Charities

Business owners discuss recruiting LOS ANGELES -- The Burbank Chapter Leads Club, an organization that helps business leaders network, will meet from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m. today at the Taste Buds restaurant in the Toluca Lake Sports Center, 6711 Forest Lawn Drive. Topics of discussion will include bringing new business leaders from Burbank into the Leads Club Chapter. Breakfast is $10. The club will present a business mixer from 7 to 9 p.m. June 30. Admission is $12. For more information, call 973-7142.

Robert Blechl MEDIA DISTRICT WEST -- They'll be standing proudly next to their glistening machines, some powered by triple deuces and others rumbling with high-rise cams. The Road Kings of Burbank will hold a picnic and hot rod car show -- with an estimated 500 vehicles -- from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at Johnny Carson Park. Entertainment will be provided by the John Burroughs High School Jazz Band and a DJ spinning oldies music. Coffee and homemade baked goods will be provided by Road King families.

I have never seen Will Rogers at any function in our city that is for the benefit of any charity or for the enrichment of Burbank's citizens. I don't believe Rogers has ever done anything constructive for Burbank, but his constant contemptuous remarks about the citizens who try to improve our city is destructive. It takes a lot more effort to build up. All Rogers does is try to tear down. Since Rogers works for a newspaper he is aware of all the opportunities to be a part of charities and services in Burbank, but he has chosen to belittle those efforts.

BURBANK -- Burbank Road Kings are warming their engines for the 2001 Charity Car Show from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at Johnny Carson Park, 100 S. Bob Hope Drive. Close to 500 modifieds, factory stock and vintage hot rods will be displayed, along with a midway with Road Kings memorabilia, special interest vehicles and vendors. Hamburgers and hot dogs and other refreshments will be sold. Wives of the Road Kings will be selling baked goods and Browns Garage band will entertain.

Central building sold for more than $4M BURBANK -- Los Angeles investors recently paid more than $4 million for a fully leased office building in Burbank. Gateway Title Co. and state government agencies rent offices in the 31,000-square-foot building at 1405 San Fernando Blvd. There is 7,000 square feet of parking next door. Larry Iles and Ken Kneale of GVA Daum's downtown Los Angeles offices represented the buyers, Three D Properties LLC. Charles Cusumano Real Estate of Burbank represented the sellers, C & P Properties LLC. The wood and stucco offices feature ground-level parking on the first floor.

Molly Shore Hannah Richards, a second-grade student at American Lutheran School, already knows a lot about the tropical rain forests. "They lose about two football fields of trees and plants every day," the 8-year-old said. Since the beginning of the school year, Hannah and her classmates have been doing something to combat the loss, raising money so parcels of tropical rain forest can be purchased to preserve trees. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade selected charities to benefit from their fund-raising efforts, which totaled $648.

President Bush noted on June 26 at the national conference of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives that his first executive order was to establish that office. The White House program has improved relationships between the federal government and religious charities. But many people say there should be a church-state separation and that the program should be shut down. Should this program be kept by the next president? ? No, it shouldn?t. I know that it sounds harmless and maybe even good that government and faith-based charities work together.

Before there was hip-hop, there was car-hop, a style of service that has all but disappeared, with one happy exception. Every Friday and Saturday night, you can find it at Bob's Big Boy restaurant In Toluca Lake. The place is swell. Teeny boppers and hep cats, squares and swing daddies can all be found there enjoying the same diner fare that Bob's has been dishing out since 1949. The building has been preserved in its original form earning it recognition as a Historical Place of Interest.

Karen S. Kim BURBANK -- With less than a week to go before Burbank's primary election, city treasurer candidate Charity Dawn Wynn is finally speaking up. Her lack of campaigning over the past month is owed to her busy schedule, she said. "My stepfather's been in the hospital for open-heart surgery," Wynn said. "My time has been divided with visiting him and planning my wedding." The 25-year-old Burbank resident is getting married in December.

Fifth-graders at Roosevelt Elementary performed a play for parents and teachers Thursday that incorporated a hula dance they learned from Hawaii native and Roosevelt teacher Tiffany Kaloustian earlier this year. Since October, all 95 fifth-graders on campus practiced the hula with Kaloustian, who had flown in orchids from Hawaii to make leis for the performance . In the months that the students rehearsed the play, they also raised $2,500 by selling lollipops. All the money will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which will help grant a child's wish in April.

