Habitat for Humanity to Unveil Project Plans, Meet Volunteers

Habitat for Humanity of the San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valleys meets tonight at 6:45 to announce home construction plans for the next two to three years.

The meeting at the Van Nuys Church of the Valley, 6565 Vesper Ave., will also give prospective volunteers a chance to meet Habitat members and learn how they can help the group attain its ambitious goal of eliminating substandard housing in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

“It’s an opportunity for people to learn about and connect with ways to make housing and homeownership a reality for families who could never dream of owning their own home,” said Habitat co-founder and Vice President Rachel Dunne.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit international group that builds homes for the poor. The organization gained widespread notice when former President Jimmy Carter joined as a volunteer.

Dunne said Habitat is interested in new land acquisitions and construction in Canoga Park, Burbank, San Fernando, Sun Valley, North Hollywood, Van Nuys and Panorama City.

“Any of those communities we consider appropriate,” said Dunne, a Northridge geologist who now volunteers full time at Habitat for Humanity. “We like to work in areas where our home building will help stabilize or upgrade the neighborhood.

“We have a major project next year that is in escrow now and in the following year we hope to do two large projects in the 10- to 15-unit range.”

All of the plans involve sites in the San Fernando Valley, Dunne said. Efforts to secure land and funding for construction in the Santa Clarita Valley are also under way, Dunne said.

On Saturday, volunteers began fashioning the roofs for eight townhouses Habitat is building in Pacoima.

To be eligible for a no-interest loan to buy one of the townhouses, families had to pledge 500 hours of work on their own home and 150 hours helping build someone else’s. Their incomes must also fall below limits established by Habitat for Humanity.

The townhouses cost between $50,000 and $62,000. Dunne says they should be completed by October.

Dunne asks anyone interested in attending tonight’s meeting to call (818) 980-9797.

83 Years of Pairing People Together

The Bolsheviks have come and gone, telegraph lines have given way to fiber optics, and steam locomotives have been scrapped for high-speed bullet trains. A lot has changed since the turn of the century, but through it all Marriage Minded Introductions, a Panorama City personal introduction service established in 1910, has paired up singles in search of a mate.

“Personal ads, singles dances and the bar scene may work for some singles, but for someone with marriage in mind your own matchmaker may provide a better alternative,” according to Marriage Minded Director Terry Hopwood.

Hopwood has good reason to think so.

Her father met Hopwood’s mother through the service in 1950. At the time it was called the Francis DuMont Social Club. When she died, DuMont bequeathed the service to Hopwood’s father, who became involved with the organization after his successful match.

The name was changed to Marriage Minded Introductions in 1983, according to Hopwood, to clearly convey that the organization is aimed at singles in search of spouses.

“We’ve been turning singles into couples since 1910,” says Hopwood. “We use a complete questionnaire and some good old-fashioned human intuition to match you up according to your interests.”

Hopwood, who also is a hypnotherapist registered with the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners, also uses her powers to entrance when matching some of the 500 members, aged 20 to 60, who subscribe to her service.

“You bet I do,” she says. “If somebody is having difficulty forming relationships because of some mental block, I help them get rid of it. If somebody wants to quit smoking to become more attractive, I do that too.”

The cost of membership ranges from $895 for a year to $1,500 for three years, according to Hopwood. Women under 35 and men over 50 are eligible for discounts.

Hopwood says Marriage Minded doesn’t accept anybody.

“The men have to be business professionals and the women have to be attractive and intelligent,” she says. “And all of them need to be marriage minded.”

Her track record is pretty good, Hopwood claims.

“About 5% of the people who come in marry the first person I introduce them to,” she says. Another 20% marry someone in the first year. “Of the rest, many of them form long-term relationships, possibly leading to marriage.”

Genealogical Society Seeking Volunteers

The Southern California Genealogical Society is looking for volunteers to staff its library, a potential treasure trove for family history seekers.

The library--the largest of its kind in the Valley--contains more than 6,000 books on family history and exchanges periodicals with 180 genealogical groups around the country. Cemetery, death and marriage records are available from several states and there also is a census index for each state covering the period from 1790 to 1850.

The society, which was founded in 1964, needs volunteers to guide visitors and researchers through the mountains of material. Docent and clerical training is provided.

Anyone interested in volunteering should call (818) 843-7247. The library is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except the last two Sundays of the month. On Tuesdays, it stays open until 8 p.m.