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Champions of Charity
By Sharon Apfelbaum
Photography by Ethan Kaminsky and Mark Davidson

■ After losing many friends in the 1980s, Kevin Bass became passionate about preventing the spread of HIV and founded Gay Associated Youth, an organization that provides a safe place where youth ages 14 to 23 can gather “without pretending not to be who they are.” He hosted the first fundraiser in his back yard. “I understood the need,” he says. “I too ‘came out,’ but I had an accepting and supportive family. I realized I was lucky and that’s why I should get involved. By empowering our young people and helping them to feel good about themselves, they make positive choices about safe sex, and we reduce AIDS,” Bass says.

■ “I’m a bird-o-holic,” concedes Linda Biggi, whose abode houses some 36 exotic birds and five small dogs orphaned in the tempests of Hurricane Katrina. That she was raised on a 2,300-acre ranch with farm animals in Oregon helps explain her devotion to Animal Samaritans, an organization committed to saving healthy animals from euthanasia. Serving on the board and as charter president of its fundraising arm, Angels for Animals, Biggi hosts fundraisers at her Palm Desert home. “The social network is very satisfying, and the work suits my passion for making the world a better place for animals.”

■ A former victim of domestic violence, Edra Blixseth wrote a book, Uncharged Battery, that helps police officers and others understand why women stay in abusive relationships. But she didn’t stop there. She helped found and continues to fund Shelter From the Storm, where women and their children can flee domestic violence. Blixseth serves as president of the board and opens her massive Rancho Mirage estate to host fundraisers for the shelter and for the American Cancer Society. “My efforts now are directed toward being a good role model and not living as a victim or a martyr,” Blixseth says. “I feel a continuing obligation to help change lives. I’m motivated by seeing the results of lives changed for the better.”

■ Last year, Lucille Fostvedt turned 91 and received the St. George Medal of Honor, the American Cancer Society’s highest volunteer award. The organization cited her “pioneering spirit” in beginning the desert’s first breast cancer support groups. That was in the 1970s, after she had surgery for breast cancer, lost a 17-year-old daughter to brain cancer, and lost her father to prostate cancer. Fostvedt hosted the support groups at her Palm Springs home and branched into the High Desert, driving to Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree twice a month for similar meetings. She continued hosting the groups until she was in her late 80s. “I didn’t think I did that much,” she says. “One never does these things expecting accolades, and no one can do it alone. I had lots of wonderful women who became friends and helped in all I did.”

■ After one of her twin daughters was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Gloria Greer founded ACT for MS, a nonprofit organization that provides financial aid, medical supplies, and adaptive physical therapy for local residents with MS. Greer chairs the annual Christmas Tree Lane fundraiser inaugurated by Merv Griffin and a spring fundraiser. “At first, we thought we’d offer a little therapy,” Greer says. “Now my daughter Norma is walking, driving, and doing well. Therapy works. People who would not leave home before now thank me for changing their lives.” Greer also champions numerous causes through her coverage of fundraising events in Palm Springs Life and on her cable television show Conversations with Gloria Greer. 

■ “I think of myself as the Orson Welles of not-for-profit filmmakers,” Joel Hochberg  says. Since retiring as head of marketing for 20th Century Fox, Hochberg has offered his expertise to charities. He has filmed documentaries for City of Hope, La Quinta Arts Foundation, Mizell Senior Center, McCallum Theatre, and a planned Tolerance Education Center. He’s now creating a documentary to promote the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. “I believe in the valley and in giving back to your community,” Hochberg says. “Look, I’ve fulfilled the dream I had as a kid — making movies — and now I always get the final cut!”

■ A retired Air Force nurse who for 18 years ran a cosmetic and reconstructive surgery recovery retreat in Beverly Hills, Maggie Lockridge founded Iraq Star after viewing a report by ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff chronicling his recovery from a head injury sustained in Iraq. While not life-threatening, scars can be psychologically debilitating. Lockridge aligned Iraq Star with 110 board-certified surgeons around the country to volunteer their services for reconstructive surgery and Angel Flight West, a nonprofit organization of pilots that transports patients free to places where they can receive medical treatment. “Once you serve in the Armed Forces, you have a patriotism that never goes away,” Lockridge says. “We owe this to our veterans.”

■ A fiber artist with a deep-seated love for art, Betty Rinnig joined Palm Springs Art Museum’s first docent class and has served as a docent there for 25 years. Although she is now a paid staff buyer and shop manager for the museum’s gift shop, her work on behalf of the museum far exceeds her hours on the job. She developed several successful fundraising events, including the holiday bazaar, A Day in the Garden, and The Art of Shopping. “I feel like it’s our obligation to raise a generation of kids with an aesthetic feel for art,” she says. “I once passed a young boy walking through Ruth Hardy Park who looked at me and said, ‘Oh, I remember, you taught me how to look at art.’ That was my reward: touching a young life.”

■ During 15 years on the board of the Palm Springs Opera Guild, Arlene Rosenthal has found rewarding the outreach programs that bring music to students throughout the Coachella Valley. She particularly remembers being touched by the rapturous faces of migrant farm workers’ children who were bused in from Coachella for a performance. Rosenthal serves as chair of the annual Opera in the Park, a free event that attracted 4,000 this past April. “We’re expanding horizons, whatever the demographic, and accomplishing our mission to introduce beautiful music to the next generation,” she says.
 

■ Honored with the Jefferson Award, known as the Nobel Prize of volunteerism, Lori Sarner began giving time in 1986 at Pegasus Riding Academy for the Handicapped, a fledgling equine therapy organization with two horses, three disabled riders, and a woeful financial picture. More than 20 years and 10,000 volunteer hours later, she has helped 4,600 disabled people through full-body range of motion exercise on horseback. Pegasus serves all of the desert-area school districts, as well as referrals from the Stroke Recovery Center, Braille Institute, Autism Foundation, Cerebral Palsy Foundation, and private physicians and physical therapists. “It’s a way to combine a love for horses with a commitment to humanitarian causes,” says Sarner, 72, the organization’s president and chief instructor.

■ “Stay busy; live longer!” That’s the mantra of Lillian Thomas, one of two original volunteers still working at Eisenhower Medical Center.  Thomas worked in the gift shop at Indio Community Hospital in 1971 when a friend lured her to then new Eisenhower Medical Center. She has since knitted and crocheted items for the EMC gift shop, and has accumulated a total of 80,000 volunteer hours. “It’s a wonderful feeling to know someone will benefit from my work,” she says.

■ Likewise, Shirley Chapnick continued the handmade tradition, first making gift packages for EMC patients and then holiday stockings and afghans — a commitment that’s lasted 30 years. Her husband, Allan, also was a volunteer who loved visiting patients. “In his memory, I have my own special charity,” Chapnick says. “I give stuffed animals to patients who need a hug. The reception is always heartwarming. I’m 84 now, and I’ll do it as long as I can.”

■ Mel Barton began volunteering at Collectors’ Corner, the Eisenhower Medical Center resale shop in Rancho Mirage, shortly after moving to the desert in 1989 and now serves as vice president of EMC Auxiliary. “I like people, and it’s very gratifying to help the place run properly,” he says.

■ When Pam Troxel retired here in 1993, she began volunteering in public relations at Desert AIDS Project and helped found the Ophelia Project. But what most interests Troxel now is the Visiting Nurse Association, a group whose mission is to provide home care and hospice services and maintain the Morningstar Center for bereaved parents and grieving children. Through its bereavement group, VNA helped Troxel immensely in 2004, when her husband died. She felt particular gratitude for that sustenance when shortly afterward she was diagnosed with MS. Today, she is volunteer editor of the ACT for MS newsletter. “These are wonderful community services,” Troxel says, “and I have strong personal motivation.”

■ Diagnosed with breast cancer when she was only 14 years old, Sally West Brooks has made a 35-year journey from community volunteer to chairman of the national American Cancer Society board. Trained in childbirth education, Brooks taught classes at Desert Regional Medical Center and then added smoking cessation and women’s breast health to her outreach curriculum. President of the local ACS chapter, she went on to chair the state board and has served 20 years at the national level. “It will take the government, nonprofit providers, and the community together to find a cure,” she says. “My own accomplishments pale here in Palm Springs, where hundreds of ACS volunteers are so active.”

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