Boys Make Plaques to Honor Donors : Razed Gym Is Turned Into Thank-Yous

Juvenile delinquents from a Woodland Hills boys home found an unusual way Monday to thank neighbors who have contributed money to build them a $1.1-million gymnasium.

Youngsters at the Pacific Lodge Boy’s Home yanked up part of the worn maple flooring from a 59-year-old gym that will be replaced, then used the hardwood to make plaques for 60 donors.

The lodge has been collecting contributions for the new gym for six years. Administrators said $700,000 has been raised--enough for work on the 15,000-square-foot building to begin immediately.

Demolition crews will bulldoze the old 4,000-square-foot gym on Serrania Avenue today, said Richard B. Hill, executive director of the lodge.

Range of Donors

The lodge receives 95% of its annual $2-million operating budget from the state and Los Angeles County. It houses 84 boys between 13 and 18 years old who are placed in the home by county probation and social workers.

Donors to the gym fund ranged from large corporations to neighborhood and civic groups--such as the Woodland Hills Rotary Club, which raised $60,000 by staging tennis tournaments for four years.

Rose Goldwater, a Woodland Hills print shop owner who heads the lodge’s board of directors, said her 20-member advisory group collected $48,500 among themselves to launch the campaign for the final $400,000 needed for the gym.

James A. Lee, assistant executive director of the lodge, said the old wood-frame gym was showing its age. “The termites were about to tell us who was in charge,” he said.

He said the thank-you plaques made from the basketball court floor were carefully inspected to make certain they were termite-free.