VOLUNTEERS AT THE LOMITA SHERIFF STATION
(Text by Pete Porter, Photos by Pete and Margaret Porter)
The Lomita Sheriff Station has around thirty five volunteers working with the officers. The station holds a volunteer coordination meeting on the second Tuesday of each month, and I was at this month's session to see if I could talk to any RSVP members who were in attendance. Out of the thirty volunteers who were in attendancethe, the only RSVP volunteer at the meeting was Sherry Clark. The station volunteer coordinator, Sgt. Dave Rozas, told me that the RSVP volunteers generally help out on a daily basis by performing various clerical duties. As such, they wouldn't normally attend the monthly meetings. However, he said that I would be able to speak to some of them later on in the week.

Sherry told me that she originally signed on with RSVP when she volunteered at the Redondo Beach Police station, but had contacted the Lomita Sheriff's station when she and her husband, Victor, relocated to Lomita. Sherry said that she really enjoys doing this kind of thing and spends time at the Pier and Riviera Village as part of her volunteer work wth the Redondo Beach Police Department. She is hoping to go on a Ride-Along after she has been at the Lomita Sheriff Station for a while, but has already done "Bird Dog" duty at Redondo Beach. She said that this involved sitting in an unmarked car at weird hours of the night and watching for criminal activity in certain areas that have been targeted in the past.

Volunteers at the Lomita Sheriff Station are expected to donate at least sixteen hours each month in their work there. However, many of them put in a lot more than this. During the meeting, Sgt. Rozas was happy to pass out special recognitions to several volunteers who had donated 100 hours and even one who had accumulated a total of 400 hours in his work at the station.

The meeting topics included discussions about how the volunteers can help the members of the station perform their duties and several suggestions were made by those in attendance. A volunteer recognition banquet is scheduled to be held at the station on April 15, starting at 11:00 in the morning. It was also announced that volunteers were needed to help out at the Palos Verdes Marathon on May 20. However, anyone interested in this event would be required to be at the station around 6:30 that morning.

A special commemorative coin was also passed around. The coin was struck to honor those officers who had died in the line of duty, with all monies collected going into a special Statewide fund to aid their families. The obverse of the coin (shown at the top of the article) carries the following quotation:

"My goals are simple

I will always be
painfully honest,
work as hard as I can,
learn as much as I can and
hopefully
make a difference in
people's lives."

Deputy David March
EOW April 29, 2002

The inscription beneath the badge reads "WE WILL NEVER FORGET".

Sgt. Rozas was proud to announce that the Lomita Sheriff's Station had one of the biggest volunteer programs in the whole of Los Angeles County, and the enthusiasm displayed by those at the meeting gave proof to how strong this commitment was.

RSVP member, Dean Martin, is also registered at the Lomita Sheriff's Office, as a Disaster Service Worker under the Governor's Office of Emergency Services' Safety Assessment Program. In this capacity, he is able to provide Mutual Aid to any agency in California. For example, this means that if he is in the Rolling Rancho's area of Lomita, he can at least check the houses and businesses nearby and report any illegal activity (via ham radio) directly to Lomita's EOC.

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