People Who Give of Themselves Make the Holidays Cheery : Charities: Volunteers bring their Christmas presence to a number of groups that serve many crucial needs.

Most of us have our own favorite stories for the holiday season. There are those about the Magi and the Maccabees, and then there are those about Scrooge and Santa and an evanescent snowman with an endearingly human soul.

Pam Edwards of Redondo Beach often tells a different story. It’s a story about a small boy hospitalized with leukemia, whose one wish for Christmas was for a red train.

Edwards, who founded Cheer for Children in 1985, hunted through the large toy chains in the South Bay to no avail. Her quest finally ended in a small, proprietary toy store where a woman, the owner, not only located the perfect train but insisted on paying for it out of her own pocket. Edwards had inadvertently chanced upon a mother whose own young son had been a victim of leukemia. The train was donated in her child’s memory.

Cheer for Children is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to bringing holidays to South Bay children. Four times a year--Halloween, Christmas, Easter and the Fourth of July--the group gets together to produce a spirited, fully costumed extravaganza at the Child Life Center of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for the hospital’s indigent young patients and for the orthopedically handicapped students of Washington and Jefferson schools in Redondo Beach. Last Christmas, 600 children and their families were feted with carols, gifts, balloons and a visit from Santa.

Cheer for Children symbolizes the holiday spirit that infuses the work of many South Bay organizations. Although the area contains some of the priciest real estate in the nation, there are also residents who can barely make ends meet, who are victims of disease or infirmity, or who live out their days institutionalized in impersonal environments without funds, friends or family.

Cheer for Children and many other local charitable groups gather up donations--gift baskets, toys, or donations of time--and spread the bounty around.

A number of these organizations are listed below, along with their volunteer needs for the holidays. AIDS Residence Program

PO Box 2542, Redondo Beach.

This five-bed residence is home for individuals with AIDS or ARC who are able to live semi-autonomously but who can no longer maintain their own residence. You can make their holiday festive by donating some decorations and helping deck the halls. They often also need household equipment or help in repairs at the facility. For a wish list, contact Amy Rule, Program Director, 978-3866.

Cheer for Children

You don’t have to be a professional to be a part of the Cheer for Children ensemble. But those who tend to shy away from the limelight might prefer assisting with the patients. Donate some toys, and join the annual Christmas gift-wrapping party Dec. 20 at the Torrance Holiday Inn. Bring your own scissors, tape and a roll of wrapping paper. Information: Pam Edwards, 540-2494.

Crossroads

551 Avenue B, Redondo Beach.

Crossroads offers both residential and outpatient treatment for homeless and near-homeless mentally ill adults. The organization depends on volunteers to donate grocery gift certificates and clothing for holiday giving. Information: 323-7686.

Harbor Interfaith Shelter

1420 W. 8th St., San Pedro.

This is a family-oriented 60-bed homeless shelter providing a comprehensive mix of rehabilitation services. For Christmas, they ask for donations of children’s gifts for parents to choose and wrap themselves. They also request contributions to enable them to provide a tree, a festive meal, and gift baskets for all the residents. Information: Cheri Miller, Director of Client Programs, 831-0589.

Harbor-UCLA

Medical Center

1000 W. Carson St., Torrance.

“Our patients are extremely poor,� says Volunteer Services Director Sylvia Kost. “Without community support, most of our patients could not have a holiday.� Their primary request is for volunteers to visit patients who have no families. They would also appreciate gifts (especially homemade items such as knitted slippers and blankets), carolers, and sponsors for their “Adopt-a-Needy Family� program. Information: 533-3258.

His House

1103 Sartori Ave., Torrance.

His House is a storefront operation in downtown Torrance distributing food and clothing to an average of 400 needy area families each week. Operated by volunteers, the center always needs willing hands and welcomes gift certificates and food donations (particularly meat items such as turkey, ham, and sausage) for the holidays. Information: 782-8841.

Holiday Project

“The Holiday Project is about people just being with people and touching someone’s heart,� says coordinator Ron Ross. The Los Angeles chapter is just one of 200 Holiday Projects across the country. At the holidays and other times as well, the group visits those in institutions--convalescent homes, juvenile houses, hospitals, and prisons--and offers support and a welcome ear. Information: 829-3208.

The Hospice Foundation

2601 Airport Drive, Torrance.

“Hospice is a philosophy, not a facility,� emphasizes Vice President Claire Tehan, “. . . an approach to giving care to the terminally ill, rather than a place where services are offered. Hospice focuses on increasing the quality of a patient’s life rather than the quantity of that life.�

Volunteers are an important component of the care-giving team, ranking alongside the physicians, social workers, nurses and other professionals. Volunteers perform a range of tasks. They may transport an ambulatory patient to and from a physician’s office, run errands, prepare an occasional meal, relieve the primary care-giver, and listen supportively to the patient and family. Information: 530-3800.

House of Yahweh

4430 W. 147th Street, Lawndale.

This church-supported agency serves the poor and the homeless throughout the South Bay, providing hot meals Monday through Saturday. For the holidays they try to provide a traditional turkey dinner on Christmas Eve and gift bags of toiletries and personal items. Call Sister Michele Morris if you can help with the dinner or provide cash contributions or items to help fill the bags. Information: 644-9301.

