by Carolyn Seitz
Pictured: the President Streets neighborhood association collected toys and food for the Altadena Sheriff's Station food drive Saturday.
Thanks to the generosity of the Altadena community, the Altadena Sheriff's Station Food and Toy Drive generated enough feed at least 300 families this year. That is 100 more than we served last year.
On Friday, it looked like we might not have enough toys to take care of 100 families, but because of some very generous neighborhoods yesterday, we have plenty of toys to take care of 300 families, except for about 40 boys and girls aged 9 to 12.
You all stepped up generously with an unprecedented number of people participating in Saturday's events in the President Streets area, La Vina, the SENCH Neighborhood (one of oldest and largest Neighborhood Watch Groups in Altadena), the Pinecrest area (and that was a surprise we didn't know about until we saw it on Altadena Blog that morning), and last weekend even in the middle of chaos and no power, the Palm Street Area Residents Association.
All of the Station's volunteer groups were involved in the effort to not only gather food and toys, but to pack them. On Friday and Saturday, if you weren't at the Community Center, you missed the opportunity to also see the Lieutenants, Deputies, our Parking Control Officer and the Stations Professional staff in civilian clothes working side-by-side with our great Volunteers and community members sorting toys and foods, packing food boxes and toys.
Captain McLean would like to thank all who participated in the effort this week and would like to extend special thanks to some neighborhoods and volunteers who have worked tirelessly, some for many years, to make the food & toy drive a success.
Here are some of the organizers you may know and some you may not:
- The DeJardin family and teens in the La Vina Community. Sondra DeJardin is a Sheriff's Community Advisory Committee member
- Lisa Gibson and the President Streets area residents
- Hugo Arteaga and the Palm Street Area Residents Association
- Dr. Joe McGowan, Pastor, Altadena Community Church and his volunteers. He is also a long-time Sheriff's Volunteer
- Javier Arroyo - Toyota of Pasadena. Javier is also a very dedicated long-time Volunteer on Patrol
- Carlotta Martin and Nina Ehlig for SENCH. They're also Community Advisory Committee members
- And new this year, the Pinecrest area also organized a drive. We'd love to know who organized that group
There are also stalwart sheriff's volunteers who give countless hours every year to make the food and toy drive a success. Here's a sampling of some of these volunteers you should know: Joyce Westbrooks, Barbara Benton, Jasmine Sessions, Christine Gholar, Bob Steinbacher, Bill Westphal (also Outstanding Citizen of the Year for 2011), Javier Arroyo, Revvell Revati, Matthew Shropshire, Jackie Sharp, Ralph & Sharon Vila.
The Boy Scout Troop from St. Mark's Church helped pack food and toys Saturday and so did a great group of volunteers from Altadena Community Church.
If you ever find yourself in a position of wondering whether people in Altadena are resilient, they are.
One of the families that has helped with the food and toy drive in the President Streets area the last three years is among the families who were most severely impacted by the windstorm. Their daughter and grandchildren also live in Altadena had their house and all of their possessions declared a complete loss, but there they were, happy to be in service, full of great spirit.
We are a great community!
Stay tuned next Saturday and I'll let you know how the distribution goes. If you want to volunteer to help that day, please let me know. We will have a briefing around 7 am at the Community Center on Saturday morning and the distribution will begin around 8 am. We should be wrapping that up by noon. By about 10 am, we will have groups of volunteers on the phones at the Sheriff's Station calling people who submitted an application for food and toys, but may not have picked them up. That's generally how we find out that we have aging, sometimes bedridden parents and grand parents who are the custodians for some kids and they can't come to us. We deliver to them. If you're willing to help us be in service to them, please let me know. You'll also meet more people, including teenagers who are part of what's great about Altadena. Tecumseh Shackleford's Mentoring & Partnership for Youth Development - a great and successful mentoring program for young men at Muir High School helps us every year and teens from Dr. Sandra Thomas' Bright Futures Scholars also help us.
