Team brings comfort to the homeless




THREE AMIGOS—From left, George Annino, Ralph Boulware and Steve Bonifede are collecting donations for the purchase of sleeping bags that will be given to the homeless in downtown Los Angeles. Courtesy photo

THREE AMIGOS—From left, George Annino, Ralph Boulware and Steve Bonifede are collecting donations for the purchase of sleeping bags that will be given to the homeless in downtown Los Angeles. Courtesy photo

Winter is approaching and the rain and cold is coming, but not everybody has a warm home in which to rest tired bones.

Studies show up to 60,000 people are homeless in Los Angeles County, with more than two-thirds of them living on the street.

For the past five years, 78-year-old Agoura Hills resident George Annino has been collecting donations to buy sleeping bags for the city’s homeless. For a person whose bed is made of concrete, just one warm bag can change everything.

This year Annino’s goal is to buy 500 sleeping bags. He’s asking for $20 donations, enough to buy a single bag.

Annino and two friends he met through St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church in Westlake Village— Steve Bonifede and Ralph Boulware—use the money to buy the bags online. When the bags arrive, the items are delivered to Fred Jordan Missions in downtown Los Angeles. Skid Row isn’t far away.

“It’s more than sad and it’s getting worse every year,” says Annino, a first-generation Sicilian immigrant who grew up in a working class family from Brooklyn, NY.

He endeared himself to the Conejo-Las Virgenes community by starting the Santa Comes to Agoura food drive 40 years ago, assisted by his wife, Charlotte, a product of the streets of Inglewood. She worked for 34 years in office management St. Jude the Apostle School in Westlake Village.

Together, George and Charlotte have become known as the first couple of Conejo Valley charity. There isn’t a thing they wouldn’t do for anybody.

“We’ve been fortunate, it’s just nice helping other people,” Charlotte Annino said.

Joined by Bonifede and Boulware, the group organizes other collection drives during the year—for books, clothes and food—but when winter approaches their focus turns to sleeping bags.

George Annino is the group’s spiritual leader, and his enthusiasm for the cause never seems to wane.

“It’s just a wonderful thing,” said Don Foor, the executive director of Fred Jordan Mission and George Annino’s friend. “It’s amazing story of what one person rallying his friends can do.”

Local residents know Annino and support his cause wholeheartedly. He said he’s even had people hand him checks while he worked on the floor at Trader Joe’s in Agoura Hills. He’s since retired.

“We’ve been around for a long time. We’re on the up and up,” Annino said. “Nonprofit organizations are great but for one thing—how much of the money goes where it’s meant to? We found out what they need, we buy it, and 100 percent of it goes where it’s supposed to go.”

Some of the bags also will be sent to Lutheran Social Services in Thousand Oaks and the Veterans Resource Center in Chatsworth.

They’re hoping to have their mission accomplished by Nov. 15.

“(George) is like the Pied Piper,” Foor says. “He takes it upon himself to remind people to be generous, go get a sleeping bag and let’s get this done.”

“It’s all a team effort,” Annino says.

Anyone who would like to donate money for sleeping bags can drop off their check at Steve Bonifede’s Farmer’s Insurance office, 30423 Canwood St., Ste. 125, Agoura Hills.

Annino said people can also mail checks, made out to “George Annino,” to his home at 6602 Maplegrove St., Oak Park, CA 91377.

For more infomration, call Annino at (818) 309-6995.

It won’t be long before the holidays are here, and with it comes the season of giving.

As Foor puts it, “The key to life is giving to somebody else— then your stuff doesn’t seem so bad.”