COMMUNITY NEWS : ARTISTS DRAW BEAUTY OUT OF THEIR PAIN.

Byline: Virginia Gonzalez

The cover design of greeting cards can be as powerful as the handwritten message inside when the cards are designed by artists afflicted with neuromuscular disorders.

Five different pieces of artwork ranging from a view of a sun-kissed barn to a colorful rendition of a girl in a wheelchair on an outing at a pond give the cards a special significance. Each artist has overcome extreme health obstacles to accomplish the detailed artwork.

Dan Beacome balances a paintbrush between his teeth to transform blank canvases into works of art because of disabilities caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease.

The cards display five paintings chosen from the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Art Collection which are displayed at museums and galleries across the country, according to MDA representatives.

The MDA Art Collection was established in 1992 to focus attention on the achievements of artists with disabilities and to emphasize that physical disability doesn't diminish creativity.

Sets of 10 note cards with envelopes cost $7 or 20 for $12 and can be ordered by writing to Art Collection Notecards in care of MDA, 3300 E. Sunrise Drive, Tuscon, Ariz. 85718.

Community health care programs have earned a local hospital a national runner-up award in a program that acknowledges innovative efforts to expand access to health care.

Glendale Adventist Medical Center is one of three runner-up recipients of the Foster G. McGaw Award for their commitment to provide a variety of health care programs that reach out to all members of the Glendale community, said Larry Macke, a spokesman for the Baxter Foundation, the philanthropic group of Baxter International and the American Hospital Association which sponsor the award.

Looking for ways to make various resources known and more readily available to the Glendale community in 1993, representatives from the Glendale Adventist Medical Center coordinated a community group called the Glendale Healthier Community Coalition to serve community needs.

Business community members, local school districts and colleges, city government, nonprofit agencies and clergy members worked together to create a free primary and preventive children's health care program and a community service center that provides vouchers for food, clothing and numerous other items.

Urgent transportation needs, hot meal and grocery delivery, temporary housing provisions, medication purchases, work experience, and various support groups are also available through the Services Center.

Another program created through the Coalition is PhoneFriend, a free call-in service established in 1989 that serves Glendale children by providing guidance, reassurance and welcome conversation to help ease their loneliness from having working parents.

The Foster G. McGaw Award winner for 1996 is St. Mary's Hospital, a nonprofit community hospital in Rochester, N.Y.

Other runners-up are Harborview Medical Center of Seattle and the Southeast Colorado Hospital District of Springfield, Colo.

St. Mary's will receive a $75,000 award, and each runner-up receives $10,000.

The winner and finalists were selected from over 100 entries whose applications are rated by a panel of chief executive officers from leading hospitals and health systems throughout the country.

MEMO: Do you have news in your neighborhood? If so, please send the information to Virginia Gonzalez, Daily News editorial department, P.O. Box 4200, Woodland Hills, Calif. 91365-4200. Fax: [phone].

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PHOTO Selected works from the Muscular Dystrophy Associatio n's Art Collection were printed on cards and are available in sets of 10.