Rainbow Shelter for Battered Women

San Pedro

The shelter provides 18 beds for battered women and their children. At Christmas, present and former residents gather for a celebration. If you have a musical or thespian bent, Rainbow would be delighted if you would lend your talents for the entertainment. Food certificates and gifts for the residents are also needed. Information: 548-5450.

Richstone Family Center

13620 Cordary Ave., Hawthorne.

Richstone has been offering counseling, education, and social programs to abused and neglected children in the South Bay for 16 years. Most children have come to Richstone from lives in which crime, drugs, alcohol and violence were part of their daily existence. Ninety percent come from poverty-level households; 95% are referred by the courts. Richstone has a wide variety of ongoing volunteer involvement opportunities, including the “Special Friends� and “Children’s Adventures� programs.

At Christmas, the entire campus is converted into a “holiday land,� with offices becoming shops where parents and children can choose and wrap donated gifts for each other. And the entire community is invited to volunteer in the tree-decorating party. Richstone offers its own Adopt-a-Family program for hosts to provide holiday food and gifts to indigent Richstone client families. Information: 970-1921.

Salvation Army

4223 Emerald St., Torrance; 125 W. Beryl St., Redondo Beach.

The Salvation Army’s programs are open to anyone regardless of religious affiliation. The Torrance location boasts the only intergenerational day-care center on the West Coast, combining seniors and preschoolers for several activities a day. It also offers a Family Assistance Program, providing food, clothing, shelter and counseling to those in troubled circumstances. The Beach cities facility in Redondo Beach offers a Meals-on-Wheels service to area homebound, ill or elderly. Volunteers are needed for all these services.

The agency also offers an “Adopt-a-Family� program at Christmas. Donations of gifts and grocery vouchers are welcome. Toys collected by the Salvation Army are not given to the children directly but are instead chosen and wrapped by their parents in the facility’s “shop,� to preserve the dignity of the family.

Volunteers are also needed for the Army’s Christmas kettles. Every coin tossed in at any South Bay location stays in the area to meet local needs. Information: 370-4515 (Torrance); 376-8760 (Redondo Beach).

The Sandpipers

What happens to all that money collected by the Sandpipers at their annual Design House tour? For 60 years, this philanthropic volunteer group has been providing financial support to about 40 charities across the South Bay, with funds collected from the Design House and other events. And every Christmas, members put together baskets of food and gifts for needy client families of these agencies.

The Sandpipers ask for donations of food, toys and gifts to fill these baskets. They also welcome donations of products from local companies, including those who might find themselves saddled with extra T-shirts and similar give-aways from annual meetings or conventions. Information: Jan Zar, philanthropy chairman, 376-4388.

South Bay Children’s Health Center

410 Camino Real, Redondo Beach.

This organization offers dental, vision, hearing and child-guidance services to low- and moderate-income South Bay children. Each year the center sponsors an annual Christmas party for clinic patients. It welcomes community assistance in helping with the party and providing gifts. Information: 316-1212.

South Bay Senior Services

Homebound, infirm, isolated or indigent seniors turn to South Bay Senior Services for a variety of support programs. Besides in-home health care, these include management, peer counseling, and friendly volunteer visitors.

For the holidays, food baskets are prepared for the frail elderly. Grocery store gift certificates and volunteer help in roasting turkeys are needed. Information: 328-9765.

Toberman Settlement House

131 N. Grand Ave., San Pedro.

This organization provides a variety of programs to indigent families across the South Bay, including emergency assistance, drug rehabilitation, job development and parenting skills for adolescents. Its special Christmas effort, Toberman Christmas Cheer, provides food and toys to between 700 and 1,000 families each year. Donations of food and toys and volunteers to help in organizing the distribution effort are needed. Information: 832-1145.

Volunteer Center/South Bay-Harbor-Long Beach

1230 Cravens Ave., Torrance.

The Volunteer Center is the very backbone of volunteerism in the greater South Bay area. Last year the center coordinated the efforts of 11,000 individual volunteers with more than 500 nonprofit agencies in 35 area cities. The center maintains volunteer job listings from a broad spectrum of organizations.

Over the holidays the center collects food and grocery-store gift certificates from individuals and businesses and distributes these to agencies for distribution to needy families.

Every December the Center oversees a communitywide “Adopt-a-Family� program, matching needy families with a sponsoring individual, family, business or civic group. Information: 212-5009.

Youth and Family Center

101 N. La Brea, Inglewood.

Annually serving 250 Inglewood and South Bay pregnant and parenting teen-agers, the center’s education and service programs help young parents remain in the mainstream of society. One of the program’s most heralded successes is a theater presenting dramatizations on the risks of drugs, gangs, early pregnancy and AIDS, staged by the teen-agers themselves for local schools and organizations.

The center operates an employment program, matching volunteer tutors and mentors with students. “We need people who are willing to give a young person a chance,� says Director Gayle Nathanson, “people who are willing to help a student learn a marketable skill through direct training or ‘job shadowing.’ �

Each holiday season, the center provides food and gift baskets to destitute clients. Nathanson emphasizes that gifts such as cosmetics, clothes and clothing accessories appropriate for teen-agers are particularly welcome. Information: 671-1222.