A Close-Up Look at People Who Matter : Community Care Day in Capable Hands

Like a strike force waiting for the word to attack, more than 1,200 volunteers from 43 companies are set to mobilize throughout the San Fernando Valley on Community Care Day on Oct. 2. For the third year running, they’ll be spending half a day painting, pruning, cleaning, filing, removing graffiti and clearing brush at 49 agencies and schools.

And while any army depends on its foot soldiers to actually get the job done, there has to be a commander to marshal the troops.

Enter Barbara Bickel, the United Way’s North Angeles Region senior communications specialist.

“We wouldn’t have a Community Care Day if it weren’t for Barbara Bickel,” said Michael Turner, a volunteer involved with the event. “Her energy and enthusiasm have made all this possible. The volunteers are the glue holding this event together, but she’s the one wielding the glue stick.”

Bickel, 41, has been involved with Community Care Day from its outset, when 450 volunteers participated.

“It’s such a unique event,” said Bickel, a resident of North Hollywood who has lived in the Valley since she was in junior high school.

“We try to meet everyone’s needs-- both the volunteers for the day and the agencies for their work projects,” said Bickel, a graduate of Grant High School in Van Nuys.

From recruiting the companies who supply the volunteers to finding agencies in need of volunteer assistance, Bickel draws on more than 20 years of experience coordinating volunteer efforts.

A mother of two sons, Evan and David (both of whom are expected to participate in Community Care Day), Bickel has been with the United Way for the last four years, a position she took after jobs that include directing an extended day-care program, teaching parenting classes and consulting on child care.

Even at that, the UC Davis and Pacific Oaks College graduate has found time to volunteer at schools and nonprofit agencies.

She says she has managed to preserve time for her kids, adding that her involvement in community causes will hopefully serve as an example for her own children.

“I try not to have my work cut into my time with them,” she said. “But they see that my job is very different from other jobs because I work with people who are in need.”

Elsewhere in the Valley:

Cub Scouts Pack 163 in Van Nuys recently honored 7-year-old scout Larry Brady Jr. for the bravery he demonstrated in July when he pulled his 4-year-old sister from the family station wagon moments before it caught fire after stalling on the Ventura Freeway.

Brady, his mother Madeline and sister Lauren were en route to a Boy Scouts kite-flying event when the car broke down. His mother pulled over to the side of the road and walked a short distance from the car to call for help. While on the phone, Larry noticed smoke coming from under the hood of the car, alerted his mother and pulled his sister to safety before the station wagon caught fire and was completely burned.

Larry wasn’t terribly upset about the car being totaled, but was disconsolate when he realized that his plastic kite was completely melted.

The youngster’s heroics didn’t end there. According to his father, Larry Brady Sr., the boy saved the garage of the family’s Sherman Oaks Home from almost certain destruction when he noticed a fire in a garbage can and alerted his dad, who doused it with a garden hose.

It seems that Larry’s dad had tossed some barbecue coals into the trash can, not knowing they were still hot.

“I’m quite proud of him,” said Larry Brady Sr. “He doesn’t panic in those situations and at his age that’s really surprising.”

Personal Best profiles ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Please address candidates to Valley People, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to (818-772-3338).