Simi Valley Tries to Repair Image by Helping Riot Victims

Donations of food and clothing for Los Angeles riot victims poured into Simi Valley collection centers Sunday and Monday as residents tried to repair damage done to their city’s image and to assist burned-out neighborhoods.

After a burst of donations this weekend, gifts dwindled to a slow but steady stream on Monday at Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard’s office.

By midafternoon, donors had added about four dozen bags and boxes of food, clothing and baby supplies to the donations that Howard said filled half a large room at the Rancho Simi Recreation Center over the weekend.

The Salvation Army is forwarding the donations to Los Angeles neighborhoods that were ravaged by fires and looting in the wake of last Wednesday’s not-guilty verdicts for four white police officers charged in the beating of black motorist Rodney G. King.

Howard estimated that about 100 Simi Valley residents made donations. She said about one-third of the donors said they hoped that their gifts could bolster the city’s reputation, which was battered by the surprise verdict.

“They said, ‘We hate it that people are getting the message that Simi Valley’s a racist community, and we really want people to know we care,’ ” Howard said. “One pickup truck pulled up, and the man had brought over 200 cans of food.”

“We wanted to let the world know we don’t all think like the jury does,” said Judy Harms, 36, as she added a bagful of maternity clothes to the pile in Howard’s office.

Michael Griffith, 37, of Santa Monica, who was housesitting in Simi Valley when the violence broke out, bought a bagful of baby food and brought it in.

“I thought some people could use it down in South-Central L.A.,” Griffith said. “There are difficulties a lot of people in L.A. face that something like this can’t address. All their businesses, supermarkets, the stores where people provide food are gone. Who knows when they’ll come back.”

Linda Prell strolled to Howard’s office Monday afternoon with her 6-month-old daughter, Sharon, in a backpack and several cases of infant formula in a baby carriage.

Prell said the local cable channel broadcast Howard’s plea, and she donated food because she did not want to join friends who were helping to clean up riot damage in Koreatown.

“We didn’t want to go down there and have them find out we were from Simi Valley and get killed,” she said.

Howard aide Ritch Wells said a Newbury Park man called to offer to donate the crop of 200 lemons hanging on his back-yard tree “if you can get someone to pick it.”

“I’m concerned about the old residence I lived in for many years prior to moving to Simi Valley,” said August Hardy, 57, who 19 years ago moved his family from the South Los Angeles neighborhood around 25th and LaSalle streets.

“I just wanted to let the people in L.A. know that the residents of Simi Valley care about what’s going on,” said Hardy, an African-American. “Everybody’s kind of sad about what happened in this verdict, but they should not take it out on other people.”