Every year at the Oscars, when they do the “In Memoriam” segment of people from the entertainment industry that have passed, I get a pang of loss that is to be expected, and that overwhelming out-of-control rush of time racing by. While I tend to wake up most mornings not feeling that my chronological age has much to do with me, I know that bodies break down, and when we see it happening among faces we’ve seen projected 40 feet tall, it is a powerful and sobering reminder.
The Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) is a foundation created of and for the entertainment industry to help care for members of that community through all stages of health. It started as a donation box where actors could drop spare change to help other, usually older, actors get by in Hollywood when the casting agents stopped calling. 89 years later, it is a multi-pronged social service network, serving the Southern California entertainment community with services for the aged as well as day care, all-age healthcare, residential living for the elderly, and social/charitable services.
Volunteers play a big part in the vigor of the programs, at the Wasserman Campus (in Woodland Hills, where over 100 dedicated volunteers help with everything from arts & crafts to pet visits and pharmacy assistance) as well as Community Volunteers (phone buddies, home visits, grocery/errand shoppers, computer tutors, home repair projects, etc.) Got some Los Angeles free time and want to be of help to actors, directors, producers, techies, and everyone who has brought entertainment into your world? Stick yourself into one of these projects, and you can imagine how much lighting up of lives you’ll be doing. With the general economic malaise in California, and cuts in funding to so many services, MPTF, like any service-related agency, can sure use your help to make ends meet…the ends are not meeting the way they used to…
Change by Doing 