REAL BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE HELP OUR VETS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

The real beautiful people in this city arrived at the swanky Beverly Hills Hotel on Thursday in old buses, not limos. They came to be honored wearing off-the-rack dresses and suits - not designer gowns and tuxes.

There was no red carpet for them, no paparazzi yelling at them to turn around so they could take their pictures, no Hollywood reporters begging for a quote or sound bite.

That's OK because the real beautiful people in this city who volunteer at VA facilities don't need the press. They're not in this for themselves and their bank accounts. They're in it because their hearts tell them it's the right thing to do.

They're paying off a debt for the rest of us, making sure some great guys who put their lives on the line for this country when they were young aren't shoved in some back room at a veterans' hospital and forgotten now that they're old and ill.

The real beautiful people are the more than 500 volunteers from three VA facilities and clinics throughout the area who were honored at a recognition luncheon this week by the Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System - a new, fancy name for an old government department that's bedrock in this country.

The Veterans Administration. The government can call it whatever it wants to reflect a new image, but to any family who has had a loved one serve in the military of this country, it will always be the VA.

More than 170 of the volunteers being honored were from the Sepulveda VA facility in North Hills, including the top three award winners, who received the Presidential Award for Volunteerism.

They are Anna Morris, April Mantoya and James Tukesbrey - the most beautiful of the real beautiful people in this city.

Together, the three have given our local vets almost 100 years of volunteer service in a wide range of jobs, from answering phones, handing out clothing to homeless vets, and making sure widows get their benefits to spending time holding the hands and talking to bedridden vets who never get visitors anymore.

They do it because somebody should be doing it, the real beautiful people say. It's not a big deal. What they give, they get back in spades, they say.

``If someone had told me three years ago that serving a cup of coffee to someone would be the most rewarding experience of my life, I'd have told them they were crazy - but it is,'' says Julie Strange, who spends five mornings a week running the coffee cart in the hallway of Building 200, the main outpatient facility at Sepulveda.

She serves from 125 to 150 cups of coffee a day, and the only charge is a smile.

``Probably 75 vets a day stop and talk. They're just so appreciative someone is taking the time with them. It's instant gratification.''

Seven mornings a week, Steve Palmer shows up at the VA with a stack of Daily News newspapers he hands out to the bedridden vets in Building 99. ``It's their only connection to the outside community,'' he says.

Then Palmer heads over to Building 23 to deliver some doughnuts and clothing he's collected for the vets undergoing treatment for chemical dependency and mental illness.

What's left over after that, Palmer gives to the homeless vets sleeping in their cars outside the VA grounds - waiting for sunrise so they can come back inside to have someplace to be.

Most of these volunteers are either former veterans themselves or had a loved one who was a veteran. They know what their presence here every day means. That someone from the outside community cares.

``We have more than 2,000 volunteers who are our connection to the community,'' says Charles Dorman, director of the Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

``Last year, they volunteered 300,000 hours, which amounts to 150 full-time employees that would have cost us $4 million. At a time when our resources are stretched so thin, that's an incredible asset.''

So let's hear it for the real beautiful people in this city, who deserve the red-carpet treatment.

To Nate Elbaum and his buddies in the Jewish War Veterans, and to the members of the VFW, American Legion, Shriners and local service clubs who volunteer their time and raise funds to make life better for the vets at Sepulveda.

To volunteers Dom Agatiello, Becky James and so many more of the real beautiful people out there, thank you.

If you'd like more information on volunteering at the Sepulveda VA, give the volunteer office a call at [phone].

And if you're free Monday, stop by the facility at 16111 Plummer St. in North Hills, and say thanks in person. A weeklong celebration honoring Sepulveda's 50th anniversary kicks off at noon in the recreation hall in Building 22.

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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(1 -- 2) Volunteer Anna Morris serves lunch, above, to stroke patients at the Sepulveda VA facility in North Hills. Left, volunteer Mary Cobb, who served in the Army's nurse corps during World War II, drives a tram to transport veterans and workers around at the campus. Many others also volunteer.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer