Notable Achievers in Your Community : Volunteer Puts a Special Spark in Kids’ Lives

Margarita Navas may go unnoticed in the blur of a volunteer project, but Saundra Bryant can tell when the 29-year-old volunteer is at work because of her energy.

“She seems like she’s in the background, “ said Bryant, executive director for the All People’s Community Center. “But really, she’s in there. When she latches onto the project, she gets a lot of energy.”

Navas, a Sylmar resident, won the 1993 Outstanding Community Service Award from the Transamerica Foundation recently.

The All People’s Community Center is a church-supported group started in the 1940s on East 20th Street in Downtown Los Angeles that serves the poor Latino, Asian and African-American communities. It is an old neighborhood where residents have pride in their property, but--like other inner-city areas--it also has problems with drugs and crime, Bryant said.

Some volunteers have been reluctant to work at the center and get flustered if things do not go as planned, Bryant said. But she said she has never seen that with Navas. “She’s a natural. She’s not forcing it.”

Along with the award to Navas, the Transamerica Foundation donated $1,000 to the community center, which serves about 6,000 people throughout Los Angeles County, including children, adults and senior citizens.

Navas’ volunteer work at the center has included running holiday parties for underprivileged children, reading stories to preschoolers, collecting toys and helping to organize a festival this summer.

“Three years ago, she dressed up as one of the Ninja Turtles characters,” recalled Anton Harper, who organized the Christmas party and co-chaired the festival with Navas this year. “The party lasted for four hours and that costume looked pretty hot.”

Navas filled in as Master Splinter, the oversized rat that teaches and advises the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, when someone else had to back out at the last minute. She learned a dance routine within a week. The costume thrilled some of the children but scared others, she said.

“Some of them wanted to do karate chops on me,” Navas said.

What makes her an especially good volunteer is her ability to work with children, those who have worked with her said. While she directs about 350 children around the Transamerica building to get them to Christmas parties, logistical snags occasionally hold up the group. Then, Navas would take out a monkey puppet, wearing a Santa hat and Christmas scarf, and give the kids an impromptu performance while they waited.

“I like to be in the middle of chaos,” Navas said. “I enjoy everything that goes on.”

That kind of flexibility also makes her an asset, Bryant said, pointing out that events at the center often do not go as planned.

Navas’ natural style also helps in her work. “Children can sense if you’re sincere, and she’s a very sincere person,” Bryant said.

Harper added that Navas has a natural ability to persuade volunteers to do things they may not have planned, such as dressing up as a clown or putting on another costume. Other people seem to feed off her energy, he said. He also likes her voice when she sings Christmas carols.

“That’s funny,” Navas said about the compliment on her singing. “I was just yelling the words.” And she downplays her own influence on other volunteers.

Navas, who has been married for almost four years, is expecting her first child in February. So she probably will not be dancing in a hot rubber rat costume this year.

“I probably won’t be as involved as I was because of the pregnancy,” she said. “But maybe in another year.”

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