FOSTERING LOVE WOMAN HAS HELPED HUNDREDS OF KIDS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Constance Haas, 83, has a soft place in her heart for foster kids.

She must. The San Fernando resident has raised more than 700 since the 1940s - an all-time county record, officials say.

``We stopped counting at 700,'' said her daughter, Connie Ann Newhall, who now helps her mother care for the children. ``We couldn't keep track of them after that. That was more than 10 years ago.''

Haas was honored Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors as one of seven ``heroes'' of foster care as part of ``Foster Care Awareness Week,'' which started on Mother's Day and will culminate Friday at a summit focusing on improving the education of the county's abused and neglected children.

Haas and her husband, Frank, began caring primarily for homeless and abandoned young boys when the couple were newlyweds in the late 1940s.

``My husband got out of the service, we were dirt-poor and all we had was separation pay,'' said Haas, a petite, spry lady with a twinkle in her blue eyes.

Haas' husband got a job with the old Los Angeles Examiner, distributing newspapers to boys who delivered papers on bicycles. She was surprised to learn that some of the boys lived on the streets.

``These kids needed us, and nobody was helping them,'' Haas said. ``They were sleeping behind the building or in (trash bins). My husband would bring them home, I would clean them up and feed them and he would teach them how to read and do arithmetic.''

The couple did that for several years until she found out it was against the law to take in street children without a foster parent's license.

``I could have gone to jail,'' Haas said. ``We got a license and from there it just grew. The kids gravitated toward us.''

Along with their own three children, the couple became focused on caring for ``adoption babies'' - bringing newborns straight from the hospital and getting them healthy and ready for adoptive homes - and developed a particular passion for special-needs children.

Many of her former foster children keep in touch with her and regularly invite her to family events.

``I have their grandchildren come,'' Haas said. ``I have three or four generations of kids who call me.''

Frank Haas died a decade ago. Although she is 83 years old, Haas is in the process of adopting three boys with special needs who have lived with her for a number of years. She intends to keep on taking in foster children.

``I'm tired of people saying to me, 'Why are you doing this at your age?' Well, my God, if I don't have somebody, if I'm not needed, then what am I going to do? Curl up and die. Age is nothing to me.''

Local officials praise her contributions.

``At the ripe young age of 83, Mrs. Haas is in the process of adopting three boys with special needs,'' Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

``Many of her former foster children keep in touch with her and invite her to weddings, showers and graduations. Constance tells us it's not just the children, but their children and grandchildren who invite her to their family events. And I suspect in the years ahead it will be their great-grandchildren, so keep right on going.''

Another foster care hero honored Tuesday was Sunland resident Kathy Arellano, who has taken care of her 11-year-old grandson after he was taken away from his mother and put in the foster care system.

``He was in an environment of severe neglect and drugs,'' Arellano said.

``Through all this, my daughter has taken steps to change her life,'' Arellano said. ``She's in recovery and ... frankly, it's a change I never thought I'd see.''

Miriam Aroni Krinsky, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, said 100 children are placed in foster care every day in California. One aim of Foster Care Awareness Week is to encourage people to become foster parents and adopt children.

``In a system that is all too often not part of our public radar and not open to public scrutiny, efforts such as this are critical to heighten awareness of the needs of the foster care system,'' Krinsky said.

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(color) Constance Haas has welcomed more than 700 foster kids into her home. The San Fernando resident, 83, here with Jennifer Haas, 24, a foster child who came to her at 2 weeks of age, has been honored by Los Angeles County.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer