Spirit of the Season Captured in Good Deeds

Individuals, organizations, companies--even a youth gang--can claim credit for a variety of good deeds this holiday season. Here are a few examples:

Members of St. Lawrence Martyr Church in Redondo Beach delivered more than 600 gifts of food, clothing and other items to needy families at the St. Columbkille Catholic Church in downtown Los Angeles. Parishioner Jean Tarzia said the project to aid the inner-city poor is in its third year.

In Hawthorne, Mattel Toys hosted 150 inner-city children at a party co-sponsored by United Way. Preschoolers from the Assistance League Day Nursery in Los Angeles had their pictures taken with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and received gifts donated by Mattel, company spokesman Glenn Bozarth said. He said each of the children was “adopted” for Christmas by at least one Mattel employee.

The Volunteer Center of South Bay-Harbor-Long Beach sent donations of money, gift certificates, nonperishable food items, toys, toiletries and other gifts to agencies that serve the needy. “Every day, we see miracles happen,” said Akrevoe Emmanouilides, placement coordinator. “An agency told us that it did not have a Christmas tree for the children in a day care program. The next phone call was from a gentleman who wanted to contribute something to the needy. It was a perfect match that demonstrated again the true meaning of Christmas.”

Northrop Corp. employees in Hawthorne, El Segundo, Rolling Hills Estates and Century City raised more than $80,000 for about 70 charitable organizations as part of the company’s 30-year-old holiday giving program. On their lunch hours and weekends, workers at the company’s Aircraft Division in El Segundo raised about $4,000 through sales of baked goods and hot dogs, by auctioning donated items and by sponsoring golf and bowling tournaments.

Instead of exchanging gifts among themselves this year, employees at the Manhattan Beach branch of Wells Fargo Bank donated their gifts to the Youth and Family Center. Gifts from the public to needy young children also were collected at the bank office.

Torrance-based PhoneMate donated 50 answering machines to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes food through 442 charitable agencies. “When we learned that the Foodbank needed extra voices to answer their phones, we realized we had found the perfect recipient for our holiday donation,” said PhoneMate Vice President Larry Kloman. Foodbank distributed the answering machines to its participating food pantries, which uses them to inform callers about where and when food is available.

American Cablesystems of Carson offered free installations to new customers who donated a new or used toy valued at $5 or more. The toys were given to the Family Christmas Care Project and distributed by the Sheriff’s Department in Carson to needy families there. Current customers also participated by donating gifts and receiving a free upgrade of their cable services.

Paragon Cable also provided free installations to customers who brought donations of food and toys to the firm’s offices in Torrance and Hawthorne. The gifts were distributed to needy families by members of the U.S. Marine Corps, Torrance Salvation Army, Gardena Department of Human Services and South Bay Volunteer Center.

Soroptimist International of Del Amo/Torrance joined with the Harbor Regional Center, which specializes in helping the developmentally disabled, in “adopting” five needy Torrance families for the holidays. The Leads Club of Palos Verdes/Redondo Beach assisted in the project by collecting toy donations at the group’s annual Christmas party, and Torrance National Bank set up a gift donation barrel in its lobby.

Ajinomoto USA, a Japanese maker of food additives with its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, donated $10,000 to the Torrance branch of the Salvation Army. An army spokesman said the money will be used to aid the needy and help operate day care centers for seniors and preschoolers at a Torrance center. Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert said the contribution arose from a recent visit here by Saburoske Suzuki IV, Ajinomoto’s chairman.

The South Bay Hospital District Board helped brighten Christmas for needy families in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach by contributing $12,500 to buy food, clothing and toys for them. The gifts were distributed through 13 community agencies.

Members of four Realtor groups in the South Bay donated about $9,000 in cash and more than six tons of canned and dried food, primarily to the Salvation Army, said Tony Kriss, director of the Torrance-Lomita-Carson Board of Realtors. About two tons of canned goods were stacked in the form of Christmas trees at the Realtors’ office in Torrance.

The other three groups participating in the holiday drive were the South Bay, Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills boards of Realtors. Kriss said the drive this year involved about 1,800 members of the four boards, and the results far exceeded similar efforts in the past. He said the Moore & Associates office in Torrance alone collected more than a ton of food.

Members of the Victoria Park Locos, one of Carson’s oldest neighborhood gangs, got into the holiday spirit by organizing a toy drive at Victoria Park. Donations of toys and clothes came from residents, local merchants, Pepsi Cola Co., deputy sheriffs and gang members.