Youth Groups Get $710,000 in Olympic Surplus Funds

The foundation dispensing 1984 Olympic surplus funds has approved $710,000 for grants and programs in the spring quarter, considerably less than the $1.8 million dispensed in the same period in 1986 and $2.8 million in 1987.

Officials of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles said Thursday that lower than expected interest income, plus outlays for the construction of the foundation’s own $3-million Paul Ziffren Sports Resource Center at 2141 W. Adams Blvd., were responsible for the lower amount spent on grants and programs in this quarter. They added the demand for grants was less than in previous years.

Ziffren, foundation president, said, however, that by the end of the year the foundation will have spent about $5 million on grants and programs, over and above the sports resource center, a little more than in previous years.

The largest of the new grants approved by the foundation board was $119,000 to the United Friends of the Children in El Monte for renovations to the gymnasium at the MacLaren’s Children Center. A grant of $103,000 went to the Girls Clubs of America Inc., for an 18-month pilot program to teach basic sports skills to girls ages 6 to 8 at four Southern California Girls clubs.

Other Grants Listed

Other grants included $61,000 to Southern California Youth Hockey to expand its programs, $25,000 each to the Boys and Girls Club of the Hi-Desert and the Boys and Girls Club of Echo Park for installation of gymnasium floors and $23,000 to the Barstow Swim Assn. for a timing system and touch pads.

In addition, the board approved $170,000 for the foundation’s own Summer Swim ‘88, a program involving swimming instruction at 80 pools in the Los Angeles area, and $137,000 for the foundation’s own Youth Cycling Program at three velodromes in Encino, Carson and San Diego.