TreePeople Park Inaugural Project Feb 10, 2007

TreePeople Park!

TreePeople Park in the Hollywood Hills! It is a beautiful 45 acre area that thousands of folks visit every year. TreePeople is overhauling their operation up there and they need our help. Because there will be ongoing construction, once a month, on the 2nd Sat, we're gonna help them keep the park looking great by maintaining the trails, invasive plant removal, rock replacement, slope regrading, erosion protection, wall restoration (the walls were built in 1930's) as well as outdoor stage restoration (some painting) and eventually, their entire nursery will need to be relocated. Each month there will likely be a different task so join us in this exciting new opportunity with one of our oldest agency partners.

Click here to see:

Photos of 1st TreePeople Park Project Feb 10, 2007!

Project Leader Stars Jan/Feb 2007

Celebrate Our Accomplishments & Kickoff the New Year!

Every Year, L.A. Works acknowledges some of our hard working volunteers with a Celebration of our Accomplishments and a Kickoff for the New Year! It was a great afternoon of food, spirits, and merriment where we honored you, our valued volunteers!

Click here to see photos of this fun event!

L.A. Works would like to thank those volunteers who gave 25-50 Hours of Service over the course of the year:

Project Leaders - Chris Babers, Joan Bang, Alexa Benson, Sarah Boyd, Valerie Chiovetti, Charlene Chung, Stephanie Cirone, Tainy Contreras, James Cremin, Veronica Cruz, Luis De Avila, Tim Dickey, Elizabeth Farias, April Fields, Gladys Fung, Rafik Ghazarian, David Ho, Mark Kimura, Chris Martone, Srikant Ranjan, Jay Ross, Tammy Simmons, Clarence Smith, Grant Wadley, Suzanne Wiener, and

Volunteers - Zachary Alderfer, Bethany Beyer, Matthew Carey, Christina Chan, Leni Fleming, Colleen Gately, Stephen Gee, Stephanie Gisondi-Little, Randy Herrera, Jo Kelly, Karen Kuhlman, Halena Le, Ryan Lindgren, Pilar Mendoza, Alicia Montgomery, Jimmy Ngo, Catherine Nguyen, Angela Park, Vanessa Villanueva, Amit Barrett, Sandra Calleros!

L.A. Works wants to especially acknowledge our outstanding youth volunteers who will receive Teen Volunteer Awards!

April Baek, Tainy Contreras, Juan Gascon, Angie Kim, Chelise Sudds, Marquise Washington

L.A. Works Day 2006 was a huge success because of these hard working Project Leaders!

David Bloome (Challengers Boys & Girls Club) Mandana Dayani (Muir Middle School) Cindy Goss (Celerity Nascent Charter School) Ellen Dugas Hoctor (Budlong Ave. Elementary) Mark Kimura (Muir Middle School) Mary Lawler (Roze Room Hospice Interactive Project) Brandon Lucas (Volunteers of America Katrina Project) Tammy Simmons (Budlong Ave. Elementary) Ed Simon (Muir Middle School) Ann Zald (Challengers Boys & Girls Club) and James Zink (Celerity Nascent Charter School)

These dedicated volunteers gave 50+ Hours of Service over the course of the year! L.A. Works salutes you!

Veronica Arevalo, Sandy Boscarino, Teresa Castelli, Hal Christensen, Amy Cimetta, Yolanda Dave , Christy Dean, Michael Hicks, LaJeanne Jones, Cynde Knerr, Mike Kremer, David Lehman, Aurora Maniaul, Juan Mendoza, Kristel Stern, Nancy Tran, William Wira

These volunteers were awarded the Bronze Presidential Service Awards for 100+ Hours of Service. Their commitment to volunteerism is inspirational!

Steven Cota, Alvin Fong, Bobbi Marin, Ed Simon, David Trilling

This is an especially motivated group! Ten Years of Service! L.A. Works is very fortunate to have such faithful volunteers.

