Community: Grant provides training for disabled
Things are heating up this summer at the Campbell Center. The agency that helps adults with developmental disabilities achieve their highest potential has a new president of the board of directors and received a $150,000 grant that will support one of its training programs.
Wendy Jacoby, a five-year board member, fills the top slot. The La Crescenta resident retired six years ago from a 30-year career in the insurance industry. She devotes her time to her family and volunteer work with several nonprofits, most of which share the common thread of working with children and adults with developmental disabilities. These include Pasadena-based Club21 Learning and Resource Center, Special Olympics and Young Life, to name a few.
“I am honored and humbled to have been elected board president of the Campbell Center and look forward to working with all my board colleagues in ensuring that our mission and clients continue to be served with utmost integrity and dedication,” Jacoby said.
“I am excited by the great possibilities that lay ahead for our organization as we creatively navigate through the ever-changing landscape of the state’s resources and nature of services to the developmental disabilities community,” she added.
Jacoby succeeds Eric Hamilton, who served from 2013 through 2015.
“I am very pleased by Wendy’s election to the presidency and know that she will do a stellar job guiding the organization through the next two years,” Hamilton said.
The Campbell Center (formerly Glendale Assn. for the Retarded) was founded in 1954 as a nonprofit organization by Phyllis and Jerry Campbell, parents of a daughter with Down syndrome. For 61 years, the agency’s mission has been to help adults with developmental disabilities achieve independence.
As it evolved, the center grew to provide vocational training, residential placement, job placement, community integration and education. The center serves more than 120 clients daily.
To help continue its mission, the center just received an unrestricted, multiyear grant of $150,000 from the Weingart Foundation.
“We are deeply grateful to generous donors who recognize the importance of our mission and the work we at [Campbell Center] are doing to empower our clients,” Jacoby said. “I am very proud of our grant writer, Valerie Weich, whose expertise is instrumental to our organization being favorably considered for grants by foundations such as Weingart.”
With the grant earmarked for unrestricted operating support, it is a tremendous help in ensuring that the center can continue to provide quality programs and services to the clients throughout the coming years, said Sandy Contreras, chief executive.
“We are very much looking forward to utilizing a portion of the grant to support one of our very exciting programs — Supported Employment,” she added.
The program was launched in January 2012 and helps individuals with disabilities find and maintain integrated employment with employers throughout the community. Employment can be individual or group placement.
One employer in the program is the Glendale Police Department. A group of Campbell Center clients wash the Glendale city vehicles. They work about 30 hours, five days a week. A job coach from the center supervises the clients.
For more information about the center, visit TheCampbell.org.
Providing meals to homebound seniors
Church Women United of Glendale raised $1,872.50 with its 38th annual Meals on Wheels benefit luncheon on July 14 at the First United Methodist Church of Glendale.
Members Karil Drake and Evelyn Horigan acquired food donations for the all-you-can-eat spread and worked tirelessly to organize the event that raised funds for homebound seniors who have their meals delivered by the Glendale Salvation Army’s Meals on Wheels program.
For an $8 donation, guests had their pick of many homemade salads, breads and deviled eggs provided by volunteers and restaurants such as the Spot Gourmet, Shakers restaurant and Art’s Meat Market in Kenneth Village.
Young volunteer waiters and waitresses provided guests with beverages and clean cups, plates and utensils. They included Jesse Garcia, Willow Wittliff, Emily Theiring, Shawn Theiring, Samantha Drake and Celeste Drake.
Seniors receiving the Meals on Wheels lunches are charged $6. However, those who cannot afford it are given scholarships to subsidize the cost.
Guild gives to neuroscience center
The Providence St. Joseph Medical Center Guild wrapped up its philanthropic year by presenting a $156,000 check to Julie J. Sprengel, medical center chief executive. The funds will go toward the guild’s pledge of $500,000 to the Cusumano Family Neuroscience Outpatient Center at the medical center.
Guild President Ollie Vick gave the annual donation during the June installation tea at Lakeside Golf Club.
The funds will provide free screenings for children at the state-of-the-art concussion center, which is part of the neuroscience center, Sprengel said.
The donation is the result of such guild fundraising efforts as fall and spring events, gift shop and card parties.
Also during the tea, Vick accepted another year as president. Serving with her will be Donna Mahoney, first vice president and fashion show director; Terry Campbell, second vice president and publicity; Sharon Reid, treasurer; Kathleen Marsden, recording secretary; Patricia Cimo, corresponding secretary; and Pamela Shriftman, finance director.
Northwest Glendale Lion remembered
Robert C. Dollenmayer, a Lions Club leader for 45 years and a 25-year member of the Northwest Glendale Lions Club, passed away on June 10 in a Northern California hospice center from injuries suffered in an auto accident on April 1.
He grew up on a farm back in Ohio and served as a Navy Seal during the Korean War. He had a successful career as a plumber, said fellow Lion Ross Adams.
Dollenmayer joined the Griffith Park Lions Club in 1970, serving twice as president and as deputy district governor. He transferred to the Northwest Glendale Lions Club in 1990 and served two terms as president. He received a membership key for sponsoring at least seven members and was best known for collecting the most used eyeglasses to be recycled for the less fortunate.
“Our club donates about 1,000 pairs a year to the project, and Bob collected most of them,” Adams said. “He was an outstanding and dedicated Lion.”
A memorial service will be held in the Los Angeles area at a later date.
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JOYCE RUDOLPH can be contacted at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.