Caring Hall of Fame inducts 12 for efforts

The 12 winners, seven adults and five teenagers, include a nun who gave up her affluent life as a Beverly Hills, Calif., homemaker to live in a 10-by-10 foot cell to aid Mexico's prisoners, and a 13-year-old Connecticut boy who provides computers to the poor by recycling outdated ones.

With 12 children, Mary Ann Wright had plenty of uses for her $236 monthly Social Security check. But one night in 1980, Wright said she was inspired to feed the hungry. Taking her check, Wright purchased Thanksgiving dinner for 300 homeless people, and for the next two years continued to use her payments to feed the hungry.

She was one of 12 people whose altruism earned them a place Monday in the Hall of Fame for Caring Americans. Organizers cited her compassion after businesses followed Wright's lead and chipped in, giving her enough by 1984 to start her own foundation.

The Mary Ann Wright Foundation, based in Oakland, Calif., now has an annual budget of $137,000 and feeds 450 families a day.

"I thank God for calling me, waking me and telling me to feed the hungry," said Wright, 84. "It is the joy of my life to be able to help someone if only a little bit."

The 12 winners _ seven adults and five teenagers _ also includes a nun who gave up her affluent life as a Beverly Hills, Calif., homemaker to live in a 10-by-10 foot cell to aid Mexico's prisoners, and a 13-year-old Connecticut boy who provides computers to the poor by recycling outdated ones.

During the ceremony, held in the first home of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, honorees told their stories of giving and hope, a message they said was often lacking in the driven atmosphere of Washington and nation.

"My philosophy of life is when you get up the ladder you want to reach back and give someone a hand, just like someone did for you years before," said former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., who chairs the Caring Institute's board of trustees, the sponsor of the awards. "They are wonderful role models and the very personification of caring," he said.

Sister Antonia Brenner said she's never thought twice about giving up her life in comfortable Beverly Hills to aid prisoners in Tijuana, Mexico. After visiting La Mesa State Penitentiary 40 years ago, she was so struck by their despondence that she began volunteering there.

In 1977, Brenner made the choice to live permanently in one of the prison cells so she could provide prisoners round-the-clock support and protection from abuse. She's now known as the "prison angel."

"Happiness does not depend on where you live," Brenner said. "I don't have a lot of pleasures, but I have a lot of joy."

In most cases, honorees said their humanitarian efforts began with a small act of giving that proved to have a much wider impact.

Jacob Komar, 13, said he was puzzled after hearing his sister's school was throwing out dozens of old computers. The computer whiz knew he could recycle many of them for use by poor kids.

Komar rebuilt the computers himself and developed training manuals. He now is founder of a group, Computers for Communities, which takes outdated computers from businesses and fixes them up. His group has redistributed more than 1,000 to needy families in Idaho, Texas and Colorado.

"You don't need to have a genius IQ to set this all up, just the will to do it," Komar said.

The nonprofit, Washington-based Hall of Fame for Caring Americans was founded by Val Halamandaris, who was inspired by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It inducted its first class of honorees in 1989.