SUNLAND, TUJUNGA : Volunteer Group Seeks Donations

The Community Action Network is long on ideas and good intentions but short on rakes, gloves and other supplies.

Still, Jacqui Merglewski, president of the group, has seen membership swell from a handful of friends a few months ago to about 70 volunteers.

“Every day we’re getting another application in the mail,” she said.

Six residents formed the group in April with the goals of fixing up the community, cleaning roadways, painting over graffiti and getting involved in issues from street sweeping to Neighborhood Watches.

The hands-on, can-do attitude is spreading, Merglewski said, “because (the volunteers) care about their town. They care about their youth. They care about the senior citizens. They care about their community.”

Network volunteers held a Community Action Day in May, cleaning up garbage along Foothill Boulevard with several other groups.

In June, about seven members of the group helped clean up the yard of an elderly woman, who insisted on paying for the service.

“She just couldn’t believe it,” Merglewski said. “She said, ‘Well, don’t you want some money for all this work? How do you pay for your supplies? I must pay you something, you’ve got to need some money for this.’ ”

Merglewski and the Community Action Network members would not let her pay, but later she joined the group, paying a $10 membership fee.

The membership fees and donations from fund-raisers go for cleanup supplies and other projects, Merglewski said.

The first major fund-raiser, an all-you-can-eat “Ice Cream Bash,” will be at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 23. The event will be $10, or $5 with a coupon or a reservation, which can be made before Aug. 23 by calling (818) 353-4952. Salads, hot dogs and other food will be available.

The money raised, Merglewski said, “will go back into the community.”