Art in many forms

The Burbank Boys & Girls Club is partnering with two area businesses in projects club officials said produce a sense of pride for members inside the clubhouse on North Buena Vista Street and out in the community.

Twenty-eight employees of the Lockheed Federal Credit Union volunteered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday to paint exterior walls of the main clubhouse, technology building and member restrooms, said Shanna Warren, chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Club.

“We are glad to be the recipients of this community service from the Lockheed Federal Credit Union,” Warren said. “The credit union has been a great supporter of our organization during the last few years and we’re glad to continue our relationship.”

The club, which provides after-school and summer activities for youths ages 6 to 18, hasn’t been painted since before Warren started working there eight years ago, she said.

“It hasn’t been done in a long time, and there’s been a lot of exposure to youngsters touching and playing,” Warren said.

“We definitely needed it.”

The project is part of the credit union’s Volunteer Time Off Program with Partner to Paint, in which employees receive company paid time off to volunteer in the community, said Alethia Calagias, community relations specialist with the credit union.

“I’ve planned the Partner to Paint programs for three years in a row,” she said.

Each year the credit union selects a structure to be painted, Calagias said. Burbank City Manager Mike Flad and Ron Davis, general manager of Burbank Water and Power, helped in the selection of the Burbank Boys & Girls Club. Davis is a member of the club’s board of directors.

The project gives credit union employees a change of pace and allows them to work with people in other departments, Calagias said. About 10 departments participated“It’s a team-builder project,” she said. “People talk about work and their personal life, and we enjoy ourselves in the process.”

Calagias called on other businesses to contribute. Corner Bakery provided 45 box lunches for volunteers and Budget Rent A Car transported employees to and from the club.

Tim Tilton, owner of T & T Improvements Inc. Painting Co. in Burbank, donated his time as the foreman and brought four employees to help. Dunn Edwards Paints in Glendale provided 70 gallons of paint.

This is the second year Tilton has helped the credit union with a painting project, he said. Last year, they coordinated on painting four portable units at Bret Harte Elementary School.

“I like to give back to the community,” Tilton said about working on the project.” I’m a Burbank boy, born and raised.”

Tilton was proud of the job the credit union employees, he said.

“They did an outstanding job,” Tilton said. “They all worked real hard. We have some outstanding painters here.”

Tilton was coaching employees like Carol Mashore on painting techniques like taping off the windows, she said. Mashore, a Burbank resident, is a consumer underwriting manager at the credit union. She was glad to be helping the cause.

“It’s tiring but it’s very rewarding because the Boys & Girls Club is a great organization,” Mashore said.

“My daughter came here one summer. It’s nice to have the club in the community because of the care the kids get.”

Over spring vacation in March, club members had a visit from two Disney Store VoluntEARS who led an art project to commemorate Earth Day coming up on Wednesday. The local project was part of a national partnership between Disney Store North America and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which has continued for more than 50 years.

The Burbank club was provided with art supplies to decorate 8-by-12-inch square panels made from recycled paper, said Jim Babcock, director of Disney Store Communications.

The panels were assembled into a colorful mural and is now displayed in the Disney Store window at the Glendale Galleria until Earth Day, he said. “We wanted the kids to draw their interpretation of what Earth Day means to them in their own community,” he said.

Arpineh Khodagholian of Glendale, on-site coordinator at the club, said the members drew things like gardeners watering their plants.

“It was fun to see the reactions of the VoluntEARS to the art created by our members,” she said. “I see the kids work all the time, so I wasn’t surprised.”

Alexa Hughes, 11, a fourth-grader at Roosevelt Elementary School in Burbank, got to use the colorful pencils and markers the Disney VoluntEARS brought for the project.

“I drew a recycling bin with a huge mountain of trash and kids in the background,” she said. Having the members’ art displayed in a public place like the Glendale Galleria has been exciting, Warren said.

“Being able to take their friends and family in to see what they were able to create and have it displayed in a major mall is quite an accomplishment,” she said.

“Many of our members are aspiring artists, so to be asked by such a great organization as Disney to have their work displayed is a great honor.”