Community Service - What it Means to Me

A good friend of mine once asked me the question "Why?" about the reasons I have been involved in so many public service opportunities all my life. It certainly has not been about the money, because even when some positions did pay I always personally had a policy of donating it back to a community charity so I had to really think about that before answering.

My third grade teacher once made a comment to my mother that she never had a student who was so interested in learning about the history of our government. That was back around the time when social studies was basically all about learning the names of our presidents.

Interestingly enough, that probably was what started it all. In fact, a family treasured document that will soon be donated for public display is something that even as a child made me realize the power of being active in service to our Country. It is a letter from one of my relatives written to another family member while he was serving with George Washington during the battle at Hellgate, before our Country was established.

Unfortunately, military service just wasn't something that was an option for me, for orthopedic related reasons. I guess that made me even more determined to do something that I could contribute with my skills. That is what first got me passionately involved with politics as a volunteer working as a Page at the Democratic Convention during the Kennedy years. I believed, and still do, that we have an obligation to serve in some form or another to our Country.

As District Finance Chairman for the Boy Scouts of America, I found that simply making a few phone calls enabled me to assist many kids attend camping events that helped them better enjoy their childhood.

A fellow at church talked me into leaving the grocery business as a manager to go work at Ettie Lee Boys Homes. As Business Manager for the Non Profit, I was instrumental in building three homes for the organization. Interestingly enough, that is where I learned about construction and later got my contractors license because of that experience. Part of my duties there were to help with fundraising for the buildings and I got a lot of construction materials donated for the projects. The founder had donated over 600 apartment units that she had owned when she endowed the organization with her significant estate - one of the most extraordinary woman I have ever met in my life and the philosophy I learned there has permeated my entire life.

The Ettie Lee philosophy was that boys went bad because they came from poor homes. Through law enforcement intervention, these boys ultimately came to live in the Ettie Lee Homes for troubled youth. The homes that we built, would house between six and twelve boys in a large family style setting with a set of house parents. My wife and I were also unpaid volunteer foster parents to many children over the years as well. We learned through experience, what a difference good parenting can make and some of those children have gone on to lead exceptional lives as well.

As former Mayor of Baldwin Park, with a staff independent from City resources I co-founded the Mid Valley Community Mental Health Council. Basically, we formed a consortium of six cities to establish this Non Profit funded by the Cities, State and County of Los Angeles. The City of Baldwin Park then stepped in as one of the six Cities that funded the project and every City had a member on the Management Board. The Mid Valley model, was Nationally recognized and we measurable cut juvenile crime by over fifty percent. Additionally, in each of these Cities we identified and were able to affect positive change in these children's lives by providing a unified approach through the cooperation of the educational, legal, municipal, and local health services. (Unfortunately this successful mental health service has since closed after being taken out of local non profit control and now partially covered in mental health services paid for and provided by the State. Which is in my opinion, part of the significant budget problems we are now having at the State level. Almost always local really is just more effective, in both results and cost.)

Personal involvement is great, because it really allows you to actively participate in the community you live in rather than just criticizing what is going on around you. Of course, I have also been a charitable supporter to many other non profits as well, but that has been no where near as rewarding to just write a check as it is to actually tangibly accomplish something with your own personal time.

~ Russ