West Hills Neighborhood Council

West Hills gives generously for people and families in need

West Hills residents, businesses, parks and schools are getting into to the holiday spirit with collections of clothes, toys, hygiene products and other items for disadvantaged people of all ages. At least one neighborhood is having a Christmas decorations contest (details here).

Here are a few examples of public-spirited events in the community:

• The staff of Shadow Ranch Park partners with the West Hills Neighborhood Council in collecting toys for the 13th Annual Motor4Toys Toy Drive. Visitors to the park are dropping new, unwrapped toys in collection boxes placed outside the office door, inside the office and at the temporary Woodland Hills park office located near the Shadow Ranch basketball courts. The toys will brighten the holidays for children in need.

• Nothing Bundt Cakes in Platt Village also has a collection box for the 13th Annual Motor4Toys Toy Drive.

• For the third year in a row, the West Hills Pizza Company, at Fallbrook Avenue and Saticoy Street, is teaming with Fireman’s Brew to support a toy drive benefiting the Boys & Girls Club of San Fernando. Donation boxes are at the restaurant for anyone who wishes to donate a toy. Santa was at the pizza parlor on Dec. 13 to hand out gifts to at least two busloads of kids who will also get pizza and drinks. 

• The West Hills Sunshine Club gathered in front the Starbucks at Platt Village on Dec. 7 to accept donations of clothes, blankets, hygiene products and other items. The club then put together gift packages and distributed them to homeless people on Dec. 16 at the New Friends Homeless Center.

• Topanga Community Police Station, on Schoenborn Street west of Canoga Avenue, is accepting donations of unwrapped new toys and used bicycles for children in the Topanga Division area.

• Several West Hills schools collected unwrapped new toys for distribution at the Sparks of Love toy drive event at the Westfield Topanga Mall on Dec. 2. 

• West Hills Optimist Club is participating in the Holiday Gift Drive for youth in the Optimists’ residential, foster/adoption and teen parent programs.

• On Sunday, Dec. 4, singers and musicians of all talent levels and ages participated in caroling at five retirement centers and rehabilitation facilities in the West Hills area. 

• Warner Center Kiwanis, which meets in West Hills, sponsored an event honoring “Terrific Kids” at Enadia Way School in West Hills on Dec. 12.

• Lions Club of the Greater West Valley distributed turkeys and bags of food to families at the North Valley YMCA.