Wealthy New Englander Frederick Rindge, familiar to us for his vast land holdings in Malibu, came to California in 1892 looking for a ‘farm near the ocean under the lee of the mountains, a trout brook, wild trees, a lake, good soil and excellent climate.’ He could have been describing the splendid 588 acres of scrub and riparian forest in the Santa Monica Mountains in Calabasas just north of Malibu. For 80 years, this serene stretch of the mountains that lies in the valley between Las Virgenes Canyon and Mulholland Highway has belonged to an assortment of wealthy entrepreneurs, Hollywood tycoons, monastic religious groups, and now the people of Los Angeles County. Through a remarkable display of government leadership and public and private fundraising, which raised the $35 million asking price, the parkland will be soon be open for all to enjoy. (See acquisition details, page 1.) The present owners, Soka University, agreed to sell the property to the state, bringing to an end the decades-old effort to acquire it. The property’s natural and physical beauty accounts for its rich cultural history, beginning with the Chumash, who established a major settlement 7,000 years ago. There at the turn of the 19th century, Edward Stokes filed a patent under the Homestead Act of 1860, for 160 acres of land and built his adobe. In 1925, the property changed hands when disposable razor tycoon King Gillette bought the ranch and immediately commissioned architect Wallace Neff to build a mansion. Neff was known for his spectacular Mediterranean Revival residences built for elite clients, and for creating what he called ‘California houses’ based on European traditions adapted to the unique climate and landscape of Southern California. Using adobe brick dredged from mud on the property, Neff built Gillette a 25-room, two-story ‘ranch house’ for a half-million dollars. Gillette landscaped it with hundreds of varieties of scrubs, flowers and trees that he had collected on his foreign travels. Gillette died in 1932 at 77, after losing most of his fortune in the 1929 stock market collapse. Three years later, MGM movie director Clarence Brown bought the property, to which he added an airplane strip to accommodate his Hollywood friends who would fly in to attend his elaborate parties, a la William Randolph Hearst. The runway remained on the property until the early 1950s. The land was sold in 1952 to the Congregation of Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who then transferred title to the Dominican Seminary. In 1954, the Claretian Theological Seminary acquired the property and in 1972 they leased it to Thomas Aquinas College. Six years later they sold the property to the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religious group headed by Elizabeth Clare ‘Guru Ma’ Prophet, who renamed it Camelot. The CUT sect was one of the most flamboyant ‘survivalist’ cults in the last half of the century, basing its theology on a combination of channeled revelations from the Ascended Masters, reincarnation, karma, and convoluted interpretations of the gospel. In 1981, the church purchased the 13,000 acre Forbes ranch in Montana to build ‘New Jerusalem,’ and in 1986 sold the California headquarters to Soka University of America. Soka will remain as lessors for three years while they relocate their operations to their campus in Aliso Viejo in Orange County. That period will also offer ample time for planning activities under the new ownership; ‘This property is unusual because so much of it is so flat,’ says Steve Harris, Mountains Restoration Trust executive director. ‘This makes this property, centrally located with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the largest single ownership of relatively flat land’with less than 5 percent grade.’ Rorie Skei, chief deputy director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, estimates that about 100 acres out of the 588 total are flat. While this chronology follows the history of the developed portions of the property, it says nothing of the natural and biological history. Among naturalists, this property is the focal point of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The ranch’s oak ringed meadows, valley oak savannah, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and 1.5 miles of blue-line streams make it a haven for wildlife and a crossroads of habitat linkages in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Monarch butterfly, coastal western whiptail, San Diego horned lizard and Cooper’s hawk are among the eight sensitive wildlife species found on the site. One can imagine hiking, nature walks and other interpretive amenities, but the ultimate uses of the ranch house and dormitories is a story unfolding. For Skei, the events of the last six months have been like a dream. ‘Last year, the purchase of the Ahmanson Ranch was something we dreamed of and thought would never come about. And now this. We are just so thrilled that Soka became a willing seller. For so long we looked with envy at this beautiful park.’

There are two clocks on the wall of the Pacific Palisades home of Kerstin Zilm, the West Coast correspondent for German Public Radio, ARD. One gives the local time and the other the time in Germany, nine hours ahead. Zilm’s work is controlled by these clocks, as she prepares reports and does live interviews for over 60 German public radio stations and an average daily audience of 32 million people. Her subject matter ranges from the Academy Awards and the Michael Jackson trial to other subjects of interest to her German listeners’Governor Schwarzenegger, the environment, stem cell research and personal stories of Southern Californians involved in the war in Iraq. The day begins at about 6:30 a.m. when she turns on the TV news, scans the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and USA Today’and checks the e-mail from her colleagues at radio stations throughout Germany, asking for reports on various subjects. Although about 70 percent of her assignments come from editors in Germany, she develops other story ideas on her own, and puts her own spin on assignments. For example, with the Oscar story, she prepared a preview story on the accountants who tally the Oscar votes. Inside her rented Castellammare home is her studio, where she produces her reports’that range from 1-1/2 to 3-1/2 minutes, although she at times has done longer pieces up to half an hour. She enjoys the process of editing, adding sounds from a library of sound effects, sound bites from her interviews as well as her own voice. Zilm, who has been studying English since fifth grade, also translates all her interviews into German. Zilm, 40, wanted to work in radio since she was 14, growing up in a small town near Freiburg. ‘I loved listening to radio, and it sounded fun and interesting,’ she recalls. ‘I wrote to one of the radio hosts, saying ‘I’m Kerstin, I want to do the same thing as you; what do I have to do?’ I got a nice letter back, saying go to university first, study anything, and then try it with internships.’ She followed the advice, first graduating with a degree in the history of theater from Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet in Munich, and then interning for a private radio station in Munich in 1989. ‘I like that radio is fast, you don’t need a lot of equipment, just a tape recorder and microphone.’ Four months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, she began an internship in Berlin. ‘It was a very exciting time for me, and I think that was the time when I discovered that I would love to be a reporter rather than sitting at a desk and editing. I interviewed people who could now travel, who were not allowed to have private companies and did it anyway.’ ‘I was so happy, I had wanted to do this for 15 years’it was great and it still is.’ Zilm continued working in Berlin as a reporter, host and producer for public radio. After a two-month scholarship to the U.S. in 1994 through RIAS (Radio in American Sector), she became more involved in reporting on transatlantic issues, and worked at ARD’s Washington, D.C., bureau before taking a year off to work freelance. After returning to Berlin, she got her dream job in March 2003 as the U.S. West Coast correspondent. Zilm likes to concentrate on personal stories. ‘I try to show that the government is not everything. The U.S. has different opinions and different people.’ For example, one story she did concerned a class at Cal Poly, where students were discussing what could be done to stabilize Afghanistan. She received requests for transcripts from teachers in Germany who wanted to do the same thing. ”My intention was to show that Americans were not ignorant, which some people in Germany tend to believe.’ Although she travels to other parts of the West Coast two to three times a month, she says ‘There’s a lot you can do inside L.A. It’s so diverse.’ A favorite story involved a former surf champion who started a program to bring inner-city kids to the beach and teach them the sport. ‘I was surprised that many kids had never been to the beach,’ says Zilm, who was amused that the youths wanted wetsuits that were two sizes too big so they could be baggy. With the sounds of the kids and the ocean, Zilm was able to create a sound portrait of the program. She also has fun doing live broadcasts. These can vary widely since ARD has so many different stations. Even one area’s station might have five different frequencies, devoted to news, classical music, young people, etc. ‘I’ll talk to young DJs at a hip-hop/ rap station, they’ll joke and be funny, ‘Hey, Kirsten, what’s happening in L.A.?’ Next is an in-depth program on a very serious station regarding political commentary.’ She enjoys the variety. ‘The adrenaline is running very high.’ She keeps notecards in front of her to be prepared with facts for any line of questioning, although some questions it’s hard to prepare for. For those, Zilm uses a technique she learned from politicians she interviewed in Berlin ‘finding a way to link the question to what she knows. A part-time assistant assists her with research. Zilm, whose American boyfriend lives in Washington, D.C., is two years into her five-year contract. Being far away from family and friends in Germany is the hardest part of the assignment, but otherwise she loves it. ‘I think being in the Palisades is being in paradise.’ Zilm has loved her ocean-view home, but will have to find a new home in June when the owners move back in. She has also noticed differences between Germany and America during her time here. ‘When I first came to the U.S., I noticed Americans are encouraging and positive,’ says Zilm. ‘In Germany, people say ‘We’ve never done that or I don’t know if we can do that.” Driving all around car-centered L.A. has been another one of the adjustments made by Zilm, who was used to stepping out of her Berlin apartment to have a coffee or beer, see movies or take the Metro.

