Joan Bang
Kristi Bateman
Laura Bonilla
Leigh Chang
Lilian Chen
Jennifer Cohen
Luis de Avila
Emma Fredua
Patty Guarderas
Michael Hicks
Viet Hoang
Paul Kellogg
Mark Kimura
Cynde Knerr-Eftimiu
Mary Lawler
Dustin Manhart
Bobbi Marin
Glenn McClanan
Henry Meyer
Wilfredo Salazar
Sarah Scheening
Kayo Shiraishi
Edward Simon
Dana Stibor
David Trilling
Jose Valencia
Marc Weinberg

Want to join the ranks of L.A.'s most involved citizens? Become an L.A. Works Project Leader.

It's easy, it's fun, and it doesn't require a huge amount of your time.

Go to the Courses section of the website and sign up for Project Leader Training.

It's always great to see a relatively new project Leader dive in with both feet. And this month's Project Leader of the Month -- Mark Kimura, appears all over our calendar (He's signed up to lead five project dates in August/Septembe)! He represents an L.A. Works Volunteer who made the leap to leadership! Now, he leads a variety of monthly projects, was involved in the planning and execution of L.A. Works Day, and keeps our webmaster on his toes by scouring the website for innacurate or out-of-date listings. Mark's "can-do" spirit and upbeat attitude has been a great addition to our leadership ranks. We asked him to tell us a bit about himself and his philosophy of volunteering. Here's what he had to say:

"I was born and raised in Los Angeles, a not so exclusive club. I never left far from home, graduating from CSU, Northridge what feels like an eternity ago. Los Angeles has always seemed to have everything I want…the weather, the beach, the mountains, the Lakers, the Kings, and such a great diversity of people (yes, and earthquakes, smog, traffic and ridiculously expensive real estate). After several years in public accounting, I landed a position with one of my clients where I continue to work. My current position is with a private investment firm in West Los Angeles.

Mark Kimura

" I currently live in Playa Del Rey in the shadow of the airport. I will soon be moving to Playa Vista (sorry Ballona Wetlands Trust!). I keep myself busy with hiking, golf, running, take the occasional class through UCLA Extension or WLA College, and every now and then an L.A. Works project.

"About five years ago I stumbled across an article in the L.A. Times about volunteerism which mentioned L.A. Works. The timing was just about perfect, up until that point work had really taken up a lot of my life but that was easing up. I have been pretty fortunate in my life. I’ve never been rich, but I have a lot and certainly more than many. I had wanted to find a way to get involved other than the occasional check to a charity, but I was afraid of making a big commitment and was not affiliated with any organization that made it easy to get involved in volunteer work. L.A. Works seemed a great way to get involved, it didn’t require a huge commitment and had a wide variety of projects throughout each month. I started off doing mostly active projects, things like painting and gardening. I really enjoyed the variety and flexibility of it all. More important was the sense of accomplishment and the great people you met.

"Maybe two years ago I was volunteering at the L.A. Regional Foodbank and the project leader, Viet Hoang, asked if I was interested in being a project leader. At the time I kind of laughed it off and said I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make that type of commitment (do you sense a fear of commitment?). Then at the 9/11 Remembrance, I spoke with another project leader about it. Finally, early this year I made a conscious decision to recommit myself to volunteerism and made the leap to Project Leader training (hey, it only took four years). Since that time, I have averaged a little over two projects a month. I have led projects at Alexandria House, PetSave, Ballona Wetlands, L.A. Regional Foodbank, and was an assistant project leader on L.A. Works Day. Being a project leader has been a great experience. I have met so many wonderful people that want to be involved and learned so much more about L.A. Works itself, many of the organizations it works with, and the tremendous need for volunteers.

"Life is short. What is life about if you aren’t doing something meaningful with it? It takes a little bit of courage to take that first step to get involved, but the rewards are so great. Make the leap! You won’t regret it!"

Past Project Leaders Recognition Pages

Sept, 2003

Aug, 2003

July, 2003

June, 2003

May, 2003

April, 2003

March, 2003

February, 2003

January, 2003

December, 2002

November, 2002

October, 2002