YOU CAN HELP KIDS WITH TRAUMA, CANCER.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Odds and ends from around the Valley:

If you need a cut and blow-dry - and even if you don't - keep some time open between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Feb. 2 because there are a couple of cute little girls I want you to meet over at the Madison Avenue Salon in Northridge.

They're the Lopez sisters, and you might have read about them in my column a few weeks ago - a column that was tough to write and probably as tough to read.

The girls, ages 9 and 4, had witnessed the murder-suicide of their parents a couple of weeks before Christmas. Their father shot their mother six times, then ordered his little girls to watch as he turned the gun on himself.

When veteran LAPD Officers Jose Verdin and Ramon Ortega walked in on the scene, the girls were holding each other tightly, trying to make it all go away.

I wrote about how these two officers were so touched, they took up a collection at the Van Nuys police station and courthouse to throw the girls a Christmas party and open an educational trust fund for them.

As always, you helped by opening your hearts and wallets to the girls, who are now living with an uncle. As of Thursday, the Stephanie and Beatrice Lopez Trust Fund at First State Bank of California - 10820 Zelzah Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344 - had grown to almost $6,000, said trustee Yolanda Petroski.

And on Feb. 2, Char Molique, owner of the Madison Avenue Salon at 18526 Devonshire St., is hoping to double that.

``Many of us have children, and we can't even begin to imagine the pain these little girls are feeling,'' she said, as she announced a cutathon at her salon to raise money for the girls' trust fund.

She has a staff of 20 stylists, many of them single mothers eager to help the Lopez sisters, who will be stopping by with their uncle to say thanks.

Try to make it if you can. It'll be the most worthwhile cut and blow-dry you've ever had.

The word ``quit'' is not in Big Ed Rasky's vocabulary. When arthritic knees stopped him from running the Los Angeles Marathon a couple of years ago, he walked it.

When he can't walk it anymore, he'll probably crawl it. That's just the kind of guy this 77-year-old retired English teacher is. He can't say no to his kids.

All 200 or so of them he's been carrying around on his strong shoulders for the last 15 marathons.

I've written about Big Ed before because to me, he epitomizes what the L.A. Marathon is all about. Not winning or losing. Not running personal bests.

It's about heart. And Big Ed has shown the biggest heart of them all over those 26.2 miles.

He runs - walks now - for kids with terminal cancer. Big Ed has raised more than $100,000 in pledges in 15 years so his kids could attend a special summer camp for children with terminal cancer.

Big Ed is still competing, still raising pledges from the public and friends for the next generation of cancer kids.

If you're out and around the West Hills area where he lives, you've probably seen Big Ed training. He's fast-walking about four miles a day right now, working up to the March 2 marathon.

``Last year, it took me about eight hours to do the marathon, and I plan on doing eight hours again this year,'' he said Thursday.

``Even though I can't run anymore, I still feel that I am part of the L.A. Marathon. Its spirit has me in its spell.

``As long as I can walk I'll complete the course because those kids give me the strength and power to make it,'' he said.

If you want to help Big Ed help the kids, give him a call at [phone], or write him at 22503 Welby Way, West Hills, CA 91307.

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Photo:

On Feb. 2, Char Molique, owner of the Madison Avenue Salon at 18526 Devonshire St., will sponsor a cutathon to raise money for Beatriz Lopez, 9, left, with LAPD Officer Jose Verdin, and her sister, Stephanie, 4, right, with Officer Ramon Ortega. The girls were forced to watch their father shoot their mother to death, then himself.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer