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December 04, 2008
Danielle Gillespie , Staff Writer
With a community activist as a husband, Pacific Palisades resident Haldis Toppel said she couldn't help but become involved.
Her husband, Kurt, joined the Community Council in 1990 and served as its president from 2005-06. He was also president of the Marquez Knolls Property Owners Association (MKPOA) at various times over a 10-year period and Citizen of the Year in 1998 for his leadership in securing a new gym at the Palisades Recreation Center.
Toppel attended meetings with him, and they discussed the issues around the dinner table. Soon, community leaders were asking for her help.
'If I see a need, I try to do something about it,' Toppel, 66, said. 'Some people will see a car accident and drive by; I am more compelled to stop if I think I can be of assistance in some way.'
In recognition of her years of volunteerism, the Council is honoring her with the Community Service Award on December 11 during a potluck dinner meeting in Temescal Gateway Park's historic dining hall.
'Haldis has been tremendously productive in her service to the Council,' said chair Richard G. Cohen. 'Often working behind the scenes, she has organized our Citizen of the Year events, worked tirelessly with the by-laws committee and produced our area representative map.
'She has facilitated the day-to-day functioning of the Council by handling the e-mails and other administrative functions in a dedicated and selfless way,' Cohen continued. 'She has devoted endless hours for the betterment of our community and is truly a community treasure.'
Toppel, who worked for the city of Los Angeles as an information system manager for 20 years, has also assumed Kurt's former role as MKPOA president. Council representative Janet Turner, who lives in Marquez, encouraged her to take the position a couple years ago. 'In a weak moment, I said 'yes,'' Toppel said, chuckling. The MKPOA was in the middle of an expensive lawsuit at the time.
'The organization may have folded at that point, and I knew it was important and served a great purpose,' Toppel said. 'My goal was to put it back on its feet, and it's now considered a strong organization.' Indeed, it's the largest homeowners group in the Palisades with more than 1,200 homes and a membership rate of about 30 percent.
Through MKPOA, Toppel has worked to alleviate traffic problems in Marquez and created a mediation process for homeowners to discuss concerns such as view obstruction. She is hoping to convert the DWP's property into a parking lot for Marquez School. Right now, many of the school's staff park in the neighborhood.
'She's like the Energizer Bunny,' Turner said. 'She keeps on going and going and her boundless energy is infectious. It encourages others to do more for the community as well.'
In 2005, Toppel and Palisades resident Steve Lantz fought to keep the Commuter Express Line 430 bus in service. The bus is the only express line available between Pacific Palisades and downtown, so when the city was considering cutting the route because not enough people were riding, Toppel knew she had to take action.
'I negotiated with Loyola High School and the L.A. Department of Transportation to re-route the bus to stop at Loyola High School [and thus, increase ridership],' she said. 'That bus is now filled to capacity, and I understand there's often standing room only.'
The Toppel's adult son, Curt, 28, attended Loyola, so she knew transportation was also an issue for the school. Curt is now a professional volleyball player with a degree from Stanford.
Toppel initially moved to Pacific Palisades to live with Kurt, who she met through mutual friends in 1973. They married in 1976 at the Aachen Cathedral in France, where Charlemagne was crowned and later buried.
Haldis grew up in Germany, but came to Los Angeles in 1961, so that she could be with her mother, who was working here as a physical therapist. She attended L.A. City College, majoring in math and engineering, then worked as a stewardess for Continental Airlines for seven years (during that time she learned to fly). In the 1970s, she switched careers, earning a degree in information systems management from the University of San Francisco.
Toppel said she never considered moving back to Germany after finding Americans friendly and hospitable. She is glad to live in the Palisades, which is a wonderful place 'because so many people care.'
December 04, 2008
Sue Pascoe , Staff Writer
Mary Cole is one of the town's unsung heroes, the kind who cheerfully volunteers for numerous organizations but is seldom acknowledged. That oversight was corrected last week when she was one of three activists chosen to receive a Community Service Award from the Pacific Palisades Community Council.
Cole, a 43-year resident, will be honored at the Council's potluck dinner meeting on December 11 in Temescal Gateway Park. Ironically, she will also be setting up tables, putting out food and cleaning up afterwards, as she has done for the past six years.
Cole, who in 1973 was one of the first members of the Community Council, also served for five years as the Chamber of Commerce alternate representative and is now the AARP representative.
'I give a lot of time to AARP because the members enjoy the group so much,' said Cole, who serves as vice president and is currently planning the AARP holiday lunch. 'I wish more people would pitch in, but they can't or won't.' AARP meets once a month with a varied program of speakers and entertainment.
She is also a driver for Santa Monica-based ITN (Independent Transportation Network), which provides a transportation alternative for the elderly who either no longer want to drive or have given up their licenses. 'I also drive other seniors around, friends, neighbors,' said Cole who in addition has been a volunteer on the Chamber Music Palisades board since its inception in 1996, and a member of the hospitality committee at Theatre Palisades.
Just for good measure, Cole also works in the Santa Monica Unitarian Church office when needed, and recently joined the Palisades Historical Society.
'I'm always doing something,' she said, laughing.
Her latest volunteer project involves assembling a scrapbook on the history of the Chamber of Commerce. In two weeks she will serve free hot chocolate from The Pantry at the Chamber's Holiday Ho!Ho!Ho! event on Swarthmore.
'I've met so many great people,' Cole said. 'That's the best thing about volunteering in so many different organizations.'
During her interview with the Palisadian-Post at Starbucks, numerous people stopped to chat with the bubbly and friendly woman. She laughed when I asked her if she knows everyone in town. Cole said that she heard friends say, 'Don't walk in town with Mary, you never get anywhere, it takes too long.'
Cole, who grew up in a small town in Ohio, moved to California in 1966 with her husband and their three boys. After looking for a home in the Valley, Cole said she didn't want to live there and instead they found an ocean-view home in Sunset Mesa.
'It was important to me to be in a place that has community spirit,' Cole said. She moved briefly to Santa Monica after her divorce in 1980, but the Palisades, with its small-town feel, drew her back to her current address on Radcliffe.
Her history of volunteering goes back to when her boys, David, now 53, Chris, 50, and Kevin, 47, were young. In the late 1960s, she joined a group of Palisadian women who pressed for fair housing in West Los Angeles, and after Martin Luther King's death in 1968, Cole was part of the Join Hands movement that created the symbolic bumper sticker featuring intertwined white, brown and black hands.
That core group of women still meets for lunch monthly, calling themselves 'The Drunk for Lunch Bunch' (the name was coined after one long-ago lunch that involved too many margaritas). 'We've gone through bad and good times, and ups and downs,' said Cole, who earned her BA in psychology from Cal State Dominguez Hills when she was 45 and has worked in numerous jobs, including as a teacher's aide at Paul Revere Middle School and as a mental health worker. She has four grandchildren.
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