BIG SUNDAY A BIG DRAW COMMUNITY-SERVICE EVENT GIVES SOME SINGLES CHANCE TO CONNECT Community-service event gives some singles chance to connect.Byline: Kevin Modesti, Staff Writer NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Few would come right out and say it, but volunteers at some of the "Big Sunday" community-service events across Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, this weekend were attracted by more than the basic human urge to aid the less fortunate. The opposite sex may have been part of the draw. Such was the case at the United Cerebral Palsy United Cerebral Palsy (UCP), sometimes known as United Cerebral Palsy Associations, is a network of affiliated groups in the United States which works to "advance the independence, productivity and full citizenship of people with disabilities" (from UCP's mission statement), Wheels for Humanity warehouse in North Hollywood, where a wheelchair-refurbishing project Saturday morning was billed as a "singles" event, a chance to meet people while you helped people. Organizer Jill Thomsen succeeded in signing up a well-matched group of eight men and eight women - most in their 20s and 30s - but not before some anxious moments. At midweek, her list included 11 women and only two men. "When I signed up (online), I put down 'A. Beckles,' " said Andrew Beckles of North Hollywood. "I got an e-mail from Jill asking if I was a guy.' "I answered, 'LOL ... yes.' " Beckles smiled when he was told the event had been in danger of drawing way more women than men. "That would've been more in my favor," he said. Beckles, a video librarian, said he joined the wheelchair project because the results of the work would be tangible. Most others, too, said it was the nature of the volunteer work, not the the allure of the other workers, that got them interested in donating three hours to Wheels for Humanity, a nonprofit company that sends used wheelchairs and other medical equipment to needy people in developing countries. But Diane Saltzberg, an administrative assistant and screenwriter from Hollywood, did admit (sort of) the "singles" aspect appealed to her. "I thought I'd make my mother happy and do a singles event," said Saltzberg, 52. "(But) everybody here's under 20. It reminds me of a few years ago, when I went to an L.A. River cleanup, thinking I might meet someone. I was surrounded by Boy Scouts. Well, they were single." Big Sunday, an 11-year-old annual event founded by Hollywood-based writer David Levinson and now spread over two days, was expected to involve 50,000 volunteers from San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. to Ventura. Think of it as the All-Star Weekend of altruism, the Kentucky Derby Kentucky Derby One of the classic U.S. Thoroughbred horse races. It was established in 1875 and run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Ky. With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up U.S. racing's coveted Triple Crown. for do-gooders. More than 500 Big Sunday projects at 300 locations aimed to help 250 organizations. Saturday they included the Meet Each Need With Dignity charity in Pacoima, the Family Rescue Center in Canoga Park, the Boys' and Girls' Club of Burbank, and a San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. Quilters Association effort to create quilts for wounded soldiers. At the Wheels for Humanity warehouse full of hundreds of wheelchairs, jeans- and T-shirt-clad volunteers at five work tables picked up wrenches, steel wool steel wool, abrasive material composed of long steel fibers of varying degrees of fineness that are matted together. The coarser grades are used to remove paint and other finishes, the finer grades for polishing or smoothing a finished surface. and rags to spruce up spruce up Verb [sprucing, spruced] to make neat and smart Verb 1. spruce up - make neat, smart, or trim; "Spruce up your house for Spring"; "titivate the child" some of the 250 chairs intended for a shipment to Indonesia on Friday. Twelve of the volunteers were from Bel-Air Presbyterian Church. Thomsen, who made sure to have as many men as women, scanned the room, looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. any sign that the scent of WD-40 was acting as an aphrodisiac aphrodisiac Any of various forms of stimulation thought to arouse sexual excitement. They may be psychophysiological (arousing the senses of sight, touch, smell, or hearing) or internal (e.g., foods, alcoholic drinks, drugs, love potions, medicinal preparations). , for any hint of romantic magic in the air. An hour into the event, all she saw was earnest people tinkering with wheelchairs. "I'm not a good judge of magic," Thomsen said. "In L.A., I think people talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to each other is magic enough." kevin.modesti@dailynews.com 818-713-3616 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Wheelchairs in need of repair are parked at Wheels for Humanity in North Hollywood, where volunteers spent the day fixing the chairs as part of the "Big Sunday" community-service event. John McCoy/Staff Photographer |
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