Local 600 First Assistant Organizes 50 Lemonade Stands for Big Sunday Charity Event
Local 600 first assistant Melissa Toy Ozeas first decided to volunteer for Big Sunday, the annual city-wide volunteer event for Los Angeles, by setting up a lemonade stand with her daughter’s Brownie troop. But in the spirit of an event that grew from “mitzvah day” to one of the city’s biggest volunteer days, she found herself in charge of 50 lemonade stands and 400 volunteers throughout the Los Angeles region. “I was really impressed when I heard about Big Sunday. I thought, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be great if we could get the kids involved and empowered,’” Ozeas said. “A lemonade stand seemed perfect. It’s an all-American project that anyone can do. At 25 cents and two hours of volunteering, anyone could get involved.” The largest stand of Big Sunday was held at a middle school and drew about 1,000 people. Ozeas received help from her husband, Chuck, who is a Local 600 Director of Photography. Also offering up their help were the Teamsters, who worked for Universal, and delivered thousands of bottles of lemonade. Big Sunday was started by Hollywood writer David Levinson in 1999 as a “mitzvah day” for Temple Israel of Hollywood. This year for the first time, the volunteer effort included 300 projects that stretched over two days an ranged from planting, paining and cooking as well as makeovers for homeless women in downtown and bowling with disabled adults in Santa Monica. Next year, Ozeas hopes to get Local 600 and other Hollywood unions involved. “There are tons of different ways to get involved,” she said. The lemonade stands raised about $3,000 and will to children’s charities. |
