L.A. Reaches Out : Community Service: There are many reasons for volunteering--making new friends, developing new skills, seeking new adventures or showing that you care to make the world a better place.

This is the time for eggnog, plum pudding and chocolate butter creams. For Kris Kringle and the lighting of Menorah candles. And, of course, New Year’s resolutions.

But this time, along with vows to make more money, lose weight and stop smoking, many people add the goal of volunteering to their list of new commitments.

Though this call for community service sounds like boring business that can be handled by wealthy, middle-aged people who don’t work or do-gooders who have nothing else to do, several experts in the field are working hard to dispel the perception.

“You can throw out all the old stereotypes regarding the kinds of people who volunteer,” said John Thomas, communications director of Independent Sector, the country’s largest philanthropic coalition of foundations, corporations and nonprofit organizations.

“Look up and down your street and you’ll find people just like yourself working to clean up the water, change a city ordinance or put in a new street light where there wasn’t one before.”

Clark Ervin, associate director of policy for the White House Office of National Service, which oversees the President’s 1000 Points of Light program, believes community service is an “enriching, ennobling and empowering experience” available to all Americans.

“You may ask how can a 14-year-old pregnant girl help anyone,” Ervin said, “but just by talking and sharing, she can help other pregnant teen-agers get through some tough times.”

For Janet Harrison, director of the West Los Angeles Volunteer Center, charity or social service activities can have an almost liberating effect.

“It’s one of the few times people can do something totally different from what they do during the day,” she said. “A loan officer concerned about the environment can sign up with conservation groups like Heal the Bay or the TreePeople. A secretary working in a real estate development company can help place homeless teen-agers in a shelter.”

But don’t take the experts’ word for it. Let those in the field share their stories. You’ll quickly discover that there are as many reasons for volunteering--making new friends, developing new skills, seeking new adventures or simply showing that you care to make the world a better place--as there are volunteers.

According to the November, 1989, Gallup Poll on volunteering, 41% of the American adult population (18 or older) is involved in some form of unpaid community service.

Included in that number is Stacey Winkler, co-founder of United Friends of the Children. Married to actor Henry “the Fonz” Winkler, she is working to ensure that there are happy days ahead for nearly 6,000 dependent children of the court who are in the care of MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte. The center provides emergency services for youngsters (from birth to 18) who have been abused, neglected or abandoned in Los Angeles County.

“We help with clothing, medical supplies and a number of special events, but it never seems enough,” she said. “If corporations, public agencies and private citizens don’t close ranks to help the children of Los Angeles, we’re all dead.”

Winkler was among those who recruited Michael Eidel, a young lawyer with Weissmann, Wolff, Bergman, Coleman & Silverman in Beverly Hills, who seized the opportunity to become involved in less litigious pursuits in his spare time.

“I was a pushover,” Eidel said. “After you go to Disneyland a couple of times, all the attractions look pretty much the same. But you can’t say that about the kids at MacLaren. You talk to them once, and you keep coming back.”

The thirtysomething barrister visits MacLaren about once a month for weekend barbecues.

“We serve burgers and toss the football around,” Eidel said, “but we don’t buddy up or counsel the kids. We just let them know we care.”

Winkler also hooked Neal Breton, chairman of 14 apparel companies in the Los Angeles area that regularly donate clothing to MacLaren.

“After my father died, I was looking for something that would carry on his love of children,” said Breton, who also sponsors a “Rags for Riches” fund-raiser in the spring that benefits three other youth charities.

Like Breton, volunteers usually have strong emotional ties to the nonprofit groups they serve. In the case of Lee Otchis of Camarillo, she turned to the City of Hope after her cancer went into remission.

“Look at the marvelous work they’re doing,” said Otchis, who works as a volunteer cashier at the Duarte hospital’s Los Angeles thrift store. “They helped me fight back; now I’m trying to help others wage their battles.”

Anthony Penn, a Los Angeles fireman, is another who is giving back to an organization that he largely credits for his survival.

“I grew up around Avalon and 28th St. amid drugs and gangs, but the 28th Street YMCA gave me an alternative to the streets,” Penn said. “I learned swimming and gymnastics there, and most important, I learned about teamwork.”

As a member of the Y’s Men service group, Penn has been tagging, trimming and flocking Scotch pines and Douglas firs at the YMCA’s Christmas tree lot in the Crenshaw Mall. The proceeds are expected to send about 150 boys to camp.

Another community service volunteer is Dr. Nicolai Foong, a 29-year-old ob/gyn who sees patients for free every Friday at the Chinatown Service Center in Los Angeles.

“Many of my patients are immigrants who are anxious, easily intimidated and unsure of themselves,” Foong said. “When they see a doctor who speaks their language, they feel an instant rapport.”

Reared in England, Singapore and the United States, the Stanford-educated Foong persists in dispensing free medical help despite concerns of paying off school loans, starting a new practice and raising a family.

“It all goes back to medical school when I pledged to help people,” Foong said.

Also putting her cross-cultural and translation skills to work is Francisca Pinos of Boyle Heights, an immigrant from Ecuador and a mother of four. After responding to a Red Cross television commercial five years ago, she enrolled in the Central East Chapter’s first-aid, CPR and earthquake preparedness classes and now leads a disaster relief team.

“There’s a critical shortage of bilingual volunteers in my neighborhood,” Pinos said. “I’ve seen recent immigrants--burned out of their homes--talk themselves crazy because no one could understand them.”

