Kiwanis

The Burbank Kiwanis Aktion Club had its annual Bowl-A-Thon on Feb. 27. This fundraiser affords club members the opportunity to attend the Kiwanis Aktion Club Convention in late summer or early fall. It was a very successful event, thanks to the support they received from friends and family, as well as from their friends in other Kiwanis clubs. Some of the clubs bowled and others provided great financial support. The Aktion Club would like to thank the Burbank Noon Kiwanis, Burbank Sunrise Kiwanis, Sylmar Kiwanis and San Fernando Kiwanis for giving so much of themselves.

Standing on a chair in front of 200 Glendale Kiwanis members, 5-year-old Reece LoCicero's smile kept growing. First came a signed and framed poster from the U.S. Air Force Thunderbird pilots, followed by Disneyland tickets, Mickey Mouse ears and the promise of an outing in retired Glendale Police Lt. Donald Shade's Cessna airplane. "Reece is going to be so excited to go and fly; it is going to be amazing," said his mother, Natalia LoCicero. Friday marked the latest outpouring of community support for the LoCicero family and for Reece, a La Crescenta Elementary kindergarten student struggling with an undiagnosed illness that has resulted in repeated hospitalizations during the last 4 1/2 years.

Sometimes I wonder what role the Glendale Public Library plays in today?s environment of information that just keeps coming to us on the Internet. Do we still read books? The Jewel City Kiwanis Club has had a tradition of giving a children?s book to the library almost every week in the name of their guest speaker. To say thank you for all the books given over the years, Cecile Pham , the library assistant in charge of the Children?s Room, spoke at the club?s meeting recently.

GLENDALE ? The holidays probably wouldn?t have been the same for a YWCA client and her two sons without the toy donation Tuesday that came from the Glendale Kiwanis Club. The 32-year-old mother, who declined to be identified, had been trying to get on her feet since fleeing an abusive relationship last year and seeking the help of the YWCA, she said. Since then, it?s been a challenge juggling a job, school and being a full-time mother to her 3- and 15-year-old sons. ?

Siblings Isabelle and Henry Avanosian jumped up and down in anticipation Saturday afternoon as they waited for hundreds of rubber ducks to come rushing past them in a man-made waterway. Nine-year-old Isabelle and 7-year-old Henry were among hundreds of residents who went to Verdugo Park Saturday for the fifth annual Glendale Kiwanis Incredible Duck Splash, the organization’s signature fundraising event, where community members could make donations to “adopt” rubber ducks for the afternoon’s races.

A heart condition forced battalion fire Chief Tom Brittan from the job he loved in 1987, but the retired Glendale native wasn’t ready to stop supporting his community, he said. He turned to an organization he helped found three years earlier to fill the void. The Jewel City Kiwanis Club Glendale is a volunteer service devoted to charity and community work with schools and families in the area. Over time, Brittan recognized volunteerism was a full-time activity, and he discovered that retirement gave him the chance to give back to the community in ways he never could before with the time commitments at his job. While Brittan said giving up his position as battalion chief was a tough decision, he doesn’t regret it for a minute.

CENTRAL GLENDALE — Officer Marilyn Cisneros grew up in a gang-ridden Los Angeles neighborhood where helicopters constantly flew overhead and police officers had to watch their backs to avoid being shot. As a child, she saw her neighborhood become overrun with crime, and she knew she didn’t want be on the wrong side of the law. Cisneros wanted to be a cop and help people living among crime. She joined the Glendale Police Department 19 years ago and has devoted her life to trying to make the community a safer place to live.

With the economy not doing so well lately, many are putting off their dream vacations, at least for the time being. Not so, for those preferring to take this week’s armchair trip with the Kiwanis Club of La Cañada’s Travel Adventures. The tiny island of Corsica, which sits in the Ligurian sea, about 60 miles off the coast of Italy, and the Italian and French Rivieras will be the destination for Saturday night’s guided tour. Traveling to Corsica via the Kiwanis Club Travel Adventures costs $8 and begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, at Flintridge Preparatory School auditorium, at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Crown Avenue in La Cañada.