CHASE PROVIDES A CHUCKLE
I just had to write to say that Jim Chase’s column was hilarious [“Charity begins … at the supermarket?” July 15, My Thoughts Exactly]. It was his all time best. Every word of it was so true because we all go through this every time we go to the markets.  And it gets worse every week.  They keep adding more and more causes to hit us with.
I sure enjoyed it.
Marie Mull
Glendale

URGES COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Dear residents of Crescenta Valley,
I hope you all know how lucky you are to live in such a vibrant and active community. Over the past year, I have had the privilege of working with dedicated officers from the Glendale Police Department and various other organizations in the city, and most of all with volunteers comprised of both students and adults who wish to make our community a better place for everyone.
I’ve been actively involved in our community since going to my first Neighborhood Watch meeting last April. I organized one of eight National Night Out events in the city at Glendale High School last summer, and I have served on the Crescenta Valley Drug and Alcohol Prevention Coalition since last September as a youth representative. As a youth representative I worked on various projects including, most prominently, a video that illustrated the point of view of our community’s youth on the issue of drug and alcohol use. The video was featured in a news segment by KTLA in May. But I wasn’t alone in my endeavors.
To Officer Matt Zakarian, Officer Joe Allen, Nancy Stone, Howard Hakes, Robbyn Battles, Kim Mattersteig, Aileen Bristow, Susan Dubin, Kim Beattie, the LA County Sheriff’s Department, CV Town Council, Mary [O’Keefe], Aimee [Yeghayan] and Molly [Shelton], the CVHS Prom Plus Club and all of the people in our community who have attended our Coalition meetings and community forums: Thank you for stepping up to make our community a better place. All of you have inspired me to do the work that I have done this past year and continue to inspire me to do great work at Berkeley in the future.
Therefore, as I leave this amazing community this fall, I challenge each and every one of you in this community to make your own impact and volunteer with an organization that works for an issue that you are passionate about, or start your own, as Nancy Stone and others did. Despite what most people think, every single person really can make their own impact on this community. It’s as easy as attending a meeting or volunteering at an event. Join your local Neighborhood Watch group; and if your neighborhood doesn’t have one, start one and become a block captain. Raise money for the fight against cancer at the next Relay for Life event. Fight drug and alcohol abuse with the CV Drug & Alcohol Prevention Coalition. Students and parents can join Prom Plus at Crescenta Valley High School together and “Save lives one prom at a time.” There are endless opportunities for you to give back to this community and make a difference. We’re all in this together, because after all, you can’t spell “community” without “unity.”
Always,
Erika Suzuki
Glendale
Berkeley ‘14

WANTS CV TO ‘LOOK’
It has been one full year since the club at Crescenta Valley High School, LOOK International Development, has started. In the span of one year, LOOK has accomplished numerous feats including participating in Operation Christmas Child sending seven shoeboxes to developing countries; participating in a Skid Row project that had students personally engage with the homeless on Skid Row during the Christmas season; and raising close to $10,000 for the Lee Family through Operation HELP. A club with over 35 members has gone far in just the past school year.
“Change starts when you LOOK.” LOOK is a club devoted to raising awareness. Being the founder for this club, I did not believe that one high school club could change the world; however, I believed and continue to place my faith in the upcoming generation’s ability to change the world. The students today are the upcoming generation, and if we have knowledge of the existence of poverty all around us, we have the ability to work towards ending poverty. Next year, our goal is to raise enough funds for a trip to Tijuana, Mexico, a poverty-stricken city close to border of California and Mexico. We have already made connections with an orphanage there and have three teachers willing to chaperone our trip. We believe in intimate relations with the poverty-stricken people rather than reading articles or watching television about them. Furthermore, we will have a rotation among the divisions in going to Skid Row twice a month in order to observe the poverty just 20 minutes away from us.
I am honored to serve as the president of LOOK in the upcoming year. Currently, our club is being sponsored by the [following] organizations: Los Angeles Seoul Lions Club, World Vision, and Hope for the Honduran Children. With all these sponsors, our name changed into LOOK Leo International Club.
A big change for us in this upcoming year is that we started a chain of LOOK Clubs in high schools all over the area including La Canada High School, Herbert Hoover High School, Glendale High School and South Pasadena High School. The presidents from each club along with a selected cabinet by the president of the board (myself) make up the board for LOOK Leo International Club. We have already started meeting and planning for the upcoming year and are ready to meet new goals and move farther forward.
Our clubs are planning to host fundraising events throughout  the year all around the community. I’d like to thank the community’s support for its help with the series of fundraisers for the Lee family and ask only for its continuous support in future fundraising events. I’d also like to thank the Crescenta Valley Weekly newspaper for its nonstop publications of LOOK events and fundraisers. We look toward a thriving year with more members and greater service to those around us, and with that I’d simply like to say, “Change only can start when you LOOK.”
Peter Lee
La Crescenta
Editors Note: Peter Lee is an intern with CV Weekly

NNO CONSIDERED A BIG SUCCESS
I am the new neighborhood block captain for Invale Drive right off of La Crescenta Avenue and participated in the North Glendale area National Night  out event for the Sycamore Woods section. It was a blast! We had a great turn out and I must have met over 40 neighbors I never even knew existed. One neighbor up on Sycamore was even providing musical entertainment for all of us walkers. I spoke briefly with Officer Zakarian as he drove up and he said it looked like Halloween night out but for the adults, there were neighbors everywhere all introducing themselves to each other. At the end of our evening we held a raffle at the Twelve Oaks lodge and I had an opportunity to speak to our police chief and see the fire department trucks. It was an excellent event overall and I wish to encourage all in our community to participate next year. According to Julia Leeper, our main area coordinator, one fellow emailed her to express his appreciation of the event and he said he spoke to more neighbors in two hours than he had in all of the nine years he had lived there.
Now that speaks of a successful event!
Trissie Badger
La Crescenta

  Crescenta, letters