Alexa Benson, David Bloome, James Cremin, April Fields, Cindy Goss, Tom Hoctor, Mike Kremer, Connie Leonard, Dinah Posner, Tammy Simmons, Ed Simon, David Trilling, Suzanne Wiener, Ann Zald

The L.A. Works Day 2006 Projects Committee deserves our utmost gratitude for the hard work they put in to make that day possible! Each member of this committee was responsible for a different aspect of the event as well as the management of the L.A. Works Day 2006 sites!

Alexa Benson (registration) April Fields (project leader recruitment) Tom Hoctor (communitcations) Mike Kremer (supplies) Shelia Taylor (skilled experts)

Tom Hoctor! Premier Recipient of the Annual Larry Deckel Award. This award will be given every year to the volunteer whose inspirational knowledge and motivating creativity has taken L.A. Works to ever higher levels of meaningful service to our great city. This year, the recipient of this award has displayed consistent dependability, flexibility, accountability and is a master of organization. Congratulations Tom Hoctor!

A wonderful time was had by all!

L.A. Works/LA Family Housing Film Shoot

Click Here to see photos and read more about this great project!

The LA Family Housing Sydney M. Irmas Transitional Living Center is the only facility in the Valley that accepts and provides longterm shelter to teens and their families. They have an extensive program that includes counseling, life skills training, drug prevention education and School on Wheels classes.

Twice a month, L.A. Works visits the facility with volunteers to engage the teens living there in uplifting activities such as dances, arts and crafts, or a fun conversation. Our goal is to inspire them to explore creative outlets while providing positive role models for them. In this vein, it was decided that the perfect venue for their creative expression would be a film submission to Get LA.

Get LA is an online short film festival and competition conceived by L.A. Works Board members. It's all about Los Angeles -- what makes it great and what could make it better. Visit http://myspace.com/getla to learn more.

Over the course of the past three months, the teens have come up with the concept, written scenes, drawn storyboards, done character and scene work, scouted locations, and worked on costuming in preparation for shooting their film. The teens have participated in writing, acting, storyboard, cinematography and general film making workshops with professionals in those fields.

Click Here to see photos and read more about this great project!

Hands On Schools Martin Luther King Jr. Day Service Project

L.A. Works Hands On Schools Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day of Service was an enormous success. Over 300 volunteers representing LA's diverse communities turned out for a remarkable day of Living The Legacy.

Click Here to see more photos and read about the fabulous event!

Heaven On Earth Cat Sanctuary Photos!

We had such a great day of painting! This cat shelter had paint literally pealing off, which wasn't so appealing to prospective cat owners. Thanks to Gladys Fung and Bobbi Marin for leading this one!

Nov/Dec Project Leader of the Month

We Salute our Project Leaders

As this year comes to a close, I want to express L.A. Works' undying gratitude to our 53 adoptive Project Leaders and honor each of them as Nov/Dec Project Leaders of the Month! Without their enthusiam and commitment, L.A. Works would not be able to manage the close to 80 monthly volunteer projects that serve our vast community.

First, I would like to thank Elvin Albino, Christopher Babers, Teresa Castelli (adopted 2), Charlene Chung, Luis De Avila, Tim Dickey, Suzanne Islet, Christina Preiss, Katherine Serrano, Kristel Stern, each of whom have moved on as adoptive leaders. Some have relocated, some are traveling, some have work loads that have increased, but each one has given of themselves in an incredibly inspiring way and we are grateful!

Next, I would like to acknowledge Steven Cota, Jose Dubon, Gladys Fung (adopted 2), David Ho, Mina Mahini, Aurora Maniaul, Michael Masters, Juan Mendoza, & Gypsy Modina. These are new Project Leaders who stepped up immediately and adopted projects. Talk about enthusiasm. We need more folks like them!

Stephanie Cirone, Bobbi Marin, Nancy Tran are a rare breed indeed, each adopting more than one project last year. This kind of tireless drive is a beautiful thing to behold. Visit one of their projects and see why.

