Vandals Damage Senior Center

Vandals heavily damaged a Reseda senior citizens center and forced it to close Monday for the first time in 14 years, shutting down a subsidized lunch program that feeds about 150 of the elderly each day.

Employees arrived at the Valley Senior Service & Resource Center on Monday morning to find their offices a shambles. A soda machine was smashed, a stamp dispenser overturned. Doors were ripped off refrigerators and money from donation cans was stolen. Empty milk cartons were strewn about the floor and half-eaten cakes lay on kitchen counters.

“They helped themselves to cake and milk,” center Director Lola Rabow said dryly as she surveyed the mess, which she said she expects to be cleaned up by this morning.

“I don’t think we can stand to be closed another day. It’s just not right. Too many people count on us.”

She estimated the loss from theft at $1,500 and said insurance adjusters had not completed a tally of damages. Los Angeles police were investigating.

Rabow estimated that the vandals broke into the center at 18255 Victory Blvd. between 9:30 p.m. Friday, when janitors finished cleaning, and 6:45 a.m. Monday, when employees arrived for work.

As employees worked amid a web of yellow police tape, dozens of elderly clients who come to the center for meals or companionship gathered on the lawn, expressing disappointment when they were told that the center would not open Monday.

Several lingered anyway, saying they had nowhere else to go.

“This place means a lot to people,” said a volunteer who asked to be identified only as John. “This vandalism hurts people who are desperate.”

The center offers lunch for the elderly for $1.25. Those who appeared were told that they could join those who receive $1.25 lunches at a senior citizens center in Canoga Park, but no one from the Reseda center took advantage of the offer, Rabow said.

In addition to the low-cost lunch program, the center conducts dozens of programs and classes for about 500 senior citizens daily. The closure forced the cancellation of the center’s regular schedule of Monday classes, including lessons in fitness, crocheting and Ping-Pong.

Hanna Kornet, 72, said she comes to the center two or three times a week “to be around life for a few hours. I think it’s a very decent place. It’s a good place to come.” She said she moved last week from North Hollywood to Tarzana so she could be closer to the center.

“Already I miss it,” she said.