VOLUNTEERS HOPE TO BOOST BABIES' CHANCES.

Byline: DENNIS MCCARTHY 

The meeting room was filled with grandparents who were spending some of those long-awaited golden years giving something back to their communities.

When it came time to decide what they wanted to do and where, they decided they wanted to volunteer at local hospitals.

``Hospitals deal with everybody in our society -- not just one group -- and that's what we wanted,'' said Kay Radford, president of the TriValley Area Council of Volunteers -- a dedicated group of more than 1,000 people who help out at a dozen hospitals.

Radford works two days a week in the emergency room at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, a designated trauma center not far from her Granada Hills home.

She began volunteering 18 years ago when her son, Jason, was starting first grade. Jason is now a Marine who just finished serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. And his mom continues her own duty in a hospital emergency room.

When TVAC held its monthly meeting in June, abandoned babies dominated the agenda. Members wanted to figure out how to promote the Safe Haven Law enacted in California in 2001, in which a newborn's parents or a designee can surrender the baby at any county hospital or fire station within 72 hours of its birth without facing criminal prosecution.

``There are drawn symbols at our hospitals of a pair of hands holding a baby, but we didn't think a lot of people knew what the symbol meant, that it was about the safe surrender program,'' Radford said.

Countywide, the numbers have shown a drop in abandoned babies since the law was enacted, from 14 in 2001 to four last year. As of October, 162 babies have been surrendered throughout the state.

But in May, the body of a newborn girl was found in a trash bin at a Newhall mobile home park. The baby's mother, Jacquelin Linaras, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and murder and assault. She is in jail awaiting a Dec.15 preliminary hearing.

``Unfortunately, the only time many people hear about the safe surrender law is when there is a fatality reported in the news,'' Radford said. ``We felt we had to get proactive and get the word out.''

So, that's what the volunteers are doing. The drawn symbols are gone, replaced by posters showing an infant being held by a pair of hands, with the words ``Give Every Baby A Chance.''

You'll soon be seeing them in English and Spanish throughout the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys -- banks, schools, pizza parlors, houses of worship, any place that will allow the TVAC volunteers to get the word out.

For a list of the local hospitals where the safe surrender posters can be picked up or to receive one via mail, call Tiffany De Vall at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, [phone].

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Photo:

Nurses June Westerson and Alexis Fischer work in the nursery at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, where Kay Radford volunteers.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer