A Close-Up Look at People Who Matter : Boys & Girls Club to Honor Mayor, Actor

Mayor Richard Riordan and actor Charles Dutton will be honored Wednesday by the Boys & Girls Club of San Fernando Valley for their community involvement.

Riordan will receive the Golden Youth Award, the club’s highest honor, at a fund-raising awards dinner at the Sheraton Universal in Universal City.

Dutton, film and stage actor and star of the Fox comedy/drama “Roc,” will receive the Boys & Girls Club Service Award.

The March of Dimes honored four San Fernando Valley couples who have balanced professional and community achievements with their roles as parents with the Premiere Parents Award.

Councilman Richard Alarcon and Corina Alarcon, Arlene and Lee Alpert, Olivia and Carl Cannata, and Janice and Ben Reznik received the award in a March ceremony.

Richard Alarcon, councilman for the 7th District, and Corina Alarcon, an insurance agent, have four children.

Lee Alpert, an Encino attorney, and Arlene Alpert, a former teacher, have two sons. Olivia Cannata, a retired teacher and owner of Lakeview Thoroughbred Farm, and Carl Cannata, president of Van Nuys Chrysler-Plymouth, have three children. Ben and Janice Reznik, both attorneys, have three children.

Michael S. Mink of Sherman Oaks has been appointed to the bench of the Los Angeles Municipal Court by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Mink, a founding principal of the former San Fernando Valley law firm Mink, Alpert & Barr, was formally enrobed at the County Hall of Administration April 8.

Mink, 51, had been a principal in the firm, now called Alpert, Barr & Gross, since 1976.

Two Valley residents are hoping that theirs are the voices of the future.

Jessica Lee Rivera, 19, of Woodland Hills and Julia Christy Watkins, 23, of Valley Village will compete Saturday with 10 other classical singers in the finals of the 46th annual Artists of the Future Voice Competition.

The amateur competition, put on by the city of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, awards scholarships of $2,000 for first place, $1,500 for second place and $1,000 for third place.

Edward J. Mullen has been appointed to the board of directors of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. Mullen will serve on the chamber’s Health Care Task Force.

Mullen is president of VertiHealth, the managed-care branch of UniHealth America, and serves on the board of directors for the Alliance for Children’s Rights.

Melissa Lynn Whaley of Glendale has been named a trustee scholar at the University of Southern California.

Whaley will receive a full-tuition scholarship for four years through the Trustee Scholarship Award, which is the highest academic honor at entrance given by USC.

Whaley, a student at Crescenta Valley High School, plans to study business administration when she enters USC in the fall.

Lisa Farwell, an 18-year-old Pierce College student and nine-year member of the California Rangers, has been named Miss California Ranger.

Farwell of Granada Hills plans to major in business at UCLA.

Mark Tabak, 15, of Santa Clarita has been named Mr. California Ranger for the 1994-95 year. The Saugus High School student has been a member of the California Rangers since 1991 and rides on the organization’s mounted drill team.

The nonprofit California Rangers were chartered 50 years ago to combine military science and equestrian skills to develop initiative, character and patriotism in children ages 9 to 17.

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