3 Activists Nominated for Service Award

By all accounts, Walter W. Mosher should be planning his retirement by now. But the West Hills businessman says there is far too much to be accomplished to even contemplate stepping aside.

“I was given a lot by the state of California,” Mosher, 64, said. “They educated me and the system provided resources to help me get through. Now I want to help kids turn around and do something good.”

Mosher’s longtime commitment to helping others, especially young people, earned him one of the five finalists’ slots for this year’s prestigious Fernando Award, which annually honors one Valley person for outstanding community service.

The four-time finalist for the award--which will be handed out at a banquet on Nov. 6--is an active member of the LAPD’s Jeopardy Foundation, and he has offered employment opportunities to Tierra del Sol Foundation youth, whose job prospects are often slim.

“I like that the Fernando Award recognition spurs others to become involved in their community,” Mosher said. “Many of my employees are as involved as I am, and I share this recognition with them.”

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When Bob Scott reads the newspaper, he doesn’t just sit and stew about the ills afflicting his community; he rolls up his sleeves and seeks solutions to them.

“Local empowerment is the key to local accomplishment,” the political activist said. “To have a responsive local government, people must get involved.”

Scott, 52, is living proof of that motto.

A tireless supporter of local causes for 25 years, the West Hills resident, a lawyer, co-founded the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, which helped coordinate dozens of community groups to help in the long-term economic recovery after the 1994 Northridge quake.

Scott, a three-time Fernando Award nominee, is vice president of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, where he says his goal is to balance the quality of life and the economic health of the Valley.

“The people in the Valley suffer from something of an identity crisis,” Scott said. “They need to develop a sense of place and community. If we can create a responsive local government, people get involved.”

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If Rickey Gelb weren’t so busy running his real estate development company, he probably would have made an excellent police officer. Just ask his fellow WATCH volunteers who joined the Encino resident on Ventura Boulevard rooftops in 1994 to help stop crime in the area.

Equipped with binoculars and radios, the WATCH volunteers observed, then reported, crimes in progress to patrol officers, who quickly moved in and arrested the offenders.

“I’m frustrated with the graffiti and car thefts,” Gelb, 53, said. “I want people to be more socialized.”

To that end, the two-time Fernando Award nominee donated a Van Nuys building to the Los Angeles Police Department for its Mid-Valley Jeopardy Foundation. The after-school program provides sports activities and art and computer classes for at-risk youth, as well as counseling to keep kids away from gangs.

“These projects give me the satisfaction that I accomplish something,” the married father of two said.