$100,000 GIVER COLLECTS CAN AT A TIME.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

One empty aluminum can and one plastic bottle at a time, Bill Malinoff has collected more than $100,000 for the City of Hope over the last 20 years.

Four mornings a week, this gregarious, energetic 86-year-old retired Martino's Bakery driver kisses his wife of 63 years, Celia, goodbye, gets on his bike with an old wooden crate tied on back, and goes to work for the City of Hope.

He pedals from his Lindley Avenue apartment in Encino down to Ventura Boulevard, then heads through back alleys where businesses have left their empty plastic bottles and aluminum cans in old boxes for Bill to pick up and recycle.

He doubles back down the boulevard and stops at every trash can for discards that bring pennies from the recycler - because enough pennies become dimes, and enough dimes become dollars.

``Easily, Bill has collected well over $100,000 for the City of Hope doing this over the years,'' said Shirley Olinger, president of Bill's local City of Hope chapter.

Well over $100,000 - one aluminum can and one plastic bottle at a time.

On his three days off from his bike rounds, Bill sets up shop in front of local supermarkets that allow him to collect donations for the City of Hope.

On Wednesday mornings, he's in front of Vons in Tarzana; on Saturday and Sunday mornings, in front of Ralphs in Encino.

That makes seven days a week Bill gets up and goes to work for people he doesn't know - people who, he says, are not as fortunate as he is: still pretty hale and hearty at 86.

``The man is absolutely phenomenal,'' says Suzanne Lazarus, director of development for the City of Hope in Duarte.

``Day after day, he's out there for us, riding his bike down Ventura Boulevard collecting recycables and raising an incredible amount of money over the years.''

And the way Bill Malinoff sees it, he's the luckiest man in the world to be able to do it.

They call him Grandpa over at Quick Lube 3000 on Ventura Boulevard in Encino, where 20 empty aluminum cans and plastic bottles are waiting for Bill when he arrives Thursday morning.

Ten more cans, and he will have the 30 he needs to make a pound and collect $1 at the recycling drop a few blocks away. A pound of plastic brings 45 cents; glass, only 5 cents a pound.

Grandpa has won the admiration and respect of the men who change oil and lube cars for a living.

``When we found out why he wanted our empty cans - not for himself, but to help the City of Hope - he earned our respect immediately,'' said manager Hazael Lopez.

``He's someone you can trust and listen to, like a grandpa. For him to be doing what he's doing at his age, well, who wouldn't respect such a man and want to help him?''

Next door on Ventura Boulevard, at a restaurant undergoing remodeling, landlord Jamal Safavi is overseeing a construction crew of 10 men who have put their empty soda cans aside for the old man on the bicycle to collect.

``When he first started coming here, he asked - no, begged - for these cans, and I asked him why,'' Safavi said.

``When he told me, I understood. Here is an old man who could be at home sitting in front of a television, but instead he is out here trying to help people.

``That is a good man,'' Safavi said.

Up until last September when his driver's license expired and Bill realized he shouldn't be climbing behind the wheel of a car anymore, his recycling route was much larger and more involved.

``I used to hit all the construction sites, picking up anything people had for me they didn't want, even old wire,'' Bill said.

``I'd take it over to a junkyard to sell. But since I don't drive anymore, I have to stay pretty close to home now.''

It didn't surprise her one bit, Celia said, that her husband took the car he was afraid to drive anymore and donated it to a charity, rather than sell it.

``That's always the way he's been: giving, wanting to help people,'' she said. ``I'm proud of him.''

Everyone over at the local Dick Salter Chapter for City of Hope is proud of Bill, said Olinger, the group's president. The chapter was named after the son of one of its members who died of leukemia at the age of 16 in the early 1960s.

Since then the chapter has raised more than $4 million for the City of Hope, Olinger said. And if you ask any member who the driving force behind the chapter is, the person will say: the 86-year-old man on the bicycle.

``When he couldn't drive anymore, Bill didn't quit,'' Olinger said. ``He got up on a bicycle and kept going.''

Riding down Ventura Boulevard on his bike for the City of Hope - feeling like the luckiest man alive.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Bill Malinoff, 86, shows several of the bottles and cans he collects by the thousands to raise funds for the City of Hope. He quit driving a car but makes rounds on a bike.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer