EASTSIDE : For Teen, Reward Is in Volunteering

Like many volunteer workers, Bianca Arzola says the rewards come every day, when she helps children and teen-agers learn a new skill or have a little fun. But this award-winning volunteer is a little out of the ordinary: She’s 15.

The United Way of Greater Los Angeles recently named Bianca its Youth Volunteer of the Year for her work at the Crippled Children’s Society’s East Los Angeles service center. That was followed by a similar honor from the Crippled Children’s Society naming Bianca its Outstanding Volunteer.

“Emotionally, they know how to treat people,” the Belvedere Middle School graduate said of her charges. “Whenever they see me in the street, they hug me and say, ‘Hi.’ I like that because sometimes your own friends won’t say ‘Hi’ or they ignore you.”

Bianca, who will start classes at Garfield High School this fall, has been one of the center’s most dependable and responsible volunteers, said director Nadine Munguia. The center, 154 N. Gage Ave., depends on volunteers to help the staff of four oversee 24 youths in the daily program and at least 15 Friday nights and Saturdays.

“She’s like a staff person to me,” Munguia said. “I guess we hear so many negative things about our youth today. Well, here she is. She’s from this area and she’s an example for her friends.”

Just over two years ago Bianca stepped into the center for the first time with a friend, Christina Mendoza, whose brother is disabled. Bianca liked it from the start, and has volunteered daily after school and on Saturdays ever since.

“You don’t have to worry about how you look or what you’re wearing,” she said. “They just like you for who you are.”

Sometimes she’ll make their snacks or help push their wheelchairs. Other days she’ll help them in the swimming pool or be with them when they go on outings. Volunteers teach the clients how to take a bus, shop for food and prepare their meals.

“Our whole philosophy is to make them as independent as possible,” Munguia said. Bianca is “there every day when she could probably be doing something else.”

Her mother NAME has joked that Munguia should adopt her because she sees her daughter so much every day.

Munguia even helped Bianca and her friends run the Los Angeles Marathon in March, training with them for months and then crossing the finish line with them. Even then, Bianca helped out the center by collecting donations for every mile she completed.

With the training she has acquired, Bianca said she wants to work with disabled children or in the child-development field.

And she has already told Munguia that she hopes to be hired when the center moves to a new, larger location that will need more staff. The move won’t happen for two more years, Munguia said, but Bianca has arranged her high school schedule to allow for time after school at the center.

“I’ve never seen somebody so committed,” Munguia said.