Pinos also has been able to convert her volunteer assignments into a part-time paid position with the Red Cross.

“I’ve seen this happen over and over again,” said Craig Sasser, executive director of the 28th Street YMCA. “Volunteering is one of the best avenues toward developing marketable job skills.

“Take the Y’s Men who run our Christmas tree lot,” he continued. “They purchase the trees, set the prices, monitor the inventory and keep track of the profits. They become the experts.”

Mary Lou Ginther, volunteer coordinator at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, said her volunteer buyers in the hospital’s gift shop were responsible for more than $350,000 in sales last year.

“They could easily parlay these same skills into positions as retail buyers for Broadway and Bullock’s,” Ginther said.

There’s more to volunteering, however, than gaining valuable work experience or padding a resume. It also broadens your cultural horizons.

Serious globe-trotting is beyond the current reach of Mary Sanchez, a telemarketing specialist with two young children, so she hosts exchange students in her West Covina home.

“If you can’t go halfway around the world to learn about other people and their cultures, you bring the world to you,” Sanchez said.

In fact, Midori Yokohawa, her present house guest from Japan who is attending South Hills High School during her American stay, is the ninth foreign visitor she has entertained.

“This program (Pacific American Institute) is a way for us to know how the other half lives,” Sanchez said.

Mary Reeves and Shirley Gordon have also brought distant worlds closer to home--as volunteer animal researchers at the Los Angeles Zoo. At least once a week they observe some of the world’s rarest and most endangered animals far removed from their natural habitat.

Gordon faithfully records every gesture and gesticulation of the zoo’s drills, bright-cheeked primates who, without human intervention, might be extinct by the year 2000.

“Sometimes, you look into their eyes and it really makes you wonder,” said the writer and watercolorist. “It’s almost a form of meditation.”

Reeves has served the zoo since 1966, observing Indian rhinoceroses, pandas from China, and her current favorite, gorillas. The Glendale resident even makes rag dolls for the zoo’s annual “Presents for Primates” Christmas party.

“You spend enough time with them, they become family,” Reeves said.

All volunteer researchers are enrolled in Dr. Cathleen Cox’s 12-week course at the zoo before going out into the field.

If you’re not cut out to be the next Jane Goodall or Diane Fosse but still wish to show your support for the animals, you can donate your home-grown vegetables to the zoo’s Gorilla Garden.

“But please, no pesticides,” Cox implored.

Lovers of wildlife can also make a splash at the Cabrillo Marine Museum and Aquarium in San Pedro. Would-be docents can sign up for weekend and 12-week courses that will qualify them to lead marine and whale-watching tours.

“Applicants undergo an interview process and are asked for commitments of one or two years,” said Marji Frank, volunteer coordinator for the museum.

For many, preserving flora and fauna are compelling reasons to get involved in community service; for others, the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends is still the main reason for volunteering.

For five years, Armando Mendoza of Compton battled drug addiction and the frequent bouts of isolation and paranoia that accompanied his abuse. Finally, tired of being alone, he started working as a volunteer usher at Theatre/Teatro, supported by the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts in the old Lincoln Heights jail.

“I had damaged social skills,” said Mendoza, now a successful sales representative. “I was afraid of being around people, but my friends here helped change my perspective.”

Maria Yolanda Rubio, a hairdresser and Los Angeles City Schools employee, also serves as a volunteer usher at the bilingual theatre.

“My daughter’s at the university,” Rubio said, “so this is like another family to me.”

There are countless other ways to get involved in community service. You can, for example, adopt a beach, donate old eyeglasses or visit elderly persons in a retirement home. But where to start?

“First, look around the community to get a sense of what groups are out there,” said the Independent Sector’s Thomas. “Talk to your friends and neighbors. If that fails, look up the closest volunteer center in your area.”

At the Volunteer Center of West Los Angeles, volunteers can inquire into more than 500 nonprofit organizations.

“We encourage all volunteers to call and make an appointment with us,” director Janet Harrison said. “That way we can spend a lot of time going over all our involvement opportunities.”

Harrison even sends out self-addressed, stamped envelopes to volunteers, asking if they’re happy with their new positions.

Corporations also have several programs to encourage volunteerism among their employees. IBM, which invested $135.4 million in philanthropic causes last year to lead all U.S. companies, sponsors employee matching grants and community service funds as an inducement to serve.

“The company even pays the salary, for up to two years, of employees who choose early retirement and go to work for a nonprofit organization,” said Barbara Bickerman, an IBM spokeswoman.

Lon Burns, executive director of the Southern California Assn. for Philanthropy, which helps foundations, corporations and nonprofit organizations give more effectively, said there’s a simple solution for increasing the number of volunteers. “We have to do a better job of asking them,” he said.

The nonprofit organizations referenced in the above article all have community service opportunities. For more information, call: Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, (213) 225-4044; Cabrillo Museum and Aquarium, (213) 548-7563; Chinatown Service Center, (213) 680-9955; City of Hope, (818) 359-8111, Ext. 2424; Los Angeles Zoo, (213) 664-1100; Pacific American Institute (818) 339-1752; Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, (714) 865-9669; Red Cross, Central East Chapter, (213) 484-4300; United Friends of the Children, (213) 471-4572; Volunteer Center of West Los Angeles, (213) 445-4270; and the 28th Street YMCA, (213) 232-7193.