As you all know, without Project Leaders, L.A. Works projects don't happen. These adoptive Project Leaders have renewed their adoption for the new year! Veronica Arevalo, Joan Bang, Emily Barclay, Johanna Black, Sandy Boscarino, Sarah Boyd, Veronica Cruz, Yolanda Dave, Christy Dean, Elizabeth Farias, Alvin Fong, Chris Fukunaga, Rafik Ghazarian, Gil Gerstein, LaJeanne Jones, Bryan Kadotani, Mark Kimura, Cynde Knerr, , Mike Kremer, Sherly Lam, Connie Leonard, Kay Meevasin, Kat & Jesse Perez-Fraga, Ed Simon, Clarence Smith, Shelia Taylor, David Trilling, Bona Tucker, Will Wira. L.A. Works is extremely fortunate to have such a dedicated core of volunteers.

The next two Project Leaders deserve our hats off. Chris Martone and Jay Ross, while they are not adoptive Project Leaders, can always be counted on to take up the slack when a project has no leader. Every month, they step up to take one or two. You guys are great!

Lastly, Dave Bloome has offered his expertise to assist L.A. Works forge a new and lasting partnership with The American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles. We are confident that with Dave's help, L.A. Works can become a major player in Los Angeles' Disaster Response team.

As you can see, L.A. Works has a great group of hard working adoptive Project Leaders! Again, our gratitude goes out to each and every one of them!

To become one of these go getters, go to the Project Calendar section of the website and sign up for Project Leader Training or to find out the date of the next session.

Teenagers Make A Difference Day A Huge Success!

Congratulations to our teen Organizing Committee who worked extremely hard to make these projects happen! Over 150 volunteers attended the 7 projects across the city and painted, planted, designed and painted murals, decorated Halloween cookies, made Flat Stanleys, played games, repaired wheelchairs, cleaned up beaches and generally had a great time! Our grateful partners, The Burbank Center (BCR), L.A. Leadership Academy, Midnight Mission, Heal The Bay, Santa Monica Baykeepers, Alhambra Convalescent Home, and Wheels for Humanity wish to thank all the volunteers who made this such a fun and meaningful event! Check out some of the photos!

We Need Your Help!

Teenagers Make A Difference Day Needs Your Help!

October 28, 2006

There are several projects for this important event that could use more volunteers. Our teen Organizing Committee has worked extremely hard to make these projects happen, let's show them our support! Everyone can participate and we want to encourage you all to volunteer for these great projects! Click Here to take a look at the different projects we have available and sign up today! Help us make Teenagers Make A Difference Day a huge success!

Calling Teen Volunteers!

Teenagers Make A Difference Day

Teenagers Make A Difference Day is an important national event where teens are mobilized to do something good for their neighborhoods and communities. L.A. Works is excited to be one of the organizations poised to facilitate our city's response to this call. We need 15 youth volunteers (ages 14 to 19) to comprise the Organizing Committee! The Organizing Committee will plan and implement a volunteer service project that will be completed on the Teenagers Make A Difference Day, October 28, 2006. During this first meeting of the Organizing Committee, the teen participants will brainstorm ideas, make goals, select and begin the planning process for the service project. Click Here to sign up for this exciting project.

August Project Leader of the Month

We Salute our Project Leaders

Project Leader of the Month August 2006

Shelia Taylor --

I had to let you know about Shelia Taylor! Not only does Shelia run a monthly project at Friends of Animals, she was a valued member of this year's L.A. Works Day Projects Committee. Because of her expertise in contracting, our L.A. Works Day 2006 Katrina project was a huge success. We could not have done it without her!

Shelia outlines her philosophy:

A. I am an ordinary citizen fulfilling the responsibility that has been given to me my the community.
B. I have now been involved with LA Works for the past two (2) years
C. I became involved with LA Works after reading an article in the Downtown News under the heading, “weekend events”. That event advertisement was for LA Works Day. I spent that Saturday, cleaning along the LA River and painting over graffiti under bridges. I had a fantastic time. Of course on this day people make many friends. By the end of the day I became friends with a young woman by the name of Leng. Her last name escapes me. She’d been involved with LA Works for some time and began sending me notices of volunteers needed. I never signed-up for any of the openings she sent and eventually she stopped. I recall my schedule always being too busy and thinking each time, “you know, I’ll sign-up for the next event she sends, and that went on and on.” SO when she stopped it was like being hit in the stomach and I knew I was ignoring my responsibility to the community. I went to the LA Works website one evening and signed-up to be a Project Leader and it has been one of the best experiences of my life.
D. I volunteer, because it is “my” belief that we have been placed on this earth to serve and assist others.
E. My philosophy of volunteering is “Just Do It”
F. Thank you for caring about our community.

