Council Honors 3 Community Activists

The Pacific Palisades Community Council has selected three of its own members for the organization’s annual Community Service Award. Haldis Toppel, George Wolfberg and Mary Cole were chosen for their many hours of volunteer service over a number of years. They will be honored at the Council’s dinner potluck meeting on December 11 at Temescal Gateway Park’s historic dining hall. Council member Marguerite Perkins Mautner, disaster preparedness advisor Flo Elfant and former chair Joan Graves selected the winners on the basis of nominations received from community members and organizations. ‘Mary and Haldis are behind-the-scene volunteers who are mostly unrecognized,’ Graves said. ‘I call these two ladies yes-I-can volunteers because whatever is asked of them they say ‘Yes, I can do that.” Cole, one of the original members of the Council in 1973, has served most recently for the past six years. She is vice president of the Palisades AARP chapter and a board member of Chamber Music Palisades. Toppel is secretary for the Council and has served on various Council committees since 2003. This is her second year as president of the Marquez Knolls Property Owners Association. Wolfberg, who has lived with his wife Diane in Santa Monica Canyon since 1972, was chosen because he is extremely involved across the community, Graves said. ‘He just seems to be everywhere all at once,’ she said. For more than 30 years, he has served as president of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association. He is chair of the Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee and a long-time volunteer referee for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO). Since 2000, Wolfberg has been active on the Council, serving as chair from 2002-04 and chair emeritus from 2004-06. He is currently the at-large area representative. Wolfberg, who has three grown children, was honored in September with the L.A. Pearls Senior Citizens of the Year Award from the City Attorney’s Office, and the Palisadian-Post recognized him with a Civic Leadership Award in 2005.   (Editor’s note: We will profile Toppel and Cole in an upcoming issue.)