Goodwill Industries

Newhall resident Sandra Chortkoff was driving along Reseda Boulevard when a Goodwill Industries of Southern California retail store caught her eye. She parked her car and went in. Several minutes later, she walked out with four panels of draperies at $5.99 each. "Those run about $45 to $55 per panel at department stores," said Mike Seukunian, manager of Goodwill's newest retail store in Reseda, which opened Saturday.

Its prices were low. But in the end, the downtown Los Angeles used-goods shop simply wasn't used enough. That's the reasoning behind the planned closure Friday of the 35-year-old Goodwill Store at 235 S. Broadway. "The downtown store is actually in the lower-to-middle range in terms of volume of business," said Sasha Itzikman, director of marketing for Goodwill Industries of Southern California. Nonetheless, countless downtown loft apartments and business offices have been outfitted with quirky artwork and inexpensive furnishings since the store opened in 1975.

Goodwill Industries is making recycling even easier by opening a new drop-off station in Yorba Linda that will serve as both a collection center for usable clothing and as a certified recycling center for household containers. The new donation center, located next to Stater Bros. at the corner of Yorba Linda Boulevard and Lakeview Street, is now open from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. seven days a week.

Just once, I'd like to show up at a major red-carpet event for the pleasure of having the TV fashion hens flock around demanding, "Who are you wearing? It's fab-ulous." I would tell them, "Darlings, it's vintage Bon Volonte!" They would look alarmed--could they not know about some luxurious recherche label? And off I would sashay, having just told the watching world that I got my exquisite ensemble at . . . (you French-speakers see it coming) . . . Goodwill.

Coalson Morris, a Newport Beach businessman, has been awarded Goodwill Industries of America's top award for a Goodwill volunteer. Morris, 74, has been on the board of directors for the Orange County Goodwill agency for 31 years and has served as its chairman and treasurer. During his tenure, the Orange County Goodwill agency, headquartered in Santa Ana, has grown to a budget of $12 million and 760 employees. Morris is the chairman of Perry Morris Co. in Newport Beach.

Goodwill Industries of Orange County will hold its annual awards dinner next Thursday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach to recognize companies, volunteers and employees, including Nancy Quarles of Fountain Valley who will receive the Centennial Outstanding Service Award, a special recognition presented only during Orange County's Centennial observance. Quarles, a certified vocational evaluator, is director of rehabilitation for Goodwill Industries. The award is in recognition of her community service in improving the lives of people in Orange County.

To understand how an Ozarks boy like George Kessinger made it to the top of Goodwill Industries International requires all of an hour. First, there's his Dagwood Bumstead charm, which sneaks up slowly as he unfurls his life story. His birth in a tar-paper shack in Neosho, Mo., no heat or bathroom, the family sleeping clothed to keep warm. His first job at 11, digging up earthworms for a penny each to save up for a ham radio.

The onetime president of Goodwill Industries in Santa Clara County masterminded an embezzlement scheme that siphoned off millions of dollars in donations meant for job training for disabled people, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week. Andrew Liersch, 67, will go before a federal judge Friday to face charges of money-laundering and wire fraud, which prosecutors and Goodwill officials say cost the charity $26 million.

Mike Rowan, executive director of Goodwill Industries, has been named chairman of the Conference of Executives of Goodwill Industries of America.

Goodwill Industries has named Earl Lestz, president of the studio group at Paramount Pictures, second vice chairman of its board.

Re "From Strip Show to Ski Row," Opinion, June 26: USC professor Diane Winston is to be commended for her excellent article on Goodwill Industries. Besides not being "your charity," Goodwill Industries isn't even "Aunt Beulah's charity." During its formative period in early-1900s Boston by Methodist clergy and laity, the organization's slogan was "not a charity, but a chance." Goodwill's purpose has always been to provide employment training for individuals, which often leads to the development of a healthy self-esteem and sense of purpose in one's life.

A Santa Ana police officer on Monday found what first appeared to be dynamite in a box of donated firearms that Goodwill Industries had brought to police, prompting the evacuation of the department's lobby. The scare began about 2:45 p.m. when a Goodwill employee dropped off the box curbside at the Police Department, said Lt. Chuck Deakins. While rummaging through the box, an officer found a suspicious device, Deakins said.

There's something so cleansing about unloading a pile of worn jeans, shrunken T-shirts and beat-up leather jackets at a Goodwill store. Once relieved of those closet-cloggers, you might feel unburdened enough to browse, and with any luck you'll find some broken-in jeans, retro shirts and distressed leather jackets.

In search of a nice $5 sweater or refurbished television, bargain hunters flow in and out of the Goodwill Thrift shop in Santa Ana at a steady clip. The real prospectors, however, dig through the dregs of donations beneath a sheet-metal roof at the other end of the parking lot. Shafts of late-afternoon sun flood cold cement floors as a gaggle of women cluster around a staff member who unloads onto a wide counter armful after armful of clothing that will sell for $2.19 a pound.

H. Eames Bishop, 88, co-founder of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Society of America, which merged into the ALS Assn., has died of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Calabasas, his family announced Sunday. A native of Pontiac, Ill., Bishop graduated from USC, where he was president of the student body and, as an alumnus, president of the Trojan Club and chairman of the General Alumni Fund.

A blaze at Goodwill Industries injured a firefighter and caused $58,000 in damage, officials said. The firefighter remained hospitalized Wednesday for minor burns to his hands, said Santa Ana Fire Department spokesman Tony Espinoza. Flames whipped through the patio area about 11 p.m. Tuesday and damaged 70 storage bins filled with donated clothing, he said. It took 24 firefighters about an hour to control the blaze.

Barbara Lamb, personnel director at Goodwill Industries of San Diego County, was named Supportive Employer of the Year by Southwest Business, Industry and Rehabilitation Assn.

The onetime president of Goodwill Industries in Santa Clara County masterminded an embezzlement scheme that siphoned off millions of dollars in donations meant for job training for disabled people, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week. Andrew Liersch, 67, will go before a federal judge Friday to face charges of money-laundering and wire fraud, which prosecutors and Goodwill officials say cost the charity $26 million.

It's 4 o'clock, and Sonia Cole attacks the thickening afternoon traffic in her black Chevy Blazer with the exuberance of a freshly licensed kid. The drive from her teller job at United California Bank headquarters in Monterey Park to her home in South-Central Los Angeles should take about an hour this time of day, but dexterous lane changes and deft accelerations shave a good 10 minutes from the trip.