Community stars take center stage at annual Mayor's Dinner
Three citizens honored for walking the walk
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

Photo courtesy FRED BAUERMEISTER/BAUERMEISTER PHOTOGRAPHY GOING ONCE, TWICE- Simi Valley High School Principal Steve Pietrolungo served as caller for the live auction during last Friday's Fourth Annual Mayor's Dinner at the Reagan Library. The event raised money for the Simi Valley Community Foundation, which serves countless Simi nonprofits.

After Willa Dobbs received her Humanitarian Award at the third annual Mayor's Dinner and Charity Auction last Friday, she made sure to share the honor with the rest of the community. "All of you are what made Care and Share what it is," Dobbs said. "It wasn't me."

Dobbs cofounded Simi Valley Care and Share 39 years ago and it now serves more than 500 local families- providing them with a week's supply of emergency food each month.

It was Dobbs' impact on the community that made her one of three citizen recipients of the Simi Valley Community Foundation's 2007 Humanitarian Award during last Friday's gala at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Mayor Paul Miller and his wife, Connie, presented the other two crystal trophies to Sandie Delzer of Interface Children Family Services and Gloria Gralow of Food Share Inc.

"These are three ladies who've really done a lot for the community," Miller said. "We honor them for volunteering their time. Such people should be honored because they're not doing these things to get accolades; they just feel there's a job that needs to be done."

Last year, more than 2,800 Simi residents directly benefited from services offered by Interface Children Family Services- an organization that has raised "thousands of dollars" for the Simi Valley battered women and children's shelter, Miller said.

Delzer was honored for spearheading fundraisers and providing gifts and donations through the program, which recently celebrated its 35th year of service in Ventura County.

Gralow, who is the coordinator for the Simi Valley Brown Bag program under Food Share Inc., prepares and distributes 10 to 15 pounds of free groceries to more than 50 local seniors each week.

"She is being honored for her dedication and initiative as one of Food Share's most dedicated volunteers for the past 20 years," Miller said.

This year, the mayor also presented the firstever Corporate Humanitarian Award to Alcoa Fastening Systems/Alcoa Foundation.

The Simi Valley business and its employees have contributed countless volunteer hours and more than $250,000 to local non-profit organizations and projects such as the Samaritan Center, the Toys for Tots program, the Police Foundation and the Boys & Girls Club.

The company also contributed a $20,000 grant to the American Red Cross to benefit victims of the recent Simi Valley fires through their ACTION (Alcoans Coming Together In Our Neighborhoods) program.

The Simi Valley Community Foundation, who presented the event, has raised more than $50,000 in past years to help various charities and community projects.

This year, the nonprofit organization officially presented the concept for its newly founded project, the Simi Valley Alliance for Human Services.

The project, which was proposed by Miller, aims to consolidate various human services "under one roof" to benefit the children, families, seniors and needy within the community in the most convenient way.

"The appeal is much more than just creating a building," Miller said. "It's about creating a whole new integrated way of having all our services coordinated under one roof, allowing them to become more accessible for anyone who needs their support."

"It is only through these kinds of collaborative efforts that we can ever hope to address our society's most challenging problems," Miller said.

City Councilmember Michelle Foster, who emceed the event for the second year in arow, said she thinks the alliance project is "certainly something our community needs."

Under the alliance, human service providers would no longer have to "fight for needed dollars" to secure office space because they would be able to operate in one place rent-free, Foster said.

"It truly is just a win-win situation for everyone," she said. "Conceptually, the Simi Valley Community Foundation represents the whole community so this is a great project for them to be championing."

"I think it will make a big difference for the people in need of these services and will make somebody's life much easier," Foster said.