CANOGA PARK : Anti-Crime Group Reaching Teen-Agers

The Deering Business Watch, a Canoga Park anti-crime group, is sponsoring a field trip to the Merle Norman museum in Sylmar on Saturday for about 50 at-risk teen-agers.

Byron Matson, curator of the Merle Norman Cosmetics Classic Beauty Collection, a museum of antique cars, furniture and musical instruments, said he is planning to make some allowances for teen-agers who do not meet the museum’s formal dress code--a code which bans, for example, blue jeans. Matson added few groups of this type have visited the museum in the past but predicted good results.

“It’s all so new and unexpected here. It’s an elegant place,” he said.

Sandy Kievman, deputy for City Councilwoman Joy Picus, who helped coordinate the trip through the nonprofit group KYDS (Keep Youth Doing Something), said although KYDS has organized youth trips before, this is the first time a business-watch group has stepped forward to sponsor one.

Bob Bartels, president of Deering Business Watch, said that when the group formed just over a year ago, he envisioned its purpose would be mostly to prompt property owners to report suspicious activity. Since then, the organization, which has about 70 members, has expanded its efforts to include outreach programs for troubled youths.