38 YEARS, AND SHE STILL GIVES HER ALL.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

TARZANA -When it comes to school spirit and dedication, you have to go a long way to beat Ange DiNardo.

She took her 5-year-old son, Steven, to his first day of kindergarten at Nestle Avenue Elementary School in Tarzana back in 1963, and never left.

Steven's 43 today, and an engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Ten principals, a few hundred teachers and 38 years later, his mom's still going to his old elementary school.

``I get up at 5 a.m. every day, take my bath, get to school by 7 a.m., put on the coffee for the teachers, get ready to greet the students and am the happiest person on Earth,'' 81-year-old Ange said Thursday, standing out in front of the school auditorium named after her in a ceremony a few years ago.

``Maybe it helps to be 81 to understand it, but I cherish the moment,'' she said.

Ange puts in eight hours a day, five days a week, doing everything - from working the school copy machine so teachers can teach instead of being clerical workers, to putting a grandmother's arm around kids having a tough day.

``It's like having an angel around,'' says school Principal Joan Blair. ``Ange is here every day, always able to help wherever help is needed.''

For a lot of the parents, she's a role model, say Marnette Conroy and Sarnaz Nickfarjam, whose children are second-graders in the school.

``Ange is there every morning to greet each child coming to school, and they all say, 'Hi, Mrs. DiNardo,' and give her a big smile as they walk in,'' said Conroy, who along with Nickfarjam, help Ange out a few hours a day in the volunteer office.

``I was in seventh grade when she started volunteering here as a mom in 1963,'' Conroy said, shaking her head. ``I've never heard of a parent staying this long at a school after their child has left.''

Even Ange's own son is impressed, never thinking his mom would stick around to volunteer this long at his old elementary school, Steven DiNardo said.

``I've wanted her to quit and travel, but she has this tremendous love for kids and wants to make a positive impact on them,'' he said.

``When you think that she's been doing that as a parent volunteer for thousands of kids at my old elementary school over the past 38 years, it's pretty astounding,'' he said.

Not really, his mother says. Whether the year's 1963 or 2001, mothers haven't changed much. They still want the best for their kids just starting out in school.

``My odyssey in life is to help a teacher educate a child,'' Ange says. ``I knew that from the first day I walked into this school 38 years ago holding my son's hand.

``I watched him walk into his first classroom, and thought to myself that I really didn't want to go home for three hours, so I went to the office and asked if there was anything I could do to help.

``They asked me if I knew how to type, and I said yeah, with two fingers. So they gave me some report cards to type, and pretty soon I was working the mimeographing machine, too.

``That's when I began to think that if I could help a teacher educate a child by freeing them from doing this clerical work, a lot of other moms could too, so I started the teacher's aid project.

``I sent home a flier to parents saying I didn't care if it was just five minutes a week they had to give, please give the teachers something. And they did.''

But no one has given them 38 years, like Ange.

``It's not a question of her stopping by for a few hours every couple of days to help us out,'' says fifth-grade math tutor Herb Wiener, who became a teacher after retiring from a 40-year career as an attorney.

``She puts out a tremendous amount of work for the teachers and students eight hours a day, five days a week. She is an incredible lady.''

So even though it did, it should have come as no surprise to Ange when the teachers got together a few years ago, and decided to name the school auditorium after this volunteer who had dedicated 38 years to helping hundreds of teachers educate thousands of children over almost four decades at Nestle Avenue Elementary School.

``I was shocked, and thought they were kidding, but they weren't,'' Ange said, in her typical humble way.

``They threw a big dinner for me, and I don't mind telling you that I had tears going into my shoes that night,'' she said.

Nah, you don't have to be 81 to understand why Ange DiNardo still cherishes the moment.

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Photo:

Ange DiNardo, 81, stands in the doorway of the auditorium at Nestle Avenue Elementary in Tarzana, where the hall was renamed to honor her decades of service as a volunteer.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer