City Lights shine to foster mental health

He came for the free removal of tattoos. He left with hope.

Since then, Marco Munguia -- ex-gang member, drug addict, convict -- has become a volunteer counselor at the facility he says saved him from “life imprisonment or death”: the Southern California Counseling Center. “When I went to the center to have my tattoos removed, there was so much pain in me, I felt like a throwaway citizen,” the 31-year-old said at the center’s May 20 awards dinner at the Beverly Hilton hotel. “They helped me through. Now, I work with elderly patients as a physical and motivational therapist. I’m here tonight to thank the loving people who help raise funds for center programs.”

More than 300 supporters watched actress-author Carrie Fisher receive a City Lights Award from the center for her contribution to the field of mental wellness. “We’re honoring Carrie for her honesty, her openness about her diagnosis of bipolar disorder,” said Executive Director Margo Peck. “She is proof that, with therapy and the proper medication, you can move beyond manic-depression to a balanced life.”

Fisher’s new book, “The Best Awful,” describes the thrill ride of being pathologically manic. “Mania is this fantastic thing that is so good that it’s just awful,” she said. “Really, it’s one of the best things you can experience, but then dysphoria -- euphoria twisted wrong -- sets in. It’s hard to get someone in treatment who is manic; they feel better than great. But when they’re down, they want it. I did.”

Also recognized with a City Lights Award: author Mark Salzman (“Iron and Silk,” “The Soloist”), whose work as a writing coach for juvenile felons in a detention facility resulted in his latest book, “True Notebooks.” How did the experience affect his life? “It made me want to have kids of my own,” he said during the cocktail reception. “I hadn’t had any interest in having children, but I came to love those kids so much that, well, now I have a 3-year-old and I’m a stay-at-home dad.”

Education activist Tara Lynda Guber received the Wallis Annenberg Founders Award, and the annual event marked the inauguration of the Mardi Arquette Spirit Award, which was presented to the late marriage and family therapist’s children: Rosanna Arquette, David Arquette, Patricia Arquette and Alexis Arquette. “Mardi was open, giving, welcoming,” observed Sharon Ellenbogen, counselor supervisor. “Her greatest strength was her ability to create relationships. She allowed you to be you, with all your flaws, imperfections, warts. She represents the kind of person we want to greet the community at our center.”

A solemn Rosanna Arquette said of her mother, who died eight years ago of breast cancer: “Everything I am, I owe to her.”