Heading SouthAs part of the contingent of...

Heading South

As part of the contingent of the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce’s Sister City project, at least five young people will be going to Taxco, Mexico, for two weeks in July.

According to the Sister City program chairman, Jane Stauss, last week’s upheaval in Los Angeles underscores the importance of activities of this sort for teen-agers.

“This program is about knowing, respecting and learning to appreciate other people,” said Stauss, who lives in Woodland Hills. “To respect and appreciate our neighbors-- whether in the community or the world--is something we need to learn how to do.”

Taxco, a city of about 27,000 that lies about three hours drive south of Mexico City, is famous for its silver mines, silversmiths and--to hear its Sister City visitors--sterling hospitality.

“We will be going there, living in private homes, making friends and learning to appreciate another culture,” said Amy McGovern, 17, a student at El Camino Real High School, who also went on the exchange last year.

“My first trip completely changed my idea of what Mexico is like and who Mexican people are,” she said.

McGovern said that before she went, she had an impression that almost everyone there was poor and that the country was dirty. “It wasn’t,” she said. “And my hosts were middle class, and they were so warm and good to me. I felt like part of the family from the first.”

That experience was shared by another of last year’s visitors, Jeff Dirstine, 17, of Crespi High School, who said he had also some preconceptions that just weren’t true.

“There are a lot of things about the country that sort of surprised me,” he said, “particularly the great old buildings, pizza just like ours and the way the family is so strong.

“At my house, we all have such busy schedules that our family doesn’t have much time to spend together,” said Dirstine, of Woodland Hills. “But my host family in Taxco included three generations, and they were all together at every meal, even lunch.”

The San Fernando Valley teen-agers go to Taxco for two weeks, then the teen-agers from Taxco come to the Valley for two weeks. The parents of the paired youths are hosts to the visitors. The young Valley participants don’t have to be affiliated with the chamber, but their parents must be willing to reciprocate as a host family. The teen-agers raise their air fare, about $380.

Adults from the chamber go down every summer at another time, and a group of Tasquenos come here. Many of the youngsters who visit are children of people who themselves visited as youths. Two of this year’s group-- Crystal Alcala, 16, and her brother, Alex, 14, of West Hills--are the third generation of their family to participate.

“It’s a good program, one that was started here by Francis and Marion Lederer in 1962,” Stauss said, adding that hundreds of chamber members have formed lasting friendships with the people in Taxco. A Taxco woman and Canoga Park man met on the exchange and married.

“It’s not the answer to world, or local, peace; it’s just our way of forging an alliance with neighbors,” said Stauss, whose daughter Karen is a chaperon in the program. “When you take the time to get to know people, it helps to erase prejudices and allows you to live with a feeling of mutual support and peace.”

Juice and Cookies

For 50 years, Iowa-born Ruth Mehlberg has been a Red Cross Gray Lady in Glendale and Burbank.

She’s the one who takes your vital information and reassures you when you go to give blood.

Sometimes she hands out the after-donation juice and cookies.

Sometimes she helps the people who fainted, but she’d just as soon not talk about that.

After reconsidering, and laughing, she says people don’t faint very often because the amount of blood just isn’t enough to have that effect. But when it does happen, it’s almost always a man, experiencing fear more than anything else.

Mehlberg was recently honored for 50 years of service by the Burbank Red Cross chapter, which she served as first chairman in 1949.

At 81, she’s still volunteering, “although I don’t do it near as much as I used to,” she said.

Bouncing Ball

The students at Woodlake Avenue School in Woodland Hills raised $5,910 for the American Heart Assn. by getting sponsors to pay for their time participating in the rope jumping called “Jump for Heart.”

This was a financial leap over the about $1,200 raised at other West Valley schools, according to Rob Fowler, the organization’s regional director.

Now, if they could just learn to clean up their rooms.

Overheard

“My first thought was to get out of this area, this state, even this country. Then I decided we all have to be part of the solution and not bail out.”

--Woman in Encino discussing

the L. A. riots with friend

on phone