Jennifer McColm, founder of the Sunday farmers’ market in Pacific Palisades, envisions expanding the market to include Antioch Street between Via de la Paz and Swarthmore Avenue.   ’We have a lot of farmers who would love to get into the market,’ McColm told the Pacific Palisades Community Council at last Thursday’s meeting. ‘The market here is very coveted; no one wants to give up their space.’   John Edwards, board president of Raw Inspiration, added that he believes a lot of residents want more options at the market, which has between 20 to 25 vendors and is located on Swarthmore between Sunset Boulevard and Monument Street. Raw Inspiration is a nonprofit organization that operates the market and 17 others in Southern California in conjunction with the company California Certified Farmers’ Markets.   McColm and Edwards have not yet spoken to the business owners along Antioch about the possibility.   ’We thought we should come to you at the beginning to talk to your members on how to proceed,’ Edwards told the Council.   Council member Joyce Brunelle, who represents the Chamber of Commerce on the Council, said that the Chamber has not yet taken a stance because it wants the business owners on Antioch surveyed first.   Brunelle added that she would like those business owners reimbursed for any additional expenses that result from the market being at that location. McColm agreed and said that business owners along Swarthmore are compensated for cleaning the streets.   ’I know a lot of the businesses on Swarthmore love the market and say that it’s helped their Sunday business,’ McColm said.   Brunelle asked what kind of items would be sold on Antioch, saying she doesn’t believe the community wants a flea market.   McColm replied that the new vendors would sell organic foods and edible goods, similar to what is already provided at the market.   ’Everything will be [selected] by me and be very special,’ McColm later told the Palisadian-Post.   McColm envisions having 50 spaces on Antioch, but noted that one farmer typically takes two to three spaces. For a space, the vendors give 8 percent of their sales or pay a flat fee, depending on what is greater. The flat fee for a space is $25 for a farmer and $50 for a crafter.   Council member Jack Allen, who lives on Bestor Boulevard near the current market, asked if McColm planned to provide additional parking.   ’I am not envisioning lots of new people coming to the market ‘ and a lot of people walk to the market,’ McColm said. Neither Via de la Paz nor Swarthmore would be closed, so traffic could still flow on those streets.   Council Chair Janet Turner directed the Council’s Land Use Committee to meet with McColm or Edwards to share any concerns.   After the meeting, McColm told the Post that she planned to talk to the business owners on Antioch this week. ‘If everyone wants to do it, I would like to start before the spring,’ she said. Vendors at the farmers’ market expressed mixed feelings to the Post about the potential expansion.   Martha Castaneda of Skyline Flowers said she thinks having additional vendors will be beneficial. Having worked at farmers’ markets in Palos Verdes, Calabasas, Studio City and Brentwood, Castaneda said she finds that bigger markets have more options and draw more business.   However, another vendor, who did not wish to be named, said she is concerned there will not be enough variety: ‘If there is duplication, it does not serve the customers or the vendors at all.’ In addition, pedestrians will have to cross the heavily trafficked Sunset Boulevard to travel between the two sections of the market; therefore, she thinks many customers will simply shop on only one side.   ’It doesn’t make any sense to have them so far apart,’ the vendor said.

Dog owners, who for years had been letting their off-leash canines run on the playing fields at the Palisades Recreation Center in the early morning, were upset when a 7-ft.-high steel fence was installed in late December around the Field of Dreams. The owners felt that park officials wanted to close down their ad-hoc dog park that has existed for years, despite posted signs warning that a City ordinance prohibits off-leash dogs at City parks.   However, the real reason for the fence is to protect against vandalism. Unfortunately, the gate locks had not been installed by the end of last week, and Monday morning, juveniles broke into the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association sheds and took the golf carts and the ATV vehicle for joy rides on the fields. They destroyed most of diamond 4 and left tire tracks in the grass field at the front of the park.   Police arrested the youth about a mile from the Recreation Center at around 2 a.m., when the juveniles were discovered pushing a golf cart labeled PPBA.   Damage is estimated in the thousands, according to PPBA Commissioner Bob Benton, who is also a member of the Palisades Community Center Committee (PCCC), which paid for construction of the Field of Dreams and is responsible for ongoing maintenance and improvements.   ’The PCCC would prefer that the cost be reimbursed by those who are guilty, rather than the committee pressing felony charges,’ Benton told the Palisadian-Post.   Palisadian Mike Skinner, who has chaired the PCCC for 10 years, cited other vandalism that has happened since the four fields were completed. ‘A fire was started and doors were broken in one of the containers where our maintenance vehicles are stored,’ Skinner said, ‘and we’re constantly fighting graffiti.’   The PCCC was founded in order to pay for a total overhaul and upgrade of the 50-year-old ball fields and surrounding areas. After the plan was approved by the L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks in 1999, funds were raised through private foundations, organizations and 400 individual donations.   When the $1.1-million Field of Dreams complex opened in September 2003 after a nine-month construction period, it featured new lights, new backstops, new fences, real dugouts, pitching bullpens and batting cages. The entire field was graded, leveled, and supplied with sod and a new irrigation system.   The PCCC continues to raise money to cover the $50,000 a year needed for maintenance of the fields and various repairs. ‘Taxpayer dollars pay for none of this upkeep,’ Skinner noted. Instead, about 80 percent of the annual maintenance budget is paid through PPBA player registration fees and fundraising events such as the annual pancake breakfast. Individual donations must fill the gap.   Last summer, after Department of Recreation and Parks officials learned they couldn’t use Prop. K funds to install the $10,000 protective fence around the Field of Dreams, they came to the PCCC, and the committee agreed to fund it. (Prop. K, which passed in 1996, has provided funds for the improvement, construction and maintenance of City parks and recreation facilities.)”””””’   ’People don’t realize the cost to keep the fields looking good,’ Skinner said. ‘To repair the area where a car has driven, the existing soil must be dug up, the hole filled, ground compacted and then the area resoded.’   A ‘Field Closed’ sign is posted when the fields are muddy, but is usually ignored. Now it can be enforced by the closed fence, and the ball fields will benefit.   For example, after the heavy rains in early January there were numerous dog-paw prints in the dirt infields at all four diamonds, which required hours of labor to repair for PPBA tryouts. ‘To smooth out the soil,’ said Skinner, ‘you have to get a shovel and dig up the prints, then refill and rake it. The City doesn’t do it, the maintenance crew that we hire does. My job is to protect this asset and investment that so many in the community worked to achieve.’   The fencing project was completed Tuesday night, when locks went on the four dugout gates and the three gates into the field. They will be opened when Rec Center staff arrive at 9 a.m. Monday through Sunday and locked by 9 p.m. Monday through Friday (on 5 p.m. on the weekends).   With the fence now preventing dog owners from running their dogs on the fields every morning, PPCC maintenance workers won’t have to waste time cleaning up dog poop in addition to their normal responsibilities, Skinner said. To donate to the Field of Dreams, call (310) 478-5041.

