COMMUNITY NEWS : TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN FIND COMFORT IN DONATED TEDDY BEARS.

Byline: Virginia Gonzalez Daily News Staff Writer

The companionship of a teddy bear is sometimes the only source of comfort for a child who's been removed from an unfit home.

But when there is no time to locate the child's favorite toy, authorities rely on stuffed bears donated by organizations such as the San Fernando Valley chapter of Na'Amat.

The children can find solace in these toys at court hearings or in group or foster homes, said Na'Amat member Paula L. Platoff.

``As Israel's largest provider of a variety of social services, we were looking for something in the United States that would parallel what we're doing in Israel, and the Teddy Bear Patrol was one of the projects that would carry that forth,'' Platoff said of the group's year-old Teddy Bear Patrol project launched in area shopping centers.

A 20 percent discount is being offered for those who purchase their donations at local malls.

Na'Amat has collected and distributed more than 6,000 stuffed bears to case workers from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services since the project's 1995 start.

A ``Jail-n-Bail'' fund-raiser sponsored by the San Fernando Kiwanis Club and the San Fernando Police Department collected $6,000 for a youth group dedicated to combating drugs, alcohol, graffiti and gang violence.

The money will help defray the cost of offering the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in community schools, said San Fernando Police Chief Dominick Rivetti.

In the spirit of the Old West, merchants like Anna Maria Colon of Rocking Horse Realty were ``arrested'' by Officers Jeff Eley and Joe Rosen, and taken to a fictitious ``jail.''

They then had to raise their ``bail'' by calling family, friends and co-workers. All proceeds collected benefited DARE, said Ed Montan, San Fernando's director of recreation and community services.

``The event certainly raised eyebrows, but once concerned business owners and others found out what we were doing, they really got a kick out of it,'' Montan said.

``Some even chipped in money of their own after getting a good laugh.''

San Fernando's DARE program - which costs about $76,000 annually - has reached about 5,000 area youngsters since it began in 1987. It's been supported through donations and fund-raising events such as walkathons, golf tournaments and percentages of local restaurant sales, Rivetti said.

Canoga Park resident Audrey Ritter outargued more than 360 law students to earn first place in the Southwestern University School of Law moot court competition.

Participants went through seven grueling rounds of arguments on a hypothetical problem involving whether an HIV-positive assailant in a rape case had the necessary intent to be convicted of attempted second-degree murder.

Ritter is a 25-year-old Alemany High School graduate.

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, CA 91365-4200. FAX: [phone].