Scouts Put Heart Into Valentine’s Visit

Dick Grills did camera work in Walt Disney Co.’s animation department for 41 years, but the show business veteran had never seen a production like this.

“They’re putting on a good show,” said Grills, as members of a Daisy Girl Scouts troop presented him with a handmade Valentine’s Day card. “It’s a great party.”

Grills, 86, was among 25 residents at the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s retirement complex in Woodland Hills who were visited last week by 10 girls from Daisy Girl Scouts Troop 27 in Calabasas.

For nearly two hours, the girls--all kindergartners at Chaparral Elementary in Calabasas--made cards, shared cookies and sang songs for their new senior friends.

“It means such a world of joy, just joy all over me,” said Edith Noble, 95, as she patted a 5-year-old Scout on the back.

The Motion Picture and Television Fund, founded in 1921 with help from Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, cares for entertainment industry retirees and their spouses.

All the seniors who met the Daisy troop are in wheelchairs and are residents in the long-term care unit.

After reciting the Girl Scout pledge, the girls fashioned their valentines from red and pink construction paper, felt-tip markers and store-bought stickers with practiced ease.

Alex Petrasek, 5, said she has made valentines before at school. But at the home, she said, “I’m doing it with new people.”