SPORTS STARS TO OPEN CENTER; LASORDA, WOODEN SET TO SHOW.

Byline: Sandy Yang Staff Writer

A cast of sports greats will be on hand Sunday to help celebrate the grand opening of the new $5 million Ferne Milken Youth and Sports Complex at the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus in West Hills.

Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, Dodger Shawn Green, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, seven-time gold medalist swimmer Mike Spitz and other star athletes will join Milken campus officials and supporters at the ceremony for the new facility. The complex has a 12,000-square-foot gym, multipurpose room, teen center and Jewish Sports Hall of Fame exhibit.

The 2 to 5 p.m. reception will include autograph-signing and basketball clinics by former Harlem Globetrotters players. The ceremony also will honor benefactors who donated more than $1000 by etching their names on a brick wall.

Jack Mayer,executive director of the Jewish Federation Valley Alliance, said the facilities represent to him a vehicle for community members to form stronger bonds with each other. The 300 people who provided the bulk of the donations are evidence that those bonds are already being formed.

``We garnered their support because they wanted to give to the community,'' Mayer said. ``We're too isolated in Los Angeles, and through this facility, we can bring together lots of different people who wouldn't normally know each other.''

Long before the gym and sports complex, however, the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus already was bringing the community together, housing in one building rooms and office space for social service agencies, an art gallery, a preschool, and Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance headquarters.

But in 1994, after the Northridge Earthquake, the Valley Alliance also wanted to give families, teen-agers and children the chance to socialize and improve skills, Mayer said.

With new sports programs and recreation classes - including basketball, aerobics, martial arts and magic, Mayer stressed that the state-of-the-art facilities are open to the whole community, regardless of faith.

The Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus is located at 22622 Vanowen St. Parking is available at the northwest end of Fallbrook Mall, where a free shuttle runs continually between the lot and campus. For more information, call [phone].