VAN NUYS : Donations Help Save Woman’s Club

With financial help from other women’s clubs, members of the Van Nuys Woman’s Club are back in action at their quake-damaged Van Nuys clubhouse.

“We’re going to stay here,” said club President Neva Hines, 71, who feared repair bills would force members to leave their long-time Sylvan Street clubhouse. “What they have done is marvelous.”

Two $1,000 donations from the Westlake Woman’s Club and the San Fernando Woman’s Club, a $2,000 donation from the California Federation of Woman’s Clubs and a $15,000 short-term loan from a son of one of the club members will pay for repairs to the historic clubhouse. Club members also sold about $1,000 worth of cookie recipe books.

The Northridge earthquake badly damaged the interior walls and fireplace of the 77-year-old building, which was named a city of Los Angeles historical-cultural monument in 1978.

Repair costs hit $30,050 without a word of help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to which the club had applied. After depleting the club’s bank accounts, the 56 members were still about $2,000 short, forcing Hines to consider selling the property to keep the club solvent.

But then the telephone started ringing. Offers of aid came pouring in, restoring hope that monthly garden section meetings, card games, Bible readings and fund-raising meetings could again be held at the clubhouse.

By Wednesday, the group had paid for enough repairs to safely hold their first post-earthquake meeting. Hines was reelected president because of her work preserving the clubhouse.

“I’ve never seen the whole group so happy,” said 85-year-old Dorothea M. Neel, a former club president who attended a luncheon Wednesday at the clubhouse. “We’re home again.”

There is still work to be done, however. The club needs a renter to replace the city of Los Angeles Planning Department, which left the clubhouse after the earthquake. The department had been paying $750 a month to conduct its hearings in the clubhouse auditorium.

But the club’s members, many of whom are in their 70s, say they are up to the challenge of finding a new tenant--especially after surviving the earthquake.

“I think we took on a new attitude of togetherness,” Neel said. “We’re all very proud of what we have done to preserve our future.”