`THERE WASN'T ANYTHING GINA WOULDN'T DO FOR YOU.' : MURAL HONORS EDUCATOR WHO CELEBRATED KIDS.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

Officially, she was assistant principal for secondary counseling services at Fulton Middle School in Van Nuys, but that title didn't begin to scratch the surface of the real person.

Unofficially, Gina Gratch was guardian angel and mother to hundreds of kids who needed both - kids born into hunger and poverty, and headed for failure.

Gina took them all under her wing - protected them, fed them, clothed them, counseled them and mapped out a future for them.

And when she died in June from cancer at age 55, her early departure from their lives devastated the kids and Gina's colleagues.

When they finished crying and mourning, they began painting.

Today, a beautiful mural dedicated in Gina's memory will be presented on the Fulton Middle School campus - a lasting tribute to an educator who went far beyond books and graphs to guide young lives who were dealt some pretty tough hands at birth.

``She would bet kids that if they could make it to college, she'd pay for their books the first semester,'' said school counselor and Gina's good friend, Barbara Bizar.

``So many kids have gotten jobs because of her, or had food in their stomachs and clothes on their backs because of her. She knew all their birthdays and would sing happy birthday to them over the bullhorn as they walked to class.

``There wasn't anything Gina wouldn't do for you,'' Barbara said.

The first time I met Gina was a few weeks before Christmas of 1993. It was 6 a.m., and the families of 250 students at the school were sitting down in the auditorium for a breakfast party and to receive a holiday box of food donated by the Ustin family, which owns Western Bagel Co.

These were the families of kids Gina had kept a close eye on during the school year - kids who often came to school hungry and without adequate clothing, some even without shoes.

Kids who had more pressing matters on their minds than sitting in a classroom trying to digest the three R's.

``How can we expect them to learn when their stomachs are empty and their bodies are cold?'' Gina asked, surveying the room. We couldn't.

A week later, Gina took 60 of the poorest kids over to the Panorama Mall, and handed them envelopes with $100 in them, again gratis from the Ustin family, which has deep, charitable roots in the Valley.

The only proviso was the kids had to buy clothes, not toys, for themselves.

With their stomachs full and their bodies warm, they could finally begin to learn.

Gina Gratch saw to that.

The numbers don't lie, so beware before you give cash or write out that check to an organization you want to help, says Officer Ron Gould, who runs the Gray Squad for the Los Angeles Police Department in the West Valley.

Get a load of these figures Gould has compiled from the California Attorney General's Office on charitable solicitations by commercial fund-raisers.

In many cases only 5 to 15 cents on the dollar ever gets to the organization for which they're earmarked.

For example, the San Fernando Police Officers Association has had a commercial fund-raiser collect $561,466 in its behalf over the years. But the association has received only $52,947, or 9.4 percent, of the money.

The Ventura County Deputy Sheriff's Association has had $342,191 collected in its name, but has received only $35,000, or 10.2 percent of it.

The Peace Officers Association of Ventura County fared even worse. Under its banner, $257,062 has been collected from people wanting to financially help the association. But, only $15,595, or 6.1 percent, found its way into the association's coffers.

``The commercial fund-raiser tries to justify these percentages by crying the high price of promoting the fair, expo, rodeo or circuses put on to raise the funds,'' Gould says.

``By using the public safety organization's name, they are wrapping themselves in that organization's legitimacy, and the public is misled into believing they are contributing directly to that organization.''

A better and safer way to make sure your cash gets to where you want it to get is to contact the police or fire organization directly to see if it has a memorial fund that accepts donations.

``That way, 100 percent of your donation goes into the fund, and it is tax deductible,'' Gould says.

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Photo

PHOTO Pupils at Fulton Middle School in Van Nuys walk by a mural for Assistant Principal Gina Gratch.

Phil McCarten/Daily News