The Bachelor and the Family Man
The first wave of perhaps 5,000 neighbors arrives hours early, in the heat of late afternoon, to nail their favorite seat with the best view. Entertainment doesn’t start until 6:30. Once the formal program begins to unfold at 7:30, dozens of prizes will be raffled off before the fireworks begin exploding around 9. The 55th 4th of July family fireworks program — dating to the early 1950s — owes its longevity to a heavy dose of drudge work by the sponsoring Exchange Club — which involves Mr. Corlin — and the Culver-Palms YMCA, which brings in Mr. Weissman.
Important Ritual Before Work
By 7:30 on Tuesday morning, the Vice Mayor and a few of his fellow Exchange Clubbers will report to the Culver High campus ready to — eat. Can’t work without a contented, untaxed tummy. Along with a little shmoozing, that will take care of hour No.1. Around 8:30, the earnest part of the holiday morning, the principal physical setup, commences — unloading the materials that will, in a few hours, be so deeply embedded they will look as if they came with the grounds. Flags, barriers and lights. Everything will be in place by the lunch hour. Mr. Corlin, like his pal Mr. Weissman, is one of the busiest personalities around town, and much of his busy-ness goes unrecorded in these pages. It truely is done under cover. Few people love their work and their play equally. Mr. Corlin does. “This is the kind of small town fun I was looking for when I moved here,” says the City Councilman, a New Jersey native. Mr. Corlin will be on the east side of the grounds on Tuesday night. “I know a whole lot of people who come through the turnstiles,” he says.
The ‘Y’ of It
Mr. Weissman’s roots are sunk deep into the Culver City turf, and that is why he is spending most of Tuesday in and around the athletic field. He is one of about a dozen Culver-Palms YMCA boosters/volunteers who show up on the morning of the 4th every year to set up the concession booth and all of the necessary supplies and equipment. Revenue derived from the 4th of July sales enables families to participate in YMCA activities the year around. Funding also is channeled toward camp scholarships. Mr. Weissman, who is approaching two consecutive decades on city boards, surveyed the roster of YMCA volunteers. What Mr. Weissman and his friends do each summer on the 4th of July is more complex and more sophisticated than raising dollars for the Y. “Every one of these volunteers could easily write a check,” said Mr. Weissman, that cumulatively would cover the amount raised.
The principle of volunteering, however, requires a more comprehensive commitment. “Writing a check is not the same thing as volunteering, and it is not the point,” Mr. Weissman said. Growing up in Culver City in the middle of the last century with an activist father was the way Mr. Weissman learned the moral value of giving back to the community. In the 1950s, Alvin Weissman, Harrison Betts and Warner Betts founded the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Weissman also was a Kiwanian, and he was active at Temple Akiba. “When you give back,” said the younger Mr. Weissman, “especially in a small town, you not only are helping people, you get to see the results of your work.” The evidence often is tangible, Mr. Weissman notes. One of his motivations is “watching the expressions of campers when they board the buses to go away. You also get to see their faces glowing when they come home from camp.”
