UNIVERSAL CITY : Treatment Center to Mark Its 25th Year
A North Hills residential treatment center for abused children will celebrate its 25th anniversary tonight at a dinner that will also honor one of its foster families.
The National Foundation for the Treatment of the Emotionally Handicapped, better known as Penny Lane, houses 100 children and teen-agers who have been physically or sexually abused. The group has a home in North Hills that cares for 50 teen-age girls and has several other locations throughout the Valley.
“It’s been hard, but I’ve had a lot of fun doing this,” said Ivelise Markowitz, the founder and executive director of the group. “At that time (of the organization’s founding), I was very young. We thought we could do everything for kids.”
It was not easy helping these children turn their lives around.
“There’s no magic bullet,” Markowitz said. “It just takes a lot of love and caring.”
In the celebration to be held at the Universal Sheraton Hotel, the group will honor Martin and Marbel Barboza, a young couple from Peru now living in North Hollywood who have been the foster parents of a severely disabled 5-year-old girl for the last three years.
The group is also creating a new program aimed at getting more Latino couples to become foster parents.
Tonight’s dinner program will include an appearance by actress Jill Eikenberry and actor Michael Tucker.
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