PARK ADVOCATE NEEDS DAY IN THE SUN MELANIE WINTER LACKS FUNDS FOR HIP SURGERY.

Byline: KERRY CAVANAUGH

Staff Writer

Seven years ago, when the fight was heating up to convert the old Taylor Rail Yard into open space, Melanie Winter quit her job to advocate full time for a park along the Los Angeles River.

She started The River Project nonprofit agency, and worked seven days a week organizing a coalition of 36 community groups, flying to Sacramento to lobby for funding and backing a lawsuit to block commercial development on the site.

She did it all without pay, charging her living expenses on her credit cards.

The work paid off.

In April, activists helped cut the ribbon on the Rio de Los Angeles State Park -- a pristine 40-acre park with soccer fields, walking trails, picnic tables and natural habitat that marked the first major swath of green in a paved, crowded community.

Now a core group of activists say it's payback time.

A former dancer, Winter suffers from an increasingly painful degenerative hip problem. But as the director of a Studio City-based nonprofit on a slim budget, she doesn't have health insurance or the $40,000 needed for hip-replacement surgery.

So the activists are raising the money themselves.

"I look at the park and see parents with their little kids in strollers and kids happy and playing ball," said Pepe Pena, a musician and longtime Cypress Park property owner.

"At least we can give something back to someone who has given so much to our community. She was one of the first people to really push to make this happen. Now she needs help, so why not help?"

The effort is led by a half-dozen community activists in the Friends of Cypress Park Community Improvement Association, Mount Washington Association, the Glassell Park Improvement Association and local church organizations.

Winter, 49, is moved -- but not entirely surprised -- by their generosity. These residents are fighters. They work hard and back each other up.

"They have the biggest hearts in the whole wide world. To do this, in this city, when I'm the white girl who doesn't even live in their neighborhood ... it's lifted me up a lot," she said.

Tall and blond, blunt and intense, Winter is known for challenging bureaucracy and getting under the skin of politicians by demanding that environmental and community concerns trump political expediency.

That's why longtime Mount Washington resident and activist David Brunk said he has somewhat selfish motives for wanting Winter to get her hip surgery.

The Taylor Yard project isn't over. The state is studying what to do with some 60 acres next to the river and residents want to ensure the park is completed.

"Melanie can fight people who have more money and power," Brunk said. "It's her personality. She's a positive person who can say, 'This is important, let's do it,' and she does."

Winter was so convinced her friends would reach their goal that they scheduled her July 30 surgery just days after they offered to raise the money.

"Of course they're going to succeed," she said. "When we work together, we always succeed."

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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HOW TO HELP

Contributions can be sent to the Melanie Winter Medical Fund, c/o 304 S. Broadway, Suite 498, Los Angeles, CA 90013; or at www.hip4mel.net. Contributors are invited to a community celebration and picnic at 5 p.m. Friday at Rio de Los Angeles State Park.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

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Residents in East Los Angeles are holding a fundraiser to help environmental activist Melanie Winter pay for hip-replacement surgery.

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HOW TO HELP (see text)