Celebrities Return to Pacoima in Show of Community Pride

Professional dancer Thelma Davis says she owes a lot to Pacoima, the community where she grew up.

“My training started here at free dance classes at the Pacoima Community Center,” Davis said Saturday. “I liked the community feeling here. Everybody knew everybody.”

Davis was one of several celebrities who on Saturday joined the sixth annual “Back to Pacoima Expo,” a weekend celebration touting community spirit in the northeastern San Fernando Valley community, which has the highest concentration of ethnic minorities in the Valley.

After a morning parade through Pacoima, several hundred people attended a celebration at the Hansen Dam Amphitheatre. Food, art and carnival games were offered at booths perched above the grassy bowl as singing and dancing acts performed on stage.

30 Celebrities Honored

This year, the event honored 30 celebrities from show business and sports who, at some time, lived in Pacoima, including gospel recording artist Andrae Crouch, stage and screen actor William Marshall, former boxing champion Bobby Chacon and football stars Anthony Davis and Charles White.

“Pacoima isn’t really well-known, so it’s surprising that so many people came from here,” said Thelma Davis, who began professionally as a dancer on the television show “Soul Train” and has toured internationally in dance shows.

Expo organizers had 30 granite stars cut for the celebrities. They intend to mount them later this year on a special wall.

“We found that we had more stars coming from the Pacoima area than any other in California,” said Marie Harris, the Expo’s executive director and founder. “We’ve got a lot of good people together and this is what you see today.”

Harris said the aim of this year’s Expo is to publicize role models for the area’s children.

‘Something to Look Forward to’

“We have a lot of children who don’t want to go to school, don’t want to learn. But when they see these stars and what they can achieve, they have something to look forward to. They can say, ‘Someday, I’ll have a star mounted,’ ” Harris said.

The crowd cheered as Bobby Chacon, a former World Boxing Council featherweight champion, moved onto the stage.

“I’m glad I grew up here,” Chacon said. “I wouldn’t be as tough as I am otherwise.”