PARADE'S READER WILL AID BLIND.

Byline: DIANA PEYTON Community Columnist

Visually impaired people will have a way to ``see'' this year's Tournament of Roses parade, with help from local volunteers describing the action.

Northridge resident Teri Grossman is a describer for the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service, located in West Hills.

``My uncle (Max Flehinger, a Tarzana resident) asked me to fill in for someone to read grocery ads for the organization about six years ago. I ended up volunteering to read the daily papers,'' she said.

``In 1997, the scheduled parade describer couldn't come, so Max and I sat on the edge of the curb and described the floats the best we could as they went by,'' she said.

The volunteers' impressions were broadcast to people served by LARRS on special radios provided by the organization.

Grossman produced and directed the LARRS parade broadcast in 1999, which was broadcast by CBS-TV with a special audio channel and aired on the Secondary Audio Program Services in Boston. In the same year, an official broadcast site was set up at Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards. The describers work with Tournament of Roses parade scripts and embellish them to meet the needs of their special listeners.

Since their first parade, Grossman and Flehinger have been formally trained by Deborah Lewis at the Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation in Pasadena.

``When a float goes by, rather than saying, isn't that beautiful, you have to describe why it is beautiful, what makes it beautiful,'' she said. ``There's an element of fun to it, it's a real challenge. It makes you look at the world differently.''

``I look at everything with a greater understanding for people who can't see, I don't take things for granted,'' she said.

There is a second describer location along the parade route at the Pasadena Plaza, where the visually impaired can enjoy the parade with their families using headsets provided by LAARS.

``We are paid by smiles and hugs,'' Grossman said.

Other volunteers in the Daily News readership who will work as describers or commentators at the parade are Pasadena resident James Maddox, Anne Nicholson of Encino and J.C. Henning of Toluca Lake. The LARRS project director is Jolie Mason, a Reseda resident, and broadcast operations director Craig S. Masser lives in Van Nuys.

To reach LARRS, call [phone].

Don't be a wet noodle!

Get a spaghetti bowl designed by 9-year-old Encino resident Aaron Yamagata at The Old Spaghetti Factory, and support the Los Angeles Children's Museum.

Since mention of the child prodigy in an October column, Aaron was contacted by Michael Young of Alton Entertainment Co. to appear as one of the children in a documentary-style television insert for CBS called ``Kids are People Too.''

``They followed Aaron around everywhere for a whole day, starting at 7:30 a.m. They even taped him at his tap class dancing with his teacher (Dean Barlow),'' his mother, Didi, said.

Young produced a similar show in the 1980s, his assistant Michael Sonntag said. The documentary piece is being edited, and airing information is not available.

Buy the bowls for $6.50 at the restaurant located at 5939 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood.

BrainstormUSA has awarded Cony Vasquez, a student at Liggett Elementary School, with a $5,000 scholarship in the Dare to Dream - Expect to Succeed competition.

Participants were asked to use any means of creative expression to describe a personal dream. Vasquez, an aspiring architect, used wood and electronic lighting to create a town.

Liggett Elementary received a multimedia personal computer and 40 educational CD-ROMs.

More than 2,000 students competed. BrainstormUSA is an educational software company.

Jonathan P. Fantini attended the Conference of Tomorrow's Leaders held in Boston earlier this month, sponsored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

Fantini interns at U.S. Rep. Howard Berman's district office and was one of only 40 students in the nation who attended the conference.

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Photo:

Teri Grossman of Northridge and her uncle Max Flehinger of Tarzana describe events at last year's Tournament of Roses in Pasadena for the visually impaired.