6 Residents Win Freedom Awards

Six Valley residents head a list of nine Angelenos who are winners of the 1997 Sertoma Freedom Awards.

The local recipients include a television producer, an educator, a lawyer, an elementary school principal, a mother and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon.

For the past five years, the Los Angeles Sertoma Club has presented the awards to individuals for contributing to the community in their particular area of expertise, said club secretary George Carter.

“What ties these people together is that they are self-made people and they all have the community at heart,” Carter said.

The Los Angeles Sertoma Club is the local branch of an international civic service organization based in Kansas City, Mo. The 30,000 Sertoma members in the U.S., Mexico and Canada volunteer their time and resources for a wide variety of charitable causes.

Alarcon received his Freedom Award in the public service category.

“As someone who was born and raised in the Valley, I have been extremely fortunate to meet and work with dedicated community leaders who strived to make their neighborhoods better,” Alarcon said in a written statement. “I am truly honored to receive this award.”

Other Valley winners included Pam Clark, a special-education teacher and administrator of the Sunrise School in Sherman Oaks; Larry Gonzalez, principal of Pacoima Elementary School; R.J. Visciglia of West Hills, producer of the television program “Touched by an Angel”; Ben Reznik of Tarzana, partner in the law firm of Reznik and Reznik; and Sandra Poms of Calabasas, who was honored as “Mother of the Year” for her work with a theater group and at her children’s school.