BLOODY RAMPAGE RECALLED BUTTERFLIES, NEW TREE TO MARK ANNIVERSARY.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Staff Writer

GRANADA HILLS - To mark today's one-year anniversary of the shooting rampage at the North Valley Jewish Community Center, children there will release scores of butterflies and fly rainbow streamers.

Counselors also will plant a tree in the ``unity garden,'' which was created after a gunman stormed the center last Aug. 10, wounding five people including three children. Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr., the man accused of the shootings, also is charged with later killing a mail carrier in Chatsworth.

``It's really symbolizing fresh starts, a new year,'' Michele Schipper, director of the North Valley Jewish Community Center, said Wednesday.

The day of remembrance will be mostly private. Two of the three children injured in the gunfire will participate in the ceremony.

``I think it's important to recognize that this was an isolated incident and we are so lucky to be surrounded by a loving community and to acknowledge the community's role in the healing,'' said Anya van Leeuwen, director of marketing for the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles.

Employees at the Chatsworth post office will also unveil a plaque today to honor Joseph Santos Ileto, the Filipino-American mail carrier whom Furrow is accused of fatally shooting in Chatsworth.

Furrow is charged with wounding Isabelle Shamoleth, the community center's longtime receptionist; Mindy Finkelstein, a teen-age counselor; James Zidell and Joshua Stepakoff, both then 6; and 5-year-old Benjamin Kadish, the only one opting to attend another camp this year.

Prosecutors have charged Furrow with the shootings, and he could face the death penalty if convicted during the trial, set to begin in February.

Other remembrances and anti-hate rallies planned for today include a candlelight vigil at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center Plaza in downtown Los Angeles from 6 to 9 p.m.

The vigil will honor victims of hate crimes, with Ileto's brother, law enforcement officers, civil rights activists, religious leaders and others speaking about the one-year anniversary of the shooting spree.

``This is being held not only to pay tribute to Joseph Ileto and the Jewish community, but to bring the diverse communities of Los Angeles County together to take collective action to stop hate crime,'' said Andrea Adleman, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

The commission is also helping to sponsor a ``Unity Over Hate'' rally at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

Authorities said Furrow admitted to the Jewish center shootings and said he did so as a ``wake-up call'' for Americans to start killing Jews. He also admitted to killing Ileto because he was a federal employee who was not white, they said.