Gary Casella hovered over a 17-foot bundled Christmas tree one recent morning under a large white tent on the Burbank High School soccer field. “This one's going to the city of Burbank,” Casella, 74, said of the 19-year-old tree, one of the first he would deliver this season. Casella's 75-year-old Christmas tree business - founded in 1937 by his father, Paul Casella - has been operating in Burbank for nearly five decades. “I told my dad before he passed I'd get to 75 years,” Casella said of the business.

Politicians who had their campaign accounts plundered by former Burbank-based campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee may not get much in restitution, but a civil action has freed up $2.5 million in funds frozen in bank accounts during the federal investigation. First California Bank had frozen the accounts of dozens of politicians whose money was handled by Durkee. A Superior Court judge recently ordered the accounts unfrozen and the money left over distributed to its owners. The money was what was left in the accounts after Durkee misspent up to $7 million, said Atticus Wegman, an attorney pursuing civil action against Durkee on behalf of federal and state legislators.

Police officials and other employees at Bob Hope Airport on Tuesday donated a combined $2,125 to a 6-year-old girl who -- having been diagnosed with a form of pediatric kidney cancer -- has been raising funds for cancer research. It all started with a goal to raise $300 at her lemonade stand. But as word of Aleyna Doche's campaign spread, the money poured in. On the first day, she raised more than $1,500 alone. Since then, Aleyna's little lemonade stand has grown into quite the fundraising operation.

Throughout the year, the Burbank Association of Realtors stages many fundraisers to raise money for its foundation, with its annual CSF Auction standing as the group's premiere event. This past week, presented under the theme “Live From Burbank, It's Thursday Night Live,” a Who's Who of Burbank Realtors gathered to enjoy an evening of dining, entertainment and bidding on great items at their Magnolia Park facility. Between the Realtor rivalry of bidding on items that included a VIP experience at Disneyland with dinner at the park's illusive Club 33, a skybox suite for a Los Angeles Kings game, VIP tickets for a taping of “Conan” and lunch with Burbank Mayor Dave Golonski, the assemblage was treated to the comedic styling of HGTV's “House Hunters” host Suzanne Whang and the music of the twice Emmy-nominated Gary Stockdale, who was an original member of the Brian Setzer Orchestra.

The Burbank Road Kings car club is still on the gas. The 60-year-old organization has pooled funds raised from two car shows this year and distributed $18,000 to its community charities during a dinner meeting on Sept. 11 at the Elks Lodge. President Rick Kalisz conducted the meeting and called for a moment of silence to remember victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and their families. Representatives from local charities took the stage to thank the Road Kings for their donations and to deliver a synopsis of what their organizations do. Burbank Historical Society board members Les and Elaine Rosenberg accepted a donation on behalf of the historical society.

The Community Foundation of the Verdugos announced new members to its Board of Directors and newly elected officers for 2012. Those newly serving the board include attorneys Armen Baghdasarian of the Glendale firm Irsfeld, Irsfeld & Younger LLP and Charles L. LeCroy III with Baker, Olson, LeCroy & Danielian, also located in Glendale. Joining them is Lee Wochner of Counterintuity LLC, a full-service creative marketing company in Burbank. Robert Knauf, of Arroyo Insurance, has taken the lead as Board President.

The Burbank chapter of National Charity League, Inc. is looking for mothers and daughters to join the organization. The chapter is hoping to recruit as many Burbank mother and daughter teams as possible. The membership drive is open to current sixth through ninth grade girls who would participate in a six-year program of philanthropic work, educational activities and cultural events. Founded in 1960, the Burbank chapter of National Charity League has more than 60 mother-daughter teams.

PROVIDENCE HIGH—Rivals Bellarmine-Jefferson High and Providence took the court in the final game of an all-day tournament benefiting a good cause Saturday at Providence High School. The game proved worthy of main-event status, as the Guards and the Pioneers ended a successful day that raised $850 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation with a thrilling see-saw battle — something that ought to be expected any time the two private schools face each other. In the end, the host Pioneers, led by Marcus Lovett Jr., edged the Guards, 77-71, in a high-scoring affair that featured four lead changes.

The Lockheed Federal Credit Union celebrated the success of their foundation in September when employees met with representatives of local charities that the foundation supports. The charities benefited by the foundation, LFCU Community Stars, include the Burbank Temporary Aid Center, Penny Lane Centers, the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center Foundation and For the Troops. Until now, the credit union's employees have volunteered over 1,200 hours through the credit union's “Volunteer Time Off” program.