Star News - May 2006

Star-News (Pasadena, CA)
May 12, 2006
Section: CELEBRATIONS

Join the Club
Mothers' Club: A Community Learning Center for Mothers and Their Children.

Gloria Renwick, Correspondent

Meet Denia Perez, a single mother with soft brown eyes that grow warm with love as she cuddles her son, Julian Rosales, 3. Denia and Julian are among a hundred families the Mothers' Club helps every year; they are typical in their needs and how they are met.

Just four years ago, the 29-year-old Perez found herself alone, impoverished and without any English language skills. She was also pregnant, something she didn't know when she left a difficult marriage that lasted a little more than three years. Perez, who was born in Los Angeles and raised in Mexico, retunred here seven years ago to work.

Pregnant and newly single, Perez took temporary shelter with a cousin. She earned what she could selling used items at swap meets. When Julian was born, her cousin returned to Mexico. Perez sought help from the Pasadena Health Department’s program for Women, Infants and Children. A woman she met there told her about the Mothers’ Club.

“When I came here, everything changed,” Perez said. “I feel more secure and confident in many aspects. I don’t feel so alone. I know if I need some help with my child, I will have help. Everybody is my friend. I am very glad to be here. It’s like a privilege to be at Mothers’ Club.”

What better way to celebrate and honor Mother’s Day than by telling this story of hope, resolve and renewal; of mothers helping mothers learn the skills needed to improve their lives and those of their young children.

Like all stories, this one has a beginning and that beginning was with Mara Moser, a woman of the Quaker faith.
In 1961, Moser was a 75-year-old retired teacher with time on her hand s and compassion in her heart. She took it upon herself to become an advocate for women whose husbands had recently been sent to prison. These women, and their children, were often completely alone, living in isolation and poverty.

“Several days a week, Mara would go down to the court house and check the files of new criminal bookings,” said Russell Kully, who along with another young lawyer, Dave Mitchel, would spend one night a week chauffering Moser around town to the homes of these recently jailed men. Moser offered their families guidance and advice as to where they could find relief.

“She was this tiny, frail old woman”, Kully continued. “Yet, she was so full of energy and completely committed to helping the underclass. She was a saint. In fact, ‘Mother Teresa’ is a good characterization of her. It was a privilege to be with her.”

Moser knew the women she sought to help needed friendship as much as anything else, so she brought them together once a week for coffee and chat in the kitchen of the Quaker’s meeting house on East Orange Grove Boulevard in northwest Pasadena.

The women brought their young children along, and soon Moser realized these children would benefit from preschool education. She went to Taka Nomura, an early childhood education specialist at Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School in Pasadena, which shared with the Quakers a philosophy of social justice, respect for diversity and valuing the uniqueness of each person.

Nomura responded by developing a teaching program based on the best available knowledge of early childhood development.

When federal funding became available, Mothers’ Club applied, and the center grew, involving more mothers and children from a diverse socio-economic pool. Pacific Oaks, which regularly had a waiting list of prospective students, encouraged this diversity by suggesting Mothers’ Club as an alternative for the children on its waiting list.

Although the center always has some middle-class families, the majority are those living below the poverty line, earning less than $20,000 a year for a family of four.

Sue Kujawa came to Mothers’ Club in 1971, bringing her two young sons with her. Kujawa was living in Altadena, but she had grown up in Rosemead. She felt lonely because of her natural shyness and the fact that she was the first among her friends to have babies and move into the very different world of motherhood.

A friend at Pacific Oaks suggested she join Mothers’ Club, and in a real sense, Kujawa has never left. When her boys became school age, Kujawa became a member of the newly formed board of directors of the Club. Twenty years ago, when Mothers’ Club had grown to the point that a full-time executive director was needed, the board turned to Kujawa.

Working with an annual budget of $800,000, Kujawa has assembled a staff of three directors, two administrators and nine teachers; six of whom are former moms who took classes in early childhood education and psychology at Pasadena City College.

Puisana Chau is the children’s program director. Silvana Casalegno is the parent program director and supervises parents in the classrooms. Julie Espinoza is the family literacy program director.

Sarah Orth is the development director who works with donors, fund-raising events, grant applications and award submissions. Mothers’ Club has won numerous awards over the years, most recently the Barbara Bush Family Literacy Award.

This small group of dedicated women and the board of directors and community advisors are creating miracles for the families who come to them out of the desperation of isolation, poverty and fear.
Orth has described the Mothers’ Club prize-winning program in four words “The Power of Two,” elaborating in her annual report statement:

“How do you best impact impoverished, isolated families and truly transform their future from one of despair to one of success? The answer, from recent research, is a two-generational learning model.

“Mothers’ Club Community Center is a two-generational learning program, educating young children and their parents side by side, “ Orth said. “We’ve been quietly doing this for over 40 years, long before the nation defined this as an optimal model. Our two-generation family literacy program is the core program we use to fulfill our mission to prepare families living in isolation and poverty to succeed in school and in life.”

It is difficult to look at Denia Perez and believe that a mere three years ago, she was shy and filled with fear. Today, her smile is confident and her English language skills are much better. She is clearly resourceful, ambitious and strong.

She has set several goals for herself. At Mothers’ Club, she is studying to take a high school equivalency exam and to earn an English as a Second Language certificate. When Julian begins kindergarten, Perez will study cosmetology, continue to improve her English and learn a third language.

“Why not?” she asked, when others seemed surprised.

Indeed, why not? The future belongs to Denia Perez and those like her.

Gloria Renwick is a Pasadena-based writer who profiles those
who make important contributions to our community for the Our Community page.