CANOGA PARK : Kids’ Car Seats Arrive Just in Time at Shelter

When Anne Williams, manager of a local shelter for battered women, needs donations for her clients, she says she doesn’t worry about how she will get them. She says that somehow--often as if by magic--the badly needed items turn up.

Take the case of car seats for babies, which are at a premium in shelters. After she gave away the shelter’s only car seat to a client who was leaving, she realized she would have to find a seat to replace it.

The next day, a woman called the shelter saying she had 10 car seats she wanted to donate.

“It’s funny, whenever I need something, it just comes,” Williams said. “I never mentioned it to anybody, and all of a sudden, this woman called the next day.”

Arlene Wexler, the donor, said she and her husband, Harold, a Northridge chiropractor, traditionally hold a charity drive to help the needy during the holidays. Because of the publicity surrounding the slaying of Nicole Brown Simpson, she said, the couple decided to help battered women this year.

Wexler, who used to be in the baby-supplies business, had about 25 brand-new baby seats in storage in her garage. She said someone suggested she check with battered women’s shelters and when she called around, she learned that the seats are in great demand.

“I had goose bumps when I heard the joy on the other end of the phone, when I talked to the shelter workers,” Wexler said.

She then called manufacturers she knows and purchased about 75 more car seats, which retail for about $70.

Wexler said she plans to begin delivering the seats to shelters throughout the region in time for Christmas. Her husband, she said, is offering free office visits to clients who donate a toy for kids at the shelters.

Meanwhile, Williams said, the shelter is badly in need of clothes, blankets, baby formula, baby food and children’s clothing and toys that are in good condition. Donors are asked to call Haven Hills Inc. at (818) 887-7481.

Wexler said the mood this holiday season has been especially poignant because of the January earthquake, which severely damaged the couple’s home and nearly ruined her husband’s practice.

“We realized that there were so many things we didn’t need to be happy; how little we need materialistically,” she said.