Board Volunteers Join Children’s Charity to Help Foster Care Kids

(PASADENA, CA) –Taking the lead to create safe places for children in foster care, Hillsides’ chairman Mark Mertens heads a group of dedicated volunteers at Hillsides, a Pasadena charity.

At Hillsides annual meeting new board officers were welcomed and installed into the next two-year term. Leading the agency for another year is Mertens, a Pasadena resident and proprietor of A-4 Moshay in Vernon. Other board officers include Debbe Booth, San Marino resident and first vice chair; Mary Dee Hacker, Glendale resident and second vice chair; Paul Vert, Pasadena resident and board treasurer; and Lyn Spector, South Pasadena resident and board secretary, who was recently named Hillsides Guild president, a women’s volunteer group that brings awareness of Hillsides’ mission and programs to foster care children and youth as well as the issues facing families in crisis.

Other foster care volunteers who joined the board are Pasadena residents Ted Engs, Louise Fox, Carl Hulick, Ann Miller, George Penner, and Sarah Shelton; San Marino residents Jay Griffey and Megan Phelps; Thousand Oaks resident John Sottile; and Santa Monica resident Scott Steuber.

Outgoing board members acknowledged for their commitment to the children’s charity mission during their six-year term were Pasadena residents Cathy Arkley and Nelson Holdo as well as San Marino residents William Gunnell and Mona Tromble Mapel.

“Hillsides is truly grateful for the dedicated volunteers we have on our board,” said John Hitchcock, Hillsides executive director, adding that board members are invited to join because of their immense commitment to children’s issues, talent, volunteer time, and energy.

Hillsides Board of Directors is comprised of forty volunteers dedicated to foster care issues and the challenges children at risk and their families face every day. Each member advocates for the well-being of the foster care children and youth in Hillsides residential treatment program and for the families receiving counseling through its community-based family centers in Los Angeles and throughout San Gabriel Valley.