They’ve Found a Way to Make Connections : Organizations: A beach cities group helps eliminate the isolation that newcomers, retirees or others--primarily women--may experience.

When Judy Cynor moved to the South Bay from Illinois last year, she didn’t find the welcome wagon waiting. It was April 29, the day rioting broke out when not guilty verdicts were announced in the state case stemming from the police beating of Rodney G. King.

But Cynor, who lives in Redondo Beach, received a far more hospitable greeting about five months later from the Newcomers to the Beach Cities Club. Concerned about making new friends in the nation’s second-largest city, she joined the club and found herself engaged in group activities ranging from golf, crafts, bridge, morning coffees and charity work.

“If your husband is out of town or on a business trip or your family lives in another state or you are just going through a lonely spell, the newcomer people are really there and available to do things,” said Cynor, whose husband is a sales manager. “It was exactly what I was looking for.”

Redondo Beach resident Marna Reilly, who has been a club member for about 18 months, agrees.

“I had never moved before in my life before coming out here from Minnesota,” Reilly said. “It was very traumatic, but this group saves your life. It gives you people to connect and share with.”

The club, which costs $16 a year to join and has about 40 members, consists of virtually all women, ages 25 to 70. They come from as far away as South Africa and as close as the San Fernando Valley. Wherever they’re from, members--many of whom are married to business executives who relocate frequently--say the group has been invaluable in creating new personal ties in an unfamiliar place.

“We are bonding animals, we move toward connection,” said Jean Hendricks, a Manhattan Beach psychologist and also a club member. “There is that isolation as new people move here. They need to have a place to connect in this huge, huge city. To have that closeness that we all desire is so important.”

The sense of community fostered by the group has been all the more necessary, say club members, because Los Angeles can be a particularly alienating city.

“It’s too transient in Los Angeles,” said Judy Johnson, who moved to El Segundo from England six years ago. “You make friends and then they move.

“In England, we are more neighborly,” Johnson said. “Here they press a button (and) the garage door rises. Then the door closes and they are in their house. That’s it. You can’t meet your neighbor. In England, I didn’t have to join anything to meet neighbors.”

Although a form of the group has existed in the South Bay for decades, the Beach City newcomers formally reorganized about three years ago. Club president Pat Warner said the group is not a “welcome wagon” that seeks out members. Rather, new residents usually come to the club after reading about it in local newspaper listings. Members are welcome to stay in the club as long as they like, Warner said.

Initially, the group was intended only for newcomers, but it is expanding its membership to include retirees and adults whose children are out of the home. Such individuals can suddenly find themselves isolated--even in their own communities--because their work or families have demanded so much of their time, Warner said.

“I had worked all my life and I never had a chance to join a women’s group,” said Josephine Quirarte, who has lived in Redondo Beach for 20 years. “So, I am a newcomer, but not to the area.”

The newcomer organization has evolved into a decidedly female organization. Many club members contend that some men feel uncomfortable in groups like the newcomers. Women, they say, seem to delight more in conversation and are more eager to exchange support.

“Women always have something to talk about all the time,” observed Charlotte Williamson, who has moved 21 times in 34 years of marriage. “You can always talk about being a woman.”

“I enjoy meeting with other women and supporting other women and receiving support from other women,” Hendrix said.

Although the club is decidedly female, the women make an effort to get their male partners involved. Once a month, the group has a cocktail party for couples. Even so, the guys recognize their place.

“I enjoy the club’s activities,” said Jim Warner, the club president’s husband. “But certainly, it’s the women who organize the activities. It’s not like guys night out.”