Helping Hands

Altruism was celebrated at Cal State Northridge and throughout Los Angeles on Saturday during the city’s first Volunteer Festival.

The festival, involving about 100 organizations at each of four city sites, was a chance for volunteer groups to recruit new members and for city residents who are eager to lend a hand to find the group that is best for them.

Residents milled around information booths set up at CSUN, some stopping to gather information from such groups as the Culver City-based Suicide Prevention Center and the League of Women Voters in Los Angeles. Entertainment was offered by organizations such as North Hollywood’s Activities for Retarded Children, which provided music with its bell choir.

“This is what it’s all about,” said Wendall Howard, 57, of Van Nuys. “This is why I came here today.”

Howard and many other Los Angeles residents were at the festival’s four locations--in the San Fernando Valley, West Los Angeles, Harbor/San Pedro and Central/East Los Angeles--for similar reasons. They wanted to find a way to give back to their communities.

That is what Mayor Richard Riordan had in mind when he envisioned the event: connecting residents to the volunteerism opportunities in their areas, said Deputy Mayor Stephanie Bradfield.

“The mayor has made volunteerism a priority because so much can be accomplished by volunteers,” Bradfield said.

The events Saturday concentrated as much on people who do not volunteer as those who do.

“I think people are taking advantage of this because it’s an opportunity to see what groups are out there and where they can fit in,” said June Chu, assistant director of the city’s volunteer bureau.

And if the festival still did not make choosing an organization any easier, there were groups available that make it their business to match people with volunteer organizations.

The Los Angeles Community Action Network and CSUN’s volunteer services match volunteers with groups that need them.

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“A lot of times people don’t know where they’re needed or if they’ll even like what a group does, so we try and help them out,” said Jodee Armstrong, president of the L.A. Community Action Network.

City agencies such as the Los Angeles police and fire departments were among the organizations on hand.

“I don’t think people realize how valuable volunteers are,” said Gabriella Rodriguez, who was representing the San Fernando-based Latin American Civic Assn. Head Start program. “Everyone needs volunteers.”

Dixie Sutter Henrikson, who founded Activities for Retarded Children 31 years ago, said volunteerism helps society, but also just makes people feel good.

“I do this because I love these children,” she said, “because they need me.”