The Need Is Year-Round

The holidays can be a frenzy of shopping, wrapping and unwrapping, of cooking, eating and partying. So it’s heartening to hear that in the midst of such plenty, San Fernando Valley residents and businesses took time this season to remember those less fortunate than themselves.

The nonprofit San Fernando Valley Child & Family Guidance Center received a “wonderful outpouring” of community support, according to Diane Arrata, the center’s director of development. The center provides mental health treatment to families who don’t have insurance to pay for such care. Among other donors, students in 20 classrooms at Woodland Hills Elementary School “adopted” center families and provided them with boxes of toys and food.

The Boys & Girls Club of Burbank, which serves low-income and at-risk children between ages 7 and 17, distributed toys donated by the local Kiwanis Club and fire department as well as by individuals.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood Division, area businesses, community groups and schoolchildren pitched in and donated stuffed animals and dolls after $1,000 worth of gifts were stolen--talk about the Grinch--from the Los Angeles Family Housing Corp., a North Hollywood-based homeless support organization that runs a shelter along with transitional and low-income housing units.

“People tend to have more of a conscience at this time of year,” says Barbara Ausburn of Loaves and Fishes, a food pantry and clothing distribution center in Van Nuys that also reported healthy donations this year. But, she added, “I wish they would give to us throughout the year.”

Ausburn’s sentiment was echoed by every person at every social services group we called.

Don’t get them wrong: They are grateful for the holiday donations. But as generous as it is to remember the homeless, the sick, the elderly and the underprivileged over the holidays, their problems don’t go away come Dec. 26. They and the agencies that serve them need a bit of Christmas in July--and in January, April and September--not just for the month between Thanksgiving and Dec. 25.

The Child and Family Guidance Center, for instance, needs toys year-round to use as part of play or art therapy. “Often children know that they feel badly, but they don’t always have the language to articulate how they’re feeling,” says Arrata. Dolls and stuffed animals can help.

The Boys & Girls Club needs athletic equipment, educational software and computers, books and art supplies. Come summertime, $100 puts one child through camp--a child whose family couldn’t afford a camp that costs that much each week.

Loaves and Fishes needs nonperishable food, boots, jackets and toiletries. The L.A. Family Housing Corp. spends more on laundry detergent than most people spend on mortgages. It needs donations to pay for toothpaste, blankets and bus tokens and to meet operational costs, like utilities, that aren’t covered by federal and foundation grants.

And they need volunteers. “We’re like the Golden Gate Bridge,” says acting director Anne Jacobus. “We finish painting all of our facilities, and we need to start over again.”

In other words, needs aren’t confined to one month a year. And neither should our generosity be.

It takes surprisingly little to make a difference. Jacobus’ stepson organized his fellow seventh-graders to donate a portion of their lunch money each week to buy toys and supplies for homeless families. Both the Family Housing Corp. and Loaves and Fishes welcome donations of travel-size soap and shampoo that regular contributors pick up at hotels during business trips and vacations.

“All you have to do is be creative and think, ‘How can I help?”’ says Jacobus.

We just have to think it more than once a year.

To Take Action: The San Fernando Valley Child & Family Guidance Center, 9650 Zelzah Ave., Northridge 91325, (818) 993-9311.

The Boys & Girls Club of Burbank, 2244 N. Buena Vista St., Burbank 91504, (818) 842-9333.

Loaves and Fishes, 14640 Keswick St., Van Nuys 91405, (818) 997-0942.

L.A. Family Housing Corp., 7843 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, 91605, (818) 982-4091.