Volunteer Spirit Pervades Democratic Convention

Ellen Rand yearned to delay her retirement. David Imam wanted to take part in something anti-Republican. And Susy Fineman hoped to show off Los Angeles to fellow North Dakotans.

So they did what more than 7,000 other Angelenos have done in recent weeks: sign up as volunteers for the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

On Wednesday, Rand, Imam and Fineman gathered with about 200 other volunteers at a downtown Los Angeles auditorium, posing for photo identification cards and attending a two-hour orientation on what they will do in the coming month--everything from office work to meeting people at airports, controlling crowds and collecting tickets.

In short, they’ll be “ambassadors” to the sea of delegates and journalists who will be converging on Los Angeles next month, said Ben Austin, spokesman for the LA Convention 2000 host committee.

“Who says there is no spirit in Los Angeles?” the committee’s president, Noelia Rodriguez, told the volunteers, who included her mother, Grace Carrejo of Altadena. “It exists in all of you!”

So does a sense of civic pride. “It’s a lot better than just voting every year,” said Imam, a USC senior from North Hollywood.

Fineman agreed. “We can’t just talk about things and give money, we have to do something about it,” said the first-grade teacher from Sherman Oaks, who decided to volunteer after hearing about it from her friend, Debbie Myman, who also signed up.

A nursery school teacher from Brentwood, Myman recalled Wednesday how her parents made the 1960 convention they attended sound so exciting, especially the night John F. Kennedy was nominated for president.

Rand said she was happy to sign up as a transition to her new life as a retiree. “It’s kind of hard to be a workaholic-type person and go to nothing,” said the Hermosa Beach resident, who retired July 1 as a client manager for Cigna HealthCare. “I’m a die-hard Democrat, so I filled out a form and plunged right in.”

On Wednesday, she signed in other volunteers during orientation, her smile and cheery disposition never wavering as she guided newcomers to other volunteers waiting to snap their pictures. So far, her volunteering has consisted largely of office work two days a week, Rand said.

But she, like Fineman and Imam, are quietly hoping to get what they expect will be the assignment: working inside Staples Center during the actual convention.

“That would be really intense,” said Imam.

Exactly how many volunteers will get to do that is unclear, said Rachel Gerken, the nonpartisan committee’s deputy director of community relations and outreach. But whatever the final number, it will be small, she added.

The volunteers will work through Aug. 17, when the convention ends. A party to celebrate their efforts is planned at the Los Angeles Zoo the next night, Austin said. But there is still something missing from that event: Volunteers.

For more information on volunteering for the zoo party or at the convention, call (213) 532-7448 or log on to the Web at https://www.lahost2000.org.