SPECIAL THANKS TO THOSE WITH COMMUNITY SPIRIT.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Special people, pets embody community's spiritYou won't find their names up on any marquee or at the top of any celebrities list. No, the people I'm writing about today are much more important than that.

They're the heart and soul of Los Angeles: the people who make it come alive, the people who prove that the old slap in the city's face - ``There's no there there'' - is dead wrong.

There's plenty of there here, and if you've been reading this column for a while, you've been introduced to some of these special people this past year - some of the young and the old people in our community who have earned our thanks this Thanksgiving Day.

They may not be glamorous enough, rich enough or widely acclaimed enough for mention in People or Fortune magazines, but they've got a home here.

Thanks to little Kirsten Pierre from Trinidad, a 7-year-old second-grader at Valerio Elementary School's primary center in Van Nuys, who aced the Stanford 9 Achievement Test given to all California's public school kids last year.

Kirsten scored 100, tops in the country. Didn't miss one question. Sixty- nine questions in math, 69 right answers. One hundred and six questions in reading, 106 right answers.

The results put a big smile on the face of her teacher, Kim Todd, who, for a long time now, has been telling everyone who cares to listen that this notion that kids from lower-income neighborhoods won't receive the primary education to compete academically with kids from schools in well- heeled areas is full of beans.

If they've got good teachers, good parents and a halfway-even playing field, they can succeed, Todd firmly believes. She will put her kids from a United Nations mix of families, living in a poor section of Van Nuys, up against the kids from Beverly Hills 90210 any day.

Thanks to police Sgt. John O'Toole, who doesn't know the word quit. At 73, he's the first in seniority - 47 years - in the Los Angeles Police Department. In all those years, he has taken only one sick day. He had a bad case of the flu back in 1955.

We met O'Toole back on patrol this year during the Democratic National Convention. In 1960, as a young police officer, he was assigned to provide security for John F. Kennedy, the last time the Dems were in town choosing a presidential candidate.

Forty years later, O'Toole's still providing security for this city.

Thanks to Reseda's Joe Siracusa, who spent most of his 78 years making people smile and laugh - from being the zany drummer in the Spike Jones and his City Slickers band in the 1940s to walking the streets of his neighborhood now and handing out his backyard roses to the people most of us tend to overlook. The supermarket checker, the cashier at the local service station, or the postal worker selling you stamps.

Before she died, Joe's wife, Eleanor, made him promise to continue spreading some good cheer and appreciation around the neighborhood, and that's exactly what Joe keeps doing.

Thanks to Panorama City's Lefty Blasco, Walt Schulte and Frank Jones, who have given up their weekends for almost 14 years now to fight a turf war they know they'll never win.

When you ask them why they're out on the streets of their neighborhood with a sandblaster, taking down gang graffiti almost as fast as it's put up, they give you the best answer in the world.

Because this is where they live, the men say. It's as simple as that. You fight for what's yours.

Thanks to Canoga Park's Vince and Jan Sheerin, a husband-wife team who retired this year after 30 years of excelling at one of the toughest, most challenging jobs in this city: teaching kids with autism, multiple handicaps and severe emotional disturbances at Lokrantz Special Education Center in Reseda.

Thanks for giving a lot of these wonderful children that chance their parents were praying for - a chance to find their place in society.

Thanks to Celso Saldivar, a Van Nuys dishwasher who stepped out from the back of the kitchen to sit at the best table in the house as winner of the 2000 HEROS Award sponsored by the restaurant industry.

For many of us, the American dream may be little more than a cliche, says his boss, Mike Barnitz at the 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant in Van Nuys. But to Celso, the dream's as real as the sweat on his forehead and the steam in his face pulling double work shifts in the hot corner in the back of the restaurant six days a week.

Celso sends the lion's share of his paycheck to support his wife and three children, still in Mexico, and to start a college fund for his kids so their lives will be better than his.

``Celso's living the American dream for his wife and children, dish by dish,'' Barnitz said.

Thanks to Marge McGrath, Lorie Norwalt and all the other women in the Assistance League of the San Fernando Valley for bringing Christmas in May to dozens of needy kids over at Bassett Street Elementary School in Van Nuys.

Every year, the women, many of them retired teachers, get today's teachers at Bassett to identify the kids they know will be coming to school on these cold winter mornings with no jackets and holes in the soles of their shoes.

Then they take them all out for a big shopping trip. Christmas in May.

Thanks to all the girls from Girl Scout Troop 794 in Simi Valley for living up to the Girl Scout motto, ``Where Girls Grow Strong.''

When 11-year-old Britteny Kiel, who has cerebral palsy, told her mom she wanted to be a Girl Scout, the girls in Troop 794 welcomed her with open arms.

They never saw the wheelchair or cerebral palsy. All they saw was a little girl who wanted to be one of them.

And finally, a special thanks to Laurel Kinder, who brought us Annie and King Arthur - a real-life ``Lady and the Tramp'' love story.

These strays wandered right into our hearts, along with the special people, and there weren't many other local stories that reached out and grabbed us as this one did.

King Arthur: slowly circling the fallen Annie's body in the middle of a busy street, stopping all oncoming traffic, after she had been hit by a car.

Then reaching down and gently pulling Annie to the curb and to safety. Staying by her side every step of the way until she recovered. It doesn't get much better than that.

Thanks to them, as well as to all the people mentioned today and to all the other special people we've met in this space this year - people who prove there is a there here in Los Angeles. Happy Thanksgiving.

We owe you one.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Kirsten Pierre was the top-scoring first-grader last school year on the Stanford 9 test. With her are her mom, Margaret, and teacher, Kim Todd, left.

(2) Sgt. John O'Toole, 73, still proudly serves in the Los Angeles Police Department - more than 47 years after he joined it.

Lexey Swall/Special to the Daily News

(3) Column readers' reaction to two devoted strays, Annie and King Arthur, showed area residents appreciate dogged loyalty.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Box: Making a Difference