Fund Drive Gets People’s Goats

NEWPORT BEACH —  It was 10 a.m. Monday, and Union Bank Manager John Baker was expecting to meet with one of the company’s attorneys. But the attorney never showed. He sent a goat in his place.

“A goat, huh?” a puzzled Baker said when two teen-age girls arrived with the stand-in. “Why are we getting this goat? What are we supposed to do with this goat?”

Employees watching, Baker tried to remain calm as he met Nancy, the 135-pound Alpine goat, in the parking lot.

“I have an idea what kind of deposits she might make--and I might have to clean that up,” Baker said, positive that he did not want Nancy behind his desk. “Take this goat back, quickly.”

Nancy is among about 35 goats traveling throughout the county Monday and today to raise money for the Red Cross. People pay $25 to send the goats to friends and colleagues, and the lucky recipients pay $10 more to make the goats go away.

“I’ll have to call and thank him,” Baker said, chuckling once he got the joke. “I’ll have to call and do something to him.”

The creative fund-raiser occurs as the Orange County Red Cross is trying to raise $1 million, which officials say is essential to keep the chapter out of the red. While the goats will probably raise less than $5,000 over the two days, Red Cross spokeswoman Judy Iannaconne said she considers this year a foundation for future goat events.

Goats visited law firms, ad agencies and a construction site. They stopped by the Municipal Courthouse in Newport Beach, a county government building in Santa Ana and a local police station. They romped around at an elementary school and a Girl Scouts meeting.

One marched into the lobby at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach, and another was the featured guest at a 50th-birthday party. A third was hired to meet a group at the Goat Hill Tavern in Costa Mesa.

“They have fun,” said 18-year-old Stephen Heilman, owner of the goats. “They’re show animals. They like being on the road.”

About 75 volunteers, mostly teen-agers who had attended a Red Cross leadership camp or are otherwise involved with the chapter, took the goats on the road in loaned cars and minivans. But first they had to attend goat school.

At a three-hour seminar Saturday, volunteers said, Heilman taught them how to calm a goat (massage its back), how to move a goat (tweak its tail) and how often the goats need a roadside break (“often,” according to Nancy’s driver, Connie Lu, 16, of Huntington Beach).

“We just hope she doesn’t go in the van,” said Johnny Cheng, 18, who sat with Nancy in the middle seat of Lu’s mother’s minivan.

In her morning route around Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Corona del Mar, 4-year-old Nancy peered out the window of the minivan, startling drivers--and a few pet dogs--on the freeways. She crossed streets, climbed stairs, rode in elevators and remained quiet--except for a few burps and sneezes--during the entire trip.

Instead of rushing her away, some recipients embraced her.

“Can I keep him for the day?” asked Girl Scouts Public Relations Director Diane Smith, wrapping her arms around Nancy’s black body, stroking her white beard.

“That’s her date for tonight,” joked one of about a dozen Scouts employees who gathered to watch Smith play with the pet her mother had sent.

“She smells pretty good for a goat!” said Smith.

At the next stop, Nancy came even closer to finding a new home.

“I think we should keep it,” lawyer Joseph P. Divincenzo, a partner in the Corona del Mar firm of Hurwitz, Rener and Divincenzo, said seriously to his staff.

“I’ll milk it,” offered one woman.

Divincenzo, an animal lover who recalled feeding goats everything from a full pack of cigarettes to a tin can as a child in Virgina, squawked some goat noises in Nancy’s direction.

“If I had a big yard, I’d probably keep Nancy,” he said, deciding instead to send her on to “get the goat” of a colleague. “She wants to stay.”

The goats were greeted with warmth and enthusiasm around the county, organizers said at the midday break while the animals--and the volunteers--grazed and rested.

“I never thought that in Orange County we’d have goats, we’re so conservative here!” said volunteer Priscilla Schoch, who brought the “Get Your Goat” concept to California after visiting a Red Cross chapter in Louisiana last summer. “But here we are.”