Dodger great leads prayer

NORTH GLENDALE — Former Los Angeles Dodger Ron Cey — who was a key part of the 1981 World Series-winning team — spoke of the importance of dreams to a room filled with city leaders Thursday for the 47th annual Glendale Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast.

Cey spoke to several hundred city, community and religious leaders, who filled the Glendale Civic Auditorium early Thursday morning for the event that also featured a series of prayers, with speakers reading from the Koran, New Testament and Hebrew Scriptures.

“When you have dreams, they don’t always have to be fairy tales,” Cey, the event’s keynote speaker, told the crowd.

He recounted his rise from a 7-year-old boy with a dream to be an All-Star Major League Baseball third baseman, and encouraged the audience not to discount goals that others may think are unattainable.

“You’ve had dreams in the past,” he said. “I hope you still have dreams and goals in the future.”

The event took a different tone from last year’s breakfast, when speakers focused on uplifting messages for community leaders facing bleak economic times. While local unemployment rates are still climbing, speakers did not focus on the specific financial hardships facing the community, instead sticking to more general inspirational messages.

“In times of trouble, it really helps me to remember that God is here for us,” Loyola High School senior Alexander Flynn said of the passage he read in Hebrew.

In his “prayer for the world” Chaplain Al Garcilazo encouraged community leaders to work toward “a world where different races and cultures live together in harmony.”

City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian told the crowd that prayer is a way to “seek guidance during times of difficulty.”

Mayor Frank Quintero recounted his recent lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., and the memories evoked during a visit to the Vietnam Memorial, where he once again found the names of friends he had lost in the war.

He asked the crowd to always remember the young men and women serving the country across the world.

“Let’s for pray for them, and think about them,” he said.

After the breakfast, Kassakhian said the annual event is important because it brings together people from across the city from a variety of religious faiths and backgrounds.

“We don’t necessarily need to separate our faiths from the work we do at the city,” he said. “And this is that reminder.”