Shelia is a very special person and a project leader to watch! Way to go, Shelia --

This Month's Project Leaders

Thanks to all of our Project Leaders who are leading projects during the month of August.

You are the real leaders in our community! The Staff & Board of Directors of L.A. Works thanks you for being the real superstars of our community!

Albana Farias Alvin Fong Aurora Maniaul Bobbi Marin Bona Tucker Bryan Kadotani Charlene Chung Chris Fukunaga Christy Dean Christina Preiss Christopher Babers Cindy Goss Clarence Smith Connie Leonard Cynde Knerr David Trilling Ed Simon Elvin Albino Emily Barclay Gil Gerstein Grant Wadley Jay Ross Jesse Perez-Fraga Joan Bang Johanna Black Katherine Serrano Kathryn Perez-Fraga Kay Meevasin Kristel Stern LaJeanne Jones Lilia Elias Llami Gutierrez Luis De Avila Margaret Comstock Mark Kimura Melodee Cole Mike Kremer Nancy Tran Rafik Ghazarian Sandy Boscarino Sandy Choi Sarah Boyd Shelia Taylor Sherly Lam Srikant Ranjan Stephanie Cirone Suzanne Islet Suzanne Wiener Teresa Castelli Teri Johnson Timothy Dickey William Wira Veronica Cruz Yolanda Dave Yvonne Foster

Want to join the ranks of L.A.'s most involved citizens? Become an L.A. Works Project Leader. It's easy, it's fun, and it doesn't require a huge amount of your time. Go to the Project Calendar section of the website and sign up for Project Leader Training or email Julie Prejean to find out the date of the next session.

Past Project Leaders Of the Month

August, 2006 - Lilia Elias

June, 2006 - Tammy Simmons

April, 2006 - Mike Kremer

March, 2006 - Christina Preiss

February, 2006 - in loving Memory, Helga Hung

January, 2006 - Sherly Lam

November, 2005 - Clarence Smith

October, 2005 - Joan Bang

September, 2005 - Kat and Jesse Perez-Fraga

August, 2005 - Bryan Kadatoni

July, 2005 - Ken Hagopian

June, 2005 - Laura Bonilla

May, 2005 - Alexa Benson

April, 2005 - April Fields

March, 2005 - Mia Farrell

February, 2005 - Sandy Boscarino

January, 2005 - Andrew Anura Abeyesinghe

December, 2004 - Jacquie Moreno

November, 2004 - Timothy Dickey and Howard Weiner

October, 2004 - Russell Ali

September, 2004 - Suzanne Wiener

August, 2004 - Veronica Cruz

July, 2004 - Margaret Conway

June, 2004 - Ellen Dugas

May, 2004 - Luis de Avila

April, 2004 - Mandana Dayani

Mar, 2004 - Cindy Finocchi

Feb, 2004 - Viet Hoang

Jan, 2004 - Teresa Castelli

Dec. 2003 - Mary Lawler

Nov. 2003 - Jose Valencia

Oct, 2003 - Dustin Manhart

Sept, 2003 - Marc Weinberg

Aug, 2003 - Mark Kimura

July, 2003 - Jay Ross

June, 2003 - Meghan Lee

May, 2003 - Ray Ng

April, 2003 - David Trilling

March, 2003 - Tom Hoctor

February, 2003 - Kayo Shiraishi-Adachi

January, 2003 - Henry Meyer

December, 2002 - Suzanne Studer

November, 2002 - Ed Simon

October, 2002 - Bobbi Marin