Youth-founded book club raises money for motion picture home
By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn HELPING OUT-Dick Clark, left, Kendalle Cook, Nicolas La Mania and his sister, Alicia, look for the winner of a raffle to stand up and claim a prize during the Funds for Fun fundraiser for the Motion Picture and Television Home at the Calabasas Inn on Saturday.

What began as two 7-year-olds’ passion for reading led to a fundraiser the two siblings helped organize last weekend that gave more than $10,000 to a program that benefits residents of the Motion Picture and Television Home in Woodland Hills. The home offers health and human services to those who work or have worked in the motion picture and television industries.

Calabasas twins and Viewpoint School students Nicholas and Alicia La Maina, 12, founded the Book Club Buddies as a way to read and share new books with friends while school was out of session. The group has since made a routine of visiting the motion picture home every month and reading to its residents.

"About four years ago, (the Book Club Buddies) began reading to the residents at the motion picture home once a month and since that time, they’ve developed some rather strong relationships there," said Linda La Maina, the mother of Nicholas and Alicia.

The Book Club Buddies, which started with only a few members, now consists of 15. With the help of parents, the group has gone on field trips to museums and historical sites in the Los Angeles area and has raised money for the Los Angeles Times Children’s Summer Camp Fund and the Red Wagon Society for Children’s Hospital in L.A.

Funds for Fun, the motion picture home fundraiser last Saturday afternoon at Calabasas Inn, benefited an existing program at the motion picture home called the Harry Estin Travel Fund. The fund sponsors outings for long-term-care residents at the facility.

"Harry Estin was a lighting director in the industry and he also volunteered at the motion picture home—even when he was 90," La Maina said. "He started this fund to send residents out on lunches, to the movies, to Santa Barbara and things like that."

The Book Club Buddies has become so attached to some of the residents at the home, La Maina said, that they want to do anything they can to help them, hence the reason for the fundraiser.

The Harry Estin Travel Fund is maintained with assistance from the Local 728 Lighting Union. Several members from the group attended Funds for Fun.

The benefit included a silent auction hosted by TV and radio personality Dick Clark.

"My husband has worked with (Clark) for 30 years," La Maina said. "We never ask him to do anything. But we went to him for help and he noticed the kids and he said, ‘I will be there because I know they do this.’"

The Book Club Buddies worked on the fundraiser whenever possible, La Maina said.

"What’s been happening all summer long is that Nicholas and Alicia have been videotaping all the residents at the motion picture home and planning this whole benefit," La Maina said. The video, which is just over six minutes, was very touching, she said.

"The video explains basically all that we’ve done from when we were seven in 1998 to now," Nicholas said. "It has clips of us reading to them."

About 200 people attended the Funds for Fun event, according to La Maina.

"After you accomplish something like this, you just feel so good to see other people happy and proud," Nicholas said.

"We’re hoping to have a second annual Funds for Fun benefit," Alicia said. She also is proud, she said, of the work the group’s accomplished.