Creston Club Puts Boys’ Night Out to Use in Helping Youth of Valley

Twice a month, members of the Creston Club don official yellow or plum-colored sweaters and hold a meeting at their North Hollywood clubhouse.

Much of the evening is devoted to back-slapping and kidding around, but, despite the revelry, one member estimates that over the years the group has given away half a million dollars through its Help Youth Foundation.

“Our guys are hustlers,” he said. “They’ll find free ice cream, free toys, free you-name-it to give to the kids.”

The 33-year-old Creston Club limits its numbers to 50 members and comes to the aid of “organizations that don’t get government money and who are having a hard time staying in operation,” said Harry Rubel, 73.

“At our first fund-raiser, we raised $600,” said George Wyle, 70, of Reseda. “We went to City Hall and said, ‘What do you have for disabled kids in the Valley? We’re Valley people, so it has to be Valley.’ They had nothing, so we paid a doctor $50 a time to see kids every Saturday for 12 weeks.”

Wyle is a founder of the Creston Club. In 1953, he recalled, “There were three of us, and the other two aren’t alive today. We were sitting around playing cards and someone said, ‘Let’s have a social club where we help some kids.’ It was that simple.”

Most of the foundation’s money comes from a golf tournament staged each fall at the Braemar Country Club in Tarzana. The tournament was a sellout this year. “We raised about $30,000,” said Hal Gelman of North Hollywood, head of a committee that selects charities to receive funds. The committee voted to give $15,000 to the Jeffrey Foundation, which is a home in the Westside for kids without families, and $6,000 to both the Therapeutic Living Center for the Blind in Reseda and the Valley Association for the Handicapped.

The club’s name, members said, was thought up during one of the first meetings.

“Being on the crest would mean being at the top of things,” one explained, “so that’s what they named it--Creston.”

Gelman, 65, has been a member for 10 years. He said the organization is thriving and has two men on a waiting list to join, but that membership wasn’t always so solid.

“The club almost died about the time I came in,” Gelman said. “The original members were getting old, people were moving away and there just wasn’t much new blood coming in. But a group of us rejuvenated it to what it is today.”

Besides its donations through Help Youth Foundation, the club sponsors an annual Christmas party for children. This year’s event was held at a movie theater in Tarzana. About 240 youngsters--some disadvantaged or handicapped and some from such mainstream groups as the YMCA and Campfire Girls--watched Disney’s “The Great Mouse Detective” and received gifts of records, toys and candy.

Ken Lumenello of North Hollywood played Santa Claus and handed out presents.

“I’m not a Creston member, but I do Santa for them,” said Lumenello, 60. “Last year the party was at a home for abused children. We had a little girl who had been battered. Her father was beating her up, and she came into the home the night before. She was so afraid of me she wouldn’t come near, but, by the time I left, she was hanging all over me and she gave me a kiss. That’s what I get out of doing this.”

Rubel, a Creston member for four years, said the club prides itself on finding the likes of Lumenello--people who will donate time or goods to the group’s projects.

“Low overhead--that’s what makes our work possible,” said Rubel, of Studio City.

Walt Zukerman, 76, joined Creston shortly after it was founded.

“Over the years, I’d say we’ve given away half a million dollars all together,” he said, “and it’s gone to just about everybody in the Valley that helps kids. Wards of the court, orphans, disabled, the whole range.”

Zukerman, a retired dentist, moved from Studio City to Camarillo nine years ago but often makes the 100-mile round-trip drive to attend the club’s meetings.

“The meetings are raucous and a lot of fun,” he said. “They’re the social aspect to what we do, and, without the social aspect, there would be no Help Youth. A lot gets done at the meetings, but the language is loud and they raise hell with each other about putting things in the minutes and things like that. As you get older, you still have some of the kid left in you, thank God.”

Bernice Pearlman, a member of the executive board of Therapeutic Living Center for the Blind, said Help Youth Foundation has played a crucial role in the facility’s development.

“We just built a new center and they helped equip the training kitchen,” she said. “We used their money for a stove, refrigerator, washer / dryer, things like that. We’re the only nonprofit agency that offers residential living to multihandicapped blind--that’s blind people who have cerebral palsy, epilepsy, deafness or some other major handicap.

“Most of our kids come here in their mid or late teens,” Pearlman said. “These are people who will never cook on their own, but with supervision they plan parties for a group of other kids. It’s exciting for them to bake cookies or make spaghetti. One of the scariest things for the blind is fire, so learning to be in a kitchen is very important to them.”

The major recipient of Help Youth money this year, the Jeffery Foundation in Mar Vista, is run by Alyce Morris, who founded the facility 14 years ago.

“It’s named after my son, Jeffery, who had muscular dystrophy,” she said. “I started it for Jeff so he’d have some cultural activity. He died at 16 several years ago and I kept it going. Now we serve over 300 kids a year.”

Morris said the Help Youth donation was used in Jeffery Foundation’s after-school programs and its residential home for 12 youngsters with muscular dystrophy.

“We’ve literally gotten parents off welfare with our child-care service,” she said. “And the group homes are so important because, when the family can’t care for the kids properly, that’s when there’s neglect or abuse.”

Pacific Lodge Boys Home in Woodland Hills, a residence for 84 teen-age wards of the court, received Help Youth donations in 1984 and 1985. Richard Hill, executive director, said the money totaled more than $20,000.

“It helped us establish our cottage industry programs, which are vocational and pre-vocational workshops for the boys. They’re learning woodworking, and we’re setting it up to teach them electrical, plumbing and printing. The Help Youth Foundation has been a tremendous help to what we do.”

The Creston Club’s limit of 50 male members has never been seriously challenged, longtime members say.

“At one time, the membership was limited to 35, but years ago we jumped it to 50,” said Zukerman. “Some people get turned away. If a guy is a horse’s ass, we wouldn’t let him in. We’ve also got to be pretty sure he’ll do his share for Help Youth. We’re fairly selective.”

Zukerman said women members would detract from the club’s camaraderie.

“Besides, our wives get involved in a lot of the events,” he added. “The way it works is OK with them.”

“It started as a boys’ night out,” said Al Altshule, 78, of Sherman Oaks, like Zukerman a member for nearly 30 years. “We want to keep it that way.”

Rubel, the club’s official spokesman, said most Creston members are Jewish.

“About six of our members are Gentiles,” he explained, “but that’s just how the numbers come out. We don’t have any restrictions about religion or color. Anyone can join, but usually you’ve got someone working to get you in.”

Opening the club to more members is a frequently discussed possibility, according to Rubel, but he doubted that the move will be made.

“We debate that every other month,” he said, “but if we get too heavy with members, we’re going to lose sight of what we do--helping kids. We don’t want that.”