THEY'RE NOT LOOKING FOR MEDALS, THEY'RE JUST GOOD CITIZENS.; SO-CALLED `SNOOPS' SEEK TO IMPROVE NEIGHBORHOODS.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

All over the Valley today, there are groups of people actively working to make a difference in their neighborhoods, instead of sitting back, like most of us, and complaining that things just ain't like they used to be in the old Valley. No foolin'.

These people turn off their TV sets, get out of their easy chairs, and join a Neighborhood Watch program to help the police, spend a few days a month with a church or civic group painting over graffiti and picking up other people's trash, or get involved in a program like Councilwoman Laura Chick's new Neighborhood Codewatch.

They're not looking for medals or proclamations, not out to hold themselves up as model citizens. They're just interested in being good citizens and having the best quality of life possible in this place we all call home.

So how are they treated by some people out there? Like Big Brother. Like snoops and snitches searching through trash cans to make sure we're all recycling. A gang of Nazis stomping all over our First Amendment rights.

Nonsense.

We had a letter to the editor recently from a man in North Hills referring to the people in the Neighborhood Codewatch Program as ``a handful of nosy, eager-beaver types who apparently are unable to find life rewarding to them without driving around town, poking their snouts in other people's business. . . .''

It goes on ad nauseam, but you get the idea. He's not a happy camper with the idea of citizen involvement in upholding the law.

And when you break through all the rhetoric and hyperbole, that's what this is all about, isn't it? Upholding laws on the books.

Whether it's the Neighborhood Watch person calling the cops on a crack house on her street, or a church group painting over graffiti on walls, or a Neighborhood Codewatch member blowing the whistle on a code violator living in a rattrap down the block.

A law's being broken, and someone out there wants to do something about it. Not ignore it and pretend that everything is just fine. It isn't.

So, to all you nosy, eager-beaver types who apparently are unable to find life rewarding - keep up the good work.

As your supporters in the letters to the editor columns in Thursday's paper prove, there are a lot of people in your corner.

Here's a nice, little story about honesty and an important lesson learned by a couple of twin 13-year-old girls.

Reanna and Colleen San Martin went shopping with their mother, Lori, at Nordstrom Rack in Woodland Hills right after attending their eighth-grade graduation from Lawrence Middle School recently.

The girls each had $20 their grandparents had given them for graduation burning a hole in their pockets.

``Reanna was standing in line with her purchase and the four $5 bills folded together in her hands when she suddenly realized they were gone,'' Lori says. ``We looked everywhere, vainly retracing her steps, but the (money) was gone.

``For the heck of it, I asked customer service if anyone had turned in any money. Fat chance, we both thought. I knew that me replacing the money would not be the right thing to do.

``Lessons are learned through pain, but why did it have to ruin this special day? Besides, I knew that my daughter would not take the money from me. It would not be the same.

``To my surprise, someone had turned in some cash. `Can you describe it?' the girl behind the counter asked.

``I told her it was four $5 bills folded up. She smiled and called the manager, Ken Smith, who came up with the money in an envelope. A saleslady, Aziza Kalick, had found the money and turned it in.

``My daughter learned a wonderful lesson about honesty that day. Aziza Smith could have pocketed the cash but chose to do the right thing. Getting the money back was incidental to the message my daughters learned.

``That their are honest people in this world.''

And truly committed people, like Jodi Sisson of Chatsworth. I wrote about Jodi a few years back going hat in hand to companies in the Valley asking for donations to the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, a traveling memorial to all the people, like 18-year-old Ryan White, who had died of AIDS.

Well, she's still at it, trying to keep our minds focused on this killer now increasingly targeting women and children.

This Sunday, Jodi, along with Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis, and Frank Barbarino of FB Productions, both Chatsworth residents deeply involved in the project, will be on hand for a special reception commemorating the 10th year of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Sadly, it now encompasses 43,000 panels recording the lives of some 75,000 men, women and children lost to AIDS.

The reception, a jazz lawn party, will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday in Los Feliz at 2421 Glendower Ave., off Vermont Avenue. A $150 donation will go to benefit the continuing work of the Names Project Foundation and Names Project Los Angeles.