Workers at Meet Each Need with Dignity have a rewarding, yet equally tough job in the Valley providing food, medical and educational services – among other things – to the needy. But once a year, the Pacoima non-profit, better known as MEND, lives it up at its annual fundraising ball, the Gala of Glitz, Glamour & Giving. The event, in its fifth year, is held on the night of the Academy Awards, with Oscar-watching integrated into the festivities. This year some 430 people attended the Feb. 22 event at the Globe Theater in Universal Studios, raising an estimated $264,000. “This is really the one main fundraiser a year,” said MEND Chairwoman Virginia Tanawong. “It’s an event that is really fun for people and attracts corporate sponsors.” The event featured a three-course meal by Wolfgang Puck Catering, with attendees eating off tables draped in black cloth. Members of the community paid $250 a seat to attend, while several corporate companies such as Walt Disney Co., Providence Holy Cross Medical Center and others paid $2,500 for a table. Guests viewed a live video of the Oscars on four large screens while bidding on silent and live donated auction items, ranging from restaurant and wine packages, autographed sports and Disney memorabilia, as well as a handful of original paintings. This year, a special focus of the fundraiser is MEND’s medical clinic, which operates out of the agency’s 10641 San Fernando Road headquarters. Some $50,000 will go toward its operations, with the remainder of the funds apportioned to other services. The clinic serves more than 6,000 people a year, offering appointments with volunteer doctors and nurses, free medication and counseling to low-income patients in the San Fernando Valley. “One of the largest costs is purchasing medication for patients,” Tanawong said. The 44-year-old organization also operates a food bank, dental clinic and learning center, all of which serve more than 40,000 community members a month. Covered With Love Talk about a Good Samaritan. For the past five months, Angela Amirkhanian has delivered blankets to homeless people in the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles through her Love is a Warm Blanket drive. Feb. 28 marked the end of the five-month campaign, in which nearly 200 blankets donated by the community were given to the homeless. Amirkhanian distributed about a fifth of the blankets on her own time, and partnered with the Union Rescue Mission in Skid Row and the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission in North Hollywood to distribute the rest. “These are blankets people probably haven’t used in years. I’m so glad that people gave them,” said Amirkhanian, 27, who added the drive began “purely out of love, for the sake of helping people.” The Hollywood resident conceived of the drive three years ago while celebrating Christmas with her family. “I started thinking about what to donate exactly and I thought about blankets,” she said. “It’s something everyone uses and you need one regardless of how the weather is.” The first year, Amirkhanian only received 15 to 20 donated blankets. Now, after word of mouth, local publications and social media spread her campaign, she’s received nearly 10 times that amount. Hundreds of community members dropped off blankets at the Valley Economic Alliance in Sherman Oaks, where Amirkhanian has worked as project and event coordinator for nearly two years, and at Roubo’s Place, a Russian and Armenian cuisine restaurant in Hollywood. Next year she plans to add pick up and drop off locations in Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena. Amirkhanian said she dropped off about 30 of the blankets herself as she drove around, stopping whenever she saw a homeless person and engaging them in conversation. “They’re so amazingly kind it is unbelievable,” she said. “These people don’t have homes, no support, no one to turn to, (and yet) they’re so nice and so grateful. They don’t stop saying thank you.” Staff Reporter Champaign Williams can be reached at (818) 814-3726 or [email protected].