Springtime at the Adderley School of Performing Arts will see a whole garden of Broadway musicals bloom on the local stage. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Adderley School has matured into a serious studio where kids and young adults learn the magic of the musical using Broadway as their text. Responding to a request from families in Santa Barbara, founding director Janet Adderley opened a second studio there at the end of February, offering five classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She also imagines that her year-long advanced students in the Palisades will have an opportunity to tour their spring musicals in Santa Barbara. Now that she has opened the studio on State Street and hired musical director Linda Brandt, Adderley is back in the Palisades. ‘I’ve missed my roots in the Palisades,’ says Adderley, who is teaching more than ever. She is preparing one group of six-year-olds for ‘Annie’ and another for ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ and she is coaching two of the three year-long classes. With an enrollment of about 350 kids in any given semester, Adderley has a staff of 8, who from time to time have been former students. She is also assisted by two current students, Palisadian Alicia Dougherty, 14, and Layla Briscoe, who are members of the Adderley Repertory Company. ”But it’s showtime in the springtime that all the students are working towards. The Adderley Junior Repertory Company, which includes students from 7 to 14, will stage ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at the end of April; ‘Anything Goes and ‘Hairspray’ will follow. The Adderley Repertory Company, made up of the 15- to- 17-year-old actors, will stage ‘Chicago’ the first week of June at Pepperdine. Adderley, a singer and actress of obvious talent and ambition, redirected her enthusiasm towards shepherding young students. ‘When a child does a good job, I am thrilled and blessed that the spirit has given me a purpose in life and something that gives me such joy. Not everybody gets that.’

A picture in a Ziploc bag is worth more than 1,000 words. This is where Jill Pizitz-Hochstein keeps an old color snapshot of her grandparents protected and close at hand. It tells the story of Senior Smiles, the non-profit organization she and her husband, Erik Hochstein, launched to better the lives of the elderly. Sydney Cooper Senior Smiles is named after Jill’s grandfather, a pharmacist who died in 1987 before he could realize his dream of creating an affordable care facility for seniors. While Jill inherited her grandfather’s philanthropic nature, it’s her grandmother, Sylvia Cooper, now in her 90s, who gave Jill’s mission to aid seniors clear direction. ‘She would sit and cry all day,’ Jill recalls about her grandmother’s condition five years ago. Jill and her husband live in the Palisades; her grandmother resides many miles away in a nursing home in Stockton. ‘The staff’s solution was to give her more medication and put her back to bed.’ Jill, whose warmth and enthusiasm is peppered with steely determination, easily pinpointed the problem. Her grandmother, suffering from heart failure and dementia and confined to a wheelchair, was lonely. While Jill visited the person she describes as ‘her best friend’ every month, it clearly wasn’t enough. The devoted granddaughter sprang into action, reaching out to high schools near her grandmother’s facility hoping to find volunteer programs associated with the elderly. And when she came up empty, she pushed forward to create her own, training kids at a local Catholic high school how to befriend the elderly in nursing homes with the added incentive of enhancing their college application forms. ‘It’s a pretty simple formula,’ says Jill, whose teen volunteers began regular visits with her grandmother and others. ‘It’s about putting normalcy back into a sterile environment.’ The presence of loving volunteers, whose kindnesses included holding Sylvia’s hand and brushing her hair, worked magic in slowly transforming her emotional and physical well-being. ‘The staff lowered her anti-depressants, she doesn’t cry anymore and she’s healthier than ever,’ says Jill, who quickly realized how her grandmother’s case could be the model for improving the quality of life for seniors throughout California. After a slow beginning’Jill and Erik started out four years ago with five volunteers at one facility in Santa Monica’Senior Smiles now boasts over 500 volunteers who serve seniors in 27 facilities from San Diego to Tarzana as well as in private homes. The eventual goal is to expand Senior Smiles throughout the country. This noble aspiration is coupled with the Hochsteins’ busy ongoing work as private geriatric consultants. They help clients deal with family members afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and other debilitating conditions by matching them with appropriate caregivers and facilities. When Jill and her husband decided to join forces to create Senior Smiles and Cooper Senior Care Consulting (Erik runs the business and financial aspects of the organizations), both had good jobs in other fields. Jill was a director in an acute psychiatric hospital; Erik was a successful software engineer. ‘We were incredibly miserable working for other people,’ Jill explains. Both have degrees from USC and Pepperdine, and educated themselves as authorities on the special needs and care of seniors. About 90 percent of Senior Smiles volunteers are female, and many hail from countries such as Korea, where caring for elders is inherent in the culture. They arrive at the organization through Web searches for volunteer opportunities and by word-of-mouth. After training, they are matched with a senior and commit to visiting that person one hour each week. ‘We’re not Habitat for Humanity, where you can drive away once the project is over,’ Jill says to new recruits during a recent training session held at the Palisades-Malibu YMCA. ‘It should never feel like charity. It is about forming a lasting relationship.’ Stories abound about meaningful bonds between volunteers and seniors in the short history of Senior Smiles. Legendary among them is the ‘awakening’ of Eugenia. When Senior Smiles volunteers started work at an assisted living facility in downtown L.A., the nursing staff told them not to bother with Eugenia, a 99-year-old woman with advanced Alzheimer’s and partial blindness, whom they considered a ‘lost cause.’ This directive sparked in Jill and her crew the desire to do just the opposite. Volunteers, mostly USC students, began visiting Eugenia regularly, reading and speaking to her. Her head was bowed, her eyes closed, her arms crossed, and she seemed oblivious to her new companionship. A couple weeks passed before a volunteer decided to bring in a CD player. It was the USC fight song that finally roused Eugenia, who began tapping her feet and bobbing her head to the music. She even lifted her head and smiled. Later, she begin speaking for the first time in five years. When a volunteer told a colleague that Eugenia had said ‘Hi,’ Eugenia chimed in and said ‘Yup.’ ‘When you give, you get much more back than what you’ve given.’ While this is a common sentiment among volunteers, these are the words of Claire Berger, a 96-year-old resident of Pacific Gardens in Santa Monica, who regales a steady stream of Senior Smiles volunteers with her wisdom and joie de vivre. With the help of one of her volunteers, Berger is close to finishing a novel. ‘I dictate and he types,’ she explains. Palisadian Lisa D’Andrea-Nunez and her sons Noah, 9, and Diego, 3, are among Berger’s ‘extended’ family who have visited regularly for the past two years. ‘We think of her as another grandmother,’ says D’Andrea-Nunez, who learned about Senior Smiles via a handout sent home from Village School. ‘It has broadened my life and filled in the empty spaces that were there,’ says Berger, who is welcomed into the Nunez family home for holidays and other occasions. Financing of the organization comes through private donations, grants and an occasional fundraiser. Offshoots include Baby Senior Smiles, which sends mothers and infants into senior facilities to meet with residents, and PAWWS (Pets Also Work With Seniors), which enlists dogs, cats and even rabbits as the program’s newest ambassadors of comfort. Not only has Senior Smiles affected the lives of countless seniors, it also has changed the career direction of many volunteers. All 10 of the original high school students Jill trained in Stockton to aid her grandmother have gone on to study premed, nursing or psychology. ‘We’re grooming a younger generation to be more respectful of the elderly,’ Jill says. ‘Seniors need the same love and attention that we all do.’ To find out more about Senior Smiles, call 459-0490 or go online to www.seniorsmiles.org.