Volunteers Take Day to Show They Care

From sprucing up schools to planting gardens at social service agencies, hundreds of volunteers showed they care for their communities Saturday.

The volunteers turned out for the United Way’s annual Day of Caring, a national campaign to encourage people to get involved in their neighborhoods.

“I like to do volunteer work because you can see the results right away,” said Barbara Valdez of North Hollywood, who, with her colleagues from City National Bank in Beverly Hills, waited to board a bus bound for a work site.

From 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., volunteers worked at nearly two dozen agencies in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

The goodwill effort straddled the Santa Monica Mountains with hundreds more volunteers lending a hand at schools, Boys & Girls clubs, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers in central Los Angeles.

At a morning kick-off rally at the Times Valley Edition plant in Chatsworth, United Way of Greater Los Angeles officials announced plans to raise $62 million during its 1998-99 fund drive. That goal is some $3 million more than the $59 million raised in 1997-98.

The money will be used to help pay for 1 million meals; 600,000 doctor’s visits; 400,000 openings in after-school programs at elementary schools, and 60,000 child care placements, said John Hoskinson, chairman of the United Way Regional Board.

“You are the leaders and the volunteers that are going to make this happen,” he said to the 500 volunteers gathered at the plant. “This commitment is extraordinary, but the United Way can do it.”

Also on hand to encourage the volunteers were Los Angeles Times Valley Edition President Julia C. Wilson, United Way Regional Vice President Greg Buesing and Los Angeles City Council members Laura Chick and Mike Feuer, whose districts cover portions of the Valley.

Shermal Fernando, an insurance claims adjuster from Glendale, said he joined his 44 co-workers from Cigna Insurance because he wanted to help the less fortunate.

“I planted flowers at a child guidance clinic,” he said, upon his return from a work site. “There are so many families with problems who go there. It is going to be so beautiful in the spring when the flowers bloom. It will be a nice place for them to go to.”