Page 4 September 30, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
John Garland from front page
place. “He slipped me a business card and
said call me when you want some help. I
called him,” McCarthy said, who revealed
that he had spent dozens and dozens of
stints in rehab and detox facilities. “I was a
pretty sad case.”
McCarthy said Garland took him home
and introduced him to his wife Gloria, and
two young children, wryly noting “look who
I brought home?” McCarthy soon became
part of the family, still considered a family
member when he continued to bounce inand
out of substance abuse facilities.
McCarthy is more than grateful for the
support of the Garland’s during his struggles
to maintain his sobriety. “They didn’t throw
me out with the bathwater,” McCarthy said,
“they believed in me.”
Gloria Morrow, Garland’s ex-wife, and
Lizzie’s mother, remembers the time Mc-
Carthy spent in the Garland home. Of John
Garland, Morrow said that “he has a huge
heart; he helps everybody. He is generous
with his money, his time, his energy. He is
incredible. We both have hearts for people
who are ‘thrown away.’”
McCarthy was not the only down-on-his
luck person who Garland tried to aid. Some
Herald readers might remember a man
Garland called “Main Street Dave,” who
he termed “our local homeless drunk” who
was a fixture in town for many years. “He
lived in bushes and on bus benches on Main
St.” Garland said, “until the city sought a
restraining order preventing him from being
in parts of the city. I went to court with Dave
a couple times to fight it. We lost,” Garland
said, “but I eventually helped him find lodging
near downtown L.A. Unfortunately, he kept
drinking and died shortly thereafter due to
alcohol poisoning.”
Sometimes offering aid to the homeless
is rewarding. And sometimes, things, and
situations, just do not work out. “I’ve offered
help to other homeless, but many simply
don’t want help, or are not willing to work
for a better life,” Garland said.
Garland recounted the backstory of one of
his earlier neighbors who he tried to help.
“My challenged neighbor Trudi was tortured
by her own demons and also by very unsympathetic
neighbors who made her life tough.”
Uncle Dennis, John Garland, Daylan McCarthy, Gloria Morrow. Photo’s courtesy of John Garland.
he said. “I went to court with her twice to be
her supporter when they sought a frivolous
restraining order. We prevailed. (But) Trudi
died a couple of years later.”
One last Garland success story. “For the
last nine years,” he said, “I have mentored
a South Central LA ex-Crip who was a very
bad man, multiple times a felon and prison
inmate. He is black and I am not. But we
are closer than he is to his own family. I
met Roger at a church homeless outreach.
We are brothers. We stick up for each other.
That will never change.”
Garland said that he has hopes to “create a
non-profit mentorship program between those
with a standard-type of life with a willing
homeless person and have an outline as to
how it could work based on my experience
and success. It is unique,” he said. “I’ll use
some of the proceeds of a book I’m writing
about our experience with Uncle Dennis, (if)
it makes money, to help fund the project.”
As mentioned earlier, Garland said he would
“go to war,” to help kids. He began coaching
13-year-old basketball players while attending
Cal State Northridge when he was twentytwo.
Since then, he has coached kids over
a period of 30-seasons in youth basketball,
baseball, softball, soccer, as well as both
track and softball at the high school level.
Garland said that full-time coaching or
counseling could have been in his future
some fifty years ago, but he had already
started down the real estate path. He said
that his coaching tenets are simple, including
improving and cultivating the talents of
players who may not be thought of who he
termed the team “studs;” always respecting
the coaches, as well as the other players on
the team, and like most coaches at the youth
level preach, “have fun.”
Garland shared that he would play a little
word-game with Lizzie prior to her games.
Garland would start the sentence “Whoever
has the most fun…” and his daughter would
end the sentence “wins!”
Garland said that if his young players
would embrace his coaching philosophy,
“winning would be unavoidable,” and that
he had a couple of coaching goals: “To put
a smile on each of their faces during the
year by helping them be difference makers,
heroes if you will, and to make sure they
all wanted to come back next year because
they had so much fun.”
Always looking to help those in need,
Garland was most probably in need of a
shoulder to cry on when his daughter Lizzie
was struck down by glioblastoma more than
eight years ago. Garland said his daughter
“relocated to Heaven.”
Garland’s thoughts, in his own words: “My
daughter Elizabeth Kloe Garland “Lizzy” was
a star player on the ESHS varsity softball
team for 4-years. She graduated in 2008.
She was All League and All Area. She got
an athletic scholarship but during the summer
before college developed a medical issue,
originally diagnosed as a brain bleed. After
a year we learned that it turned out to be
much worse, a glioblastoma, a nasty brain
tumor. We fought it for 4-years. Her jersey
has been retired,” he shared, “and a replica
of it is hung on the outfield fence for all
of the high school varsity softball games.”
Garland started a partnership with El
Segundo Girls Softball. “I’m utilizing the
memory of Lizzy to influence positive
character development among girls ages
6-16,” he said.
“Lizzy was unique,” Garland said. “At
ESMS she was voted the “Kindest” for
three straight years. Her character was impeccable.
Her varsity coach for four years,
Keith Cameron, started a scholarship in her
honor while she was still with us. I have
continued that effort. The “Lizzy Garland
Scholarship” is awarded to qualified graduating
seniors from the ESHS softball team.
This not an automatic,” Garland added. “One
year there were none that qualified and thus
there was no scholarship awarded. Lizzy left
us uncomfortably early, but I know that she
is in Heaven and taking care of “the little
ones” in the nursery.
“The scholarship has nothing to do with
athletic excellence or GPA,” he said. “It is
all about character.” Twice scholarships were
awarded to seniors from the team who did
not play due to injuries or were simply not
starters. “Since inception,” Garland said, “we
have given $20,000-$30,000 in scholarships
to help extraordinary kids with their next
level expenses by the gracious tax-deductible
donations from friends, family and clients who
understand the significance of the award. Last
year we were able to give $1,400 scholarships
to three exceptional kids. Two of the
three kids cried as did the parents of all
three. They felt honored and appreciative…
especially their parents who appreciate their
daughters being recognized for character.
This award fights the entitlement mentality
that has grown into our society. And…in five
years the stats and GPAs will not matter a
lick, but character will.”
“When my daughter died,” Garland shared,
“I said to myself that I wanted to glorify
God and honor my daughter with the rest
of my life.”
El Segundo’s John Garland: A man who
epitomizes the saying “character counts.” •
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