Philanthropy

Los Angeles police detectives are searching for someone who might have been involved in the death of a prominent Toluca Lake woman who was found in her home Monday evening shortly after calling a neighbor for help, authorities said Tuesday. The death of Christine Harriet Bireley, 79, who lived in the area for almost six decades and whose foundation gave millions to charities, is being investigated as a homicide, according to Los Angeles police detectives.

Doug Elliott's choices were predictably conventional when he established his first charitable trust about a decade ago: Upon his death the proceeds would go to the hospital that cured him of tuberculosis, a Los Angeles junior college and the Boy Scouts. Convention has since gone out the window. Elliott, a retired Los Angeles school principal, now is leaving the bulk of his estate to gay and AIDS causes. His transformation into gay benefactor reflects a carefully nurtured trend.

From simple knit and purl to fancy shell and loop stitches, some 35 women throughout the city transform balls of yarn each day into baby clothes, bootees, bonnets, blankets, bibs, diaper covers and children's sweaters. The women, all members of the Needlework Guild of America's Fullerton chapter, waste no time in their quest to make beautiful garments for the poor. In all, the 44-year-old group has 382 members--most of whom donate yarn and money for the cause.

Into her flock, Tina Pasco each week welcomes at least one more angry victim. Another mother grieving for a child lost to a drunk driver. One more mother determined to see justice. Meeting many out-of-towners at the airport, shepherding them around town in her own car, she has guided thousands of mothers, sisters, uncles and cousins of drunk-driving casualties through the emotional labyrinth of the Los Angeles court system.

Into her flock, Tina Pasco each week welcomes at least one more angry victim: another mother grieving for a child lost to a drunk driver. One more mother determined to see justice. A former housewife who lost her sister to a drunk motorist 12 years ago, Pasco learned firsthand how to harness her anger and follow the driver's case through court, pressing for punishment that was swift and severe.

With the help of actor Christopher Reeve and Orange County philanthropist Joan Irvine Smith, UC Irvine officials launched a fund-raising campaign Wednesday to establish what would be one of the few spinal cord research centers in the nation. The Reeve-Irvine Research Center, which could open within two years, would concentrate on developing treatments to repair and regenerate neurological function in spinal cord patients.

St. Callistus School now has a preschool facility, a gift from the local senior who managed it. Cordelia "Dee" Veenstra has donated the Holiday Garden Preschool on Haster Street, which she and her husband owned and managed for more than 16 years. Her ill health and her husband's recent death prompted the gift, a school spokesman said. The 78-year-old benefactor has a long history of magnanimity, however.

In the largest private donation ever to its medical center, UC Irvine received a $2.4-million gift for cancer research Friday from an Orange County family that founded one of the nation's largest makers of generic drugs. The UCI Cancer Center will be renamed the Chao Family Clinical Cancer Research Center in honor of the family, which established Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Corona.

Coordinating a drive to provide backpacks and school supplies to Native American children thousands of miles away may be an odd way to ready college students for careers as veterinarians. But to Lee Shapiro, an instructor of veterinary science at Pierce College, it makes perfect sense. "I believe to be a decent veterinarian, you have to be a decent human being," Shapiro said. To be able to tell a pet owner why a beloved animal has to be put to sleep, students must learn to be very compassionate.

The reporter called Helen Broyles-Smith at her home in Baldwin Hills and asked her to talk about her 4-year-old fund that awards college scholarships to black youngsters from low-income households. "Call some other time. I have something important to do," Broyles-Smith said. She had to feed her dog. With quiet fortitude, the 85-year-old former elementary schoolteacher administers the Theophilus G. Smith Scholarship Fund, which she created to honor her late husband.