Making Contributions

FULLERTON — Sipping warm apple cider tonight, club members will lean back from the holiday table and list the things that make them thankful--and most will likely name their bare, drafty headquarters, with its pocked walls and cracked tile floors.

The men and women who gather in the humble offices are all coping with developmental disabilities and the lingering effects of severe head injuries. They say they look past the building’s flaws because it is the only place where they feel they are wanted and, more importantly, needed.

“This is here for us and this is where we want to be,” is how Cheryl Larsen puts it.

The 31-year-old needs a wheelchair to get around and has to cope with spastic cerebral palsy, but none of that stops her from working with peers to operate the Integrity House. Volunteer members cook, do clerical work, make crafts to sell, write newsletters, organize events and run support services for themselves and others.

Everyone has a task, everyone contributes--and with responsibility comes confidence and skill-building, organizers say. And that, Larsen says, is something to be truly thankful for.

“Other places, sheltered places, they tell you what you have to do,” the Anaheim resident said. “Here, we do what we think we have to do. We do what we want, and we do things others think we might not be able to do.”

On Wednesday, a dozen members of the 3-month-old Integrity House gathered at the offices tucked off of Imperial Highway to tack up pictures of pilgrims, prepare food and do some last minute cleaning and painting.

The atmosphere was warm, controlled chaos, which is business as usual, according to executive director Cathy DeMello.

The members have varying degrees of disabilities and some are easily distracted or less than swift with even the simplest tasks. But, DeMello said, in every labor there is a lesson or a sense of satisfaction.

“We have a saying here: ‘It’s the process, not the product,’ ” DeMello said with a weary smile. “It’s all about independence and empowerment. Those are the things that work.”

The model is a familiar one for DeMello, who founded an identical program called the Clubhouse in Santa Ana in 1992, a project she left to open the Fullerton site. She hopes to see 10 more open up statewide in the next three years.

“This is the model that can make the biggest differences in people’s lives,” she said.

Others share that belief. Unlike her previous program, the Integrity House was started up with a $138,000 grant pumped into the project via the Regional Center of Orange County, a private, nonprofit agency that contracts with the state to serve the county’s developmental disabled citizens.

“This is the new idea of the moment,” said Bill Bowman, executive director of the Regional Center. “This model recognizes the big picture. . . . It provides the glue that holds life together instead of just individual services.”

The Integrity House already helps members with job placement and an on-line roommate placement service is on the horizon, DeMello said. But first on the agenda is fixing up the building, which needs plumbing and electrical work. Donations and holiday craft sales will pay the bills, she said. Call (714) 526-9154 for more information.

The members have big plans for the site, and no one has more to say about it than Sam Durbin, a back-slapping jokester among the group who bristled in more restrictive programs in the years since suffering a major head injury at age 2.

The 36-year-old Fullerton resident is a wry motivator for others at Integrity House (“Hey, what’s wrong with you? You got a head injury?”) and earlier this week worked the crowd to ask why everyone was thankful.

Some said they were glad to be alive following their injuries, most cited DeMello and the new building, and a few said--with a chuckle--turkey and pie.

Then Durbin weighed in: “I’m thankful I’m here and not alone,” the comedian said, suddenly serious. “It’s the worst feeling in the world to be alone. And there’s nobody alone here.”