Many philanthropic parents hope that their children will also lead a charitable life, but they wonder how to instill this value.   ’A family foundation can be a wonderful way to teach your children how to give,’ said Julie Williams Lytle, vice president and director of the philanthropic services department at Whittier Trust Company, an investment management company.   A Pacific Palisades resident since 1984, Lytle has spent the past year assisting families with setting up and managing their own foundations. Lytle and a staff of seven currently handle $730 million for 31 foundations, ranging in size from $1 million to more than $200 million. She serves as an officer or director on nine of those foundation boards.   ’We help them operate the foundation so they can be involved in the details as much or as little as they wish,’ said Lytle, who is certified by the Institute for Preparing Heirs and the Southern California Grantmakers, which is a membership association of private sector grantmakers.   She and her staff help families establish a mission statement and find charitable organizations that align with those goals. They teach families how to evaluate organizations to assure the money they donate will be used wisely and effectively. They also manage the financial assets of the foundation, the grant making, check writing and regulatory compliance.   Family members sit on the board together and hold formal meetings, typically once or twice a year. If desired, Lytle and her staff will prepare all the information for those meetings as well as facilitate them, so they are highly effective.   ’A foundation is a great legacy, and it keeps the family close,’ said Lytle, noting that when the children grow up and move to other parts of the country, the foundation is an excuse for them to get together.   As part of her job, Lytle also advises her clients on how to teach their children philanthropy. While it is never too late, Lytle says parents should start while their children are young because values are established at an early age.   Parents can begin by requiring their young children to choose gifts for another family member. This encourages children to think about someone else’s interests and needs.   ’It starts with the family and then spreads to their friends, their community and hopefully, the greater world,’ Lytle said.   Allowance is also a good teaching tool. Children should be encouraged to set aside some money for savings, giving and spending. Lytle recommends youthgive.org, a Web site where children can set up an account to donate to charities.   Most importantly, Lytle says that children learn by example, so parents need to make their acts of kindness known.   ’A lot of parents serve on boards and volunteer, but they do so while their children are in school,’ Lytle said. ‘Sadly, the children don’t often notice.’   Lytle also recommends that parents consistently encourage philanthropic behavior.   ’I think this is the hardest,’ she said. ‘The best way to be consistent is to integrate giving into family tradition.’ For example, every birthday, require the child to give a gift to someone in need.   Lytle plans to share these tips and more to parents and their children at Palisades schools throughout the year.   A native of Norwalk, Lytle learned philanthropy from her mother, who was president of the Madonna Guild at her church in Santa Fe Springs. When a parishioner’s home burned down, her mother raised thousands of dollars and collected clothes, kitchen goods and other items for the family.   For 10 years, Lytle served on the Weingart Center Association board. The center provides homeless men and women the skills they need to become self-sufficient. Lytle, who’s engaged to Scott Nesbit (CEO of Rockpoint Land), also made giving a theme when raising her children. She has three children from a previous marriage.   Her daughter, Christine, a junior at UC San Diego with ambitions of becoming a human rights attorney, volunteers for the Western Service Workers Association on campus. This summer, she will work in Costa Rica at an orphanage with a group called Global Crossroads.   Her son, Ted, of Agoura Hills recently completed an Emergency Medical Technician program and will participate in a medical mission through Operation Rainbow in Ecuador in April. He has volu”nteered in animal shelters and taught autistic children how to surf.   Her younger son, Connor, is a senior at Windward School and a member of the school’s community service honors society.   Before joining Whittier Trust, Lytle was a partner with the Los Angeles office of Ernest & Young for 13 years. Prior to that, she worked for XL/Data Comp in Hinsdale, Illinois as a district manager and for IBM as a marketing manager.   She received her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from UCLA, and a professional MBA at Harvard, sponsored through IBM. At Ernst & Young, she attended an advanced leadership program from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.   Lytle decided to move into philanthropic work because ‘I get to help good people do good things all day long.’   For information about family foundations, contact Lytle at (626) 403-3283. Her office is located at 1600 Huntington Drive, South Pasadena. ””””