COMMUNITY NEWS 3 LONG-TIME BACKERS LAUDED FOR VOLUNTEERISM AT UNIVERSITY.

NORTHRIDGE - Al and Sherry Lapides, longtime supporters of California State University, Northridge, and John Guarrera, former director of the Center for Research and Services in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, have received the school's highest volunteer honors.

The Lapideses are Northridge residents whose service to CSUN dates back 30 years.

Al Lapides' work included helping develop a career-goal mentoring program for undergraduates and assisting with special project fund-raising. Sherry Lapides has been a member of the President's Associates and is active with the Dean's Council of the College of Arts, Media and Communication.

Guarrera is credited with saving the College of Engineering and Computer Science more than 30 years ago when it was threatened as part of a system-wide streamlining.

In 2003, Guarrera joined with family and friends in creating $100,000 endowment to provide students with experience in state-of-the-art technology.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Students and staffers at North Hollywood High School collected a mountain of toys for distribution to less fortunate children this holiday season.

Home rooms were invited to ``adopt'' at least one child from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Seventy-four school home rooms adopted more than 200 children, collected money and shopped for gifts for the children.

The California Scholarship Federation chapter of the school sponsored the holiday adoption project.

Sherman Oaks Elementary School is one of two winners of a nationwide contest designed to get as many families as possible to prepare for a terror attack or other emergency, organizers said.

The school had 542 families complete forms pledging to complete a family communications plan, get an emergency kit and become more informed by visiting the Department of Homeland Security's preparedness Web site, www.ready.gov.

For having the most families making the pledge and being a winner of the ``Ready Deputy'' contest, the school will receive $10,000 for its library fund and have Tom Ridge, the outgoing Homeland Security secretary, be its ``principal for a day.''

``The contest was a wonderful opportunity to reach out to individual families to plan and prepare for any emergency that might occur,'' said Principal Charlene Warwick. ``We are thrilled.''

The contest was sponsored by the New York-based nonprofit America Prepared Campaign.

CANOGA PARK - A unit of Integrated Defense Systems of The Boeing Co. recently donated $10,000 to the Discovery Center in Thousand Oaks.

The Discovery Center creates and presents science-based educational programs to schools and community organizations throughout Southern California.

``The donation is part of ongoing support we've been providing for the Discovery Center for the past six years,'' said Debra Bergman-Duran, manager of educational outreach at Rocketdyne, whose parent company is Boeing.

The money will be largely directed to the center's Museum Without Walls, which takes scientific activities and knowledge into the classroom.