Shining Examples : Local ‘Community Heroes’ Earn Right to Carry Olympic Torch

Kristine Kirsten personifies the fighting Olympic spirit.

At age 18, fresh from her 1989 graduation from Cleveland High School in Reseda, she was found to have cancer. A little more than a year later, part of her left leg was amputated. So Kirsten hit the road, lecturing to other people, especially young folks, about beating the disease even when it has claimed part of you.

After hearing how her story motivated others, the American Cancer Society nominated Kirsten, now 25, to be among the Angelenos carrying the Olympic torch.

At a downtown ceremony Thursday announcing the selections, Kirsten joined 79 others chosen for the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay team. Seventeen San Fernando Valley residents are among the group. They will each push the famous flames about a mile through the streets of Los Angeles.

“It was a big honor to be among those really special people,” Kirsten said of the ceremony. “I was speechless. And I am sure I will get more excited as it gets closer.”

Most of those selected were unaware that their communities, co-workers or friends had nominated them. The group or person nominating the torchbearers had to write an essay about why the person should be honored. A panel of Los Angeles-area residents then reviewed the more than 2,000 entries.

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and local United Way groups are picking 5,500 “community heroes” nationwide. The rest of the runners will be former Olympic athletes and people selected by Coca-Cola, sponsor of the relay.

In her essay nominating Marianne Wolfe of Northridge, Los Angeles Children’s Hospital administrator Suzanne Beam said Wolfe’s 30 years of raising funds for the hospital and helping with programs like Habitat for Humanity made her a jewel of the Southland.

Beam described Wolfe as a “true ambassador and advocate for children” and a woman who “inspires children to smile, many of whom have never smiled before.”

Wolfe, a widow and former theater director in Pasadena, said starting the Olympic trail in Los Angeles is especially important for the city’s waning image.

“We have been put down so much with crime and all that, but there’s so much spirit here,” she said.

The 1996 Olympic Torch Relay will start in Los Angeles on April 27 and end up in Atlanta for the opening ceremony on July 19.

The 84-day, 15,000-mile journey heads up the West Coast to Seattle before zigzagging through 42 states en route to Georgia. The exact route through Los Angeles has yet to be determined.

Among the older torchbearers will be Dixie Henrikson, a North Hollywood resident who leads a hand-bell choir for children who are developmentally disabled. She helped start Activities for Retarded Children 26 years ago. Thrilled that she will carry the flame, but noting her age, she joked, “I want to apply for a downhill” part.

For Pat Connelly of Van Nuys, the running will be easy. Connelly is coach for the Los Angeles Marathon and one of the original police officers who helped spearhead the DARE antidrug program--Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The selection recognized his many years of training teenage runners and urging kids to avoid drugs.

Clinical psychologist Thomas Dakoske of Agoura Hills was nominated by his wife, Judiann. The 49-year-old father of seven traveled to Croatia last summer to provide health care for children traumatized by war. He said it was a “phenomenal honor” to be selected, especially after he fell in love with the Olympics after “watching the Bob Mathias story as a third-grader.”

Mathias won the Olympic decathlon in 1948 and 1952.

Kirsten observed that the relay--like many of the torchbearers’ good works--will be successful because of many people uniting for a single purpose.

“This is sort of what we are all here for anyway,” Kirsten said. “We are here to be there for each other. It doesn’t matter what race or age. The feeling of ‘oneness’ is what it’s all about.”

* Times staff writer Emi Endo contributed to this story.

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The ’96 Torch Bearers

CENTRAL CITIES

Father Greg Boyle: Los Angeles

Denise Carter: Los Angeles

Stephen Chavez: Los Angeles

Gregory Cox: Los Angeles

Lou Dantzler: Los Angeles

Sylvia Dyson: Los Angeles

Mike Edwards: Los Angeles

Darren Gaertner: Los Angeles

Marilyn Gilmore: Los Angeles

Simon Goss: Compton

Frank Kelly: Los Angeles

Glen Smith: Hollywood

James Spradley: Los Angeles

Laura Wiltz: Los Angeles

HARBOR AREA

Gary Couso-Vazquez: Montebello

Michael Duarte: Torrance

Nan Harmon: Palos Verdes

Lisa Hilborn: Whittier

Ryan Holguin: Lomita

Jeff Holliday: Gardena

Kevin Irion: Long Beach

Amye Leong: San Pedro

Eliezer Morales: Los Angeles

Susan Rubin: Whittier

Susan Shapiro: Cerritos

Glenn Thompson: Palos Verdes Estates

Brian Westin: Whittier

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

Roger Barkley: La Canada Flintridge

Ann Bean: Burbank

Troy Bennett: N. Hollywood

Patrick Connelly: Encino

Patricia Cowden: Tujunga

Thomas Dakoske: Agoura

Keno De Varney: Agoura

Liz Giltner: Canoga Park

Agnes Hector: Woodland Hills

Dixie Henrikson: N. Hollywood

Lorenzo Izarraraz: Van Nuys

Robert Keene: Burbank

Kristine Kirsten: Canoga Park

Ethel Klein: Calabasas

Andre Marlellows: Santa Monica

Walter Mosher: San Fernando

Bill Schellenberg: Sherman Oaks

Marianne Wolfe: Northridge

ANTELOPE VALLEY

Greg Oakes: Lancaster

SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

Licia Davison: Sierra Madre

Daniel Hernandez: Altadena

Patrick McDonnell: Industry

Charles Miller: Pasadena

Brian Nutt: Pasadena

Melanie Watson: Duarte

WESTSIDE

Charles Aronberg: Beverly Hills

Herb Carter: Los Angeles

Larry Collins: Manhattan Beach

Anne Cummings: Hermosa Beach

Natalie Foy: Redondo Beach

Jose Garcia: Malibu

David Grober: Marina del Rey

Marvin Helfgott: Los Angeles

Jeanne Hoagland: Los Angeles

Lora Joy: Los Angeles

Craig Kaufman: Manhattan Beach

Danise Lynn Lehrer: Marina del Rey

Judy Madwin: Los Angeles

Patrick McCoullough: Los Angeles

Florence Newsom: Los Angeles

David Radden: Venice

Dorothy Rodgers-Caldwell: Los Angeles

Pete Roles: Los Angeles

Leandra Sarton: Venice

Jamaal Wilkes: Beverly Hills

OTHER AREAS:

Frederick Abeita: Barstow

Linda Angona: Upland

Ryan Duston: Ventura

Dave Kunst: Newport Beach

Jerry Reese: Garden Grove

Sean Stewart: Seal Beach

Chris Van Duin: Victorville

Source: United Way of Greater Los Angeles