(Six-year-old Gabby was one of the hundreds of needy folks who got a pancake breakfast courtesy of Newport Beach-based Daddy Cakes Saturday at the Lighthouse church in Costa Mesa).

Some time ago after I went homeless for a day in February in Costa Mesa to get a more first-hand view of the issues I got a call from Mona practically demanding that I attend a cooking demonstration she had organized for one of her clients at Bloomingdale’s in South Coast Plaza. We had chatted a bit here and there up to that point and I had done a couple of little things on some of her clients, but we hadn’t met yet. It was a Friday night, the busiest night for me when I was the Daily Pilot city editor. Plus, I had to write my piece on going homeless for the Sunday paper. I had zero time to run down to South Coast Plaza, no matter how close it is to the Pilot office. But something told me to go anyway. It might have had something to do with the eager reception she gave my initial blogs on the homeless experience.

When I got to the store the demonstration was winding down and I saw someone who I figured must be Mona. I didn’t really know what she looked like, but I had an idea from her Facebook picture. Her face wasn’t too visible in it as it was a jokey picture of her with a wig on. So I said, “Excuse me, are you Mona?” She turned around and my life changed. I thought she was beautiful. Way out of my league. But she hugged me! She seemed so excited to see me. Normally I would be taken aback, but I wasn’t for some reason. I soon settled into a conversation with her and her roommate who tagged along with her about my project on homelessness. They asked good, probing questions that helped me get my arms around the huge, sprawling project. Before I knew it two hours were gone, though, and I raced back to the office and after I filed some silly brief on some stupid reality TV show “star” getting busted for something or other I jammed out my piece, which ended up being so long we ran it in two parts.

After it ran, Mona and I struck up a conversation on Facebook about a follow-up. I said I wanted to do some sort of outreach, something that went beyond just feeding and clothing the needy. They have plenty of help doing that, I thought. I wanted to provide them with some sort of friendly social experience like I did when I volunteered at a home for the elderly when I was in high school. We’d play cards, board games or just chat. They loved the company. Mona embraced the idea and as she usually does elevated it. “Game Night for the Homeless,” she said. A perfect idea, I thought. Then she invited me to dinner. I thought she wanted to discuss the project. We hardly spent any time on it as it turned out, but that’s a story for another time.

At any rate, I ran into all sorts of logistical problems trying to get “Game Night” off the ground at the Pilot. I had planned to make it a multimedia project with video, photos, stories and everything, but I couldn’t find a place to hold it. My best shot for awhile appeared to be at the RVCA warehouse on the West Side, but I haven’t had any luck so far getting that going. I haven’t given up, even though I’ve moved on to work at City News Service, but on Saturday everything came full circle as I returned to the Lighthouse church in Costa Mesa as one of Mona’s clients, the Newport Beach-based pancake maker Daddy Cakes helped feed hundreds of homeless and needy folks. Mona says my piece on homelessness in Costa Mesa inspired the event and if that’s all that came out of it then I’ll be darned proud of it as hundreds of needy souls got a delicious, nourishing breakfast this morning.

But I was afraid earlier this week when it appeared it could fall apart. Mona had gotten commitments from state Sen. Tom Harman, Assemblyman Van Tran and Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley, but then on Monday Harman backed out of it. His staff said he had a scheduling conflict. This came after the staff heavily promoted it and right after an angry neighbor of the Lighthouse sent him a note vowing to protest the pancake breakfast. Harman’s staff insisted it was just a scheduling conflict. The neighbor complained about some of the people served by the Lighthouse misbehaving outside the church.

As it turned out, no one protested. Lighthouse Pastor Dale Fitch told me one of the neighbors walked into the church Saturday, talked to one of the volunteers and “left in peace.” That’s it.

I asked Tran as he was about to leave for another event Saturday, why he didn’t blink at the threat of protest. He paused for a moment and just said, “This is the right thing to do.”

Then the congressional candidate smiled and said, “It’s a great opportunity to meet people, and to demonstrate my talent for pancake flipping.”

Foley said she understands the feelings of the church’s neighbors, but that sometimes it’s more important to endure a nuisance to answer a higher cause.

“And maybe we should spend more time looking at the underlying issues of why there’s homelessness,” she said.

Some in Costa Mesa complain that social services like the Lighthouse or Someone Cares Soup Kitchen attract the homeless to the area. But Foley pointed out what I’ve heard from many in the social service agencies — that many of the area’s homeless were once your neighbors. Yes, the economy has gotten that bad.

Pastor Dale has no intention of backing down. In fact, thanks to a generous area donor he is remodeling the church and stands ready to meet the rising demand. While once his mission would give out five to 10 food boxes a week to the needy, he and his volunteers are giving out 30 to 50.

Saturday turned out to be the best birthday present among many I’ve received from Mona this weekend. So, without more babbling from me, here’s a photo roll to share some of those terrific memories.

Mona does her social-networking thang before the feeding began.

My sort-of Felliniesque shot of Mona taking an iPicture of Katrina Foley and Daddy Cakes’ Dan Byers.

Katrina and Pastor Dale Fitch chat.

Dan and the volunteers horse around at the grill.

Katrina works the crowd.

Left to right (or should I say right to left?): Van Tran and Katrina Foley have a meeting of the minds.

The three amigos, Van, Dan and Katrina flip those cakes.

Volunteers Elyse, Sarah and Jacqueline ham it up with Gabby.

Gabby vogues. Gabby loved Daddy Cakes, from the cartoon characters on the packages to its taste. I asked her what they taste like and she said, “Strawberries!” That’s shorthand for delicious because her mom, Tanya, says she loves strawberries. Later in our conversation I felt like Bill Cosby as she said, “I got a house, I got doggies and a chicken bootie.” Uh, what does that mean? “It means basketball and imagination!” Gabbys say the darndest things, indeed.

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