindly of face, if Mrs. Cerda doesn’t fondly remind you of your mother, you must have been an orphan.
Her story is of faith in God, one of contemporary society’s most reviled notions, which makes Mrs. Cerda and her chosen work — chosen cannot be overemphasized — the more remarkable.
This is a scant-sized sketching of what Mr. and Mrs. Cerda have quietly but crucially contributed to this community, soon to turn 37 years old.
Consider the Contrasts
From modest beginnings — “in 1973, we were empty nesters after the last of our four children left home, and we wanted to do something to help” — the enterprise Mrs. Cerda commands from the St. Augustine parking lot has mushroomed into a small empire.
Lest you doubt the officious-sounding term “empire,” consider that last year Trader Joe’s markets contributed an eyepopping $5 million in fruits and vegetables to the SAVES program.
Any day of the week, wander into the vast paved parking lot. Gaze into the clouded eyes of the hopeless and homeless of the entire range of ages. Often the hopeless and the homeless are the same person.
It may be impossible to remember you are in the bosom of well-off Culver City. You are standing across the street from splashy Sony Entertainment, one of the jumbo corporate leaders on the planet.
But this is Sadie Cerda’s vivid world of few colors, gray, black and darker.
A week from tomorrow, on the evening of Friday, May 14, the church at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Jasmine is holding of fundraising evening jammed with live entertainment to help pay its expanding upkeep bills.
No matter how spiritedly generous Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and other food suppliers are, the coffers of St. Augustine’s SAVES program constantly need replenishing, almost as badly as its clients need nourishment for their sagging bodies.
(To be continued)
