Thank God the day has finally arrived and there is "a light at the end of the tunnel." The cement has now been poured and beautifully finished by the Tony Servera Concrete Company and their talented, highly professional crew, with cement supplied by the National Cement Co.

The irrigation is completed along with the restoration of a low decorative wall on the southern perimeter and the restoration of the original flowerbed on the site, by Total Maintenance.This company has done the work of moving fences, replacing the termite-infested poles supporting the community sign, hauling dirt and removing debris, by using our local labor pool in the preparation for beautification and continuing maintenance of the site.

Valley Crest donated and planted three beautiful trees that are already providing shade.

Thanks to the new Childrens Museum and Matt Construction Companyfor relocating the monument and flagpole honoring our "old community garden" that was located where the new Childrens Museum now stands, to our

Our future contributions to the beautification of "Cultural Vista" will be a bus bench, trash receptacle and a information kiosk dedicated to all the wonderful people and entities who've helped this project along.

The wonderful staff who mentor for the Department Of Public Works, Beautification Grants Program, the Lake View Terrace Improvement Association, who entrusted us volunteers with the responsibility of seeing this task through, Darius Bakhtar, for his engineering and design skills, Phyllis Hines for doing our original conceptual drawing.

The Pacoima and Foothill Trails District NC's who pledged resources, Waste Management , who inspired us with our first grant of a credit card enabling us to contribute to our beautification grant proposal, and to purchase supplies needed to keep the lot weed free and trash free. Department of Sanitation, Lopez Canyonfor supplying the bin for our final cleanup. Lakeview Liquor,for allowing us to use their parking lot as a staging area.

Thanks to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's first collaboration with the "Big Sunday" clean up organization. That was just one of the many days that our community stakeholders volunteered and came out to clean the site.

Thanks to Scout Troop 315who also chose a day to clean the location in order to help a fellow scout earn a merit badge accreditation. Thanks to our permit inspector from the DPW, who made sure that our project followed the Los Angeles City Construction rules.

Thanks, Henry and Melanie Barnard, Lisa Crowell, Ethel May, Joyce Williams, Mali Bakhtar, Phyllis Hines. Bruce Holloway, Verna Scott, Gil Wong our dear friend Arnise Finley who has passed on,God bless her community dedication. We could go on and on.

We look forward to having our Los Angeles 7th District Councilman Richard Alarcon and 2nd District Councilwoman Wendy Greuel doing us the honor of cutting the ribbon at "our" official ceremony, that will take place at noon, Saturday October 13. We are inviting everyone to see how we've all worked together to leave this site "immensely better than we found it." Our sow's ear has indeed evolved into a beautiful silk purse. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, please stop over across the street at the Lake View Terrace Library and lets get acquainted.