For the past five years and especially during COVID, Helping Hearts of Topanga has been assisting Canyon residents with food, living assistance and technical help, thanks to local safety communicator Jane Terjung, and Susan Clark, renowned in the community for her 30 years of saving animals through her non-profit, Topanga Animal Rescue. Facilitators of the group are Clark with Outreach, Terjung for Communications and Bill Naylor with Tech Support. “Our main focus is helping people overcome struggles of everyday life,� Terjung explained. “There are many great local organizations here whom we often connect with in the spirit of joyful teamwork. Other times we continue with our own work, helped by generous Topangans and a caring community of cooks who create meals when called upon.� Neighbors Jason Brooks and Mark Wlodarkiewicz have been assisting Clark and Terjung well before anyone knew it had a name. Helping Hearts embodies the generous volunteer spirit of Topanga. Terjung estimates they have helped hundreds of locals with the many challenges of daily living in difficult times. More specifically, they have developed parallel avenues of aid—mainly with illness, misfortune, or family changes where they are able to provide help with caregiving, childcare, babysitting, food, referrals and help navigating “the system.� For more information: janeterjung.org/HelpingHeartsOfTopanga. Helping Hearts also provides technical guidance, information on emergency preparation, community newsletters and safety alerts unique to Topanga. janeterjung.org/LocalScoop. What Does Helping Hearts Do? “Now that many of the COVID support systems are ending, we’re helping a handful of neighbors with food and basic grocery needs thanks to a generous benefactor who allows us to help about five people every two weeks,� Terjung explained, We would love to help more but to start with, we need volunteer shoppers every two weeks or so, to buy $25 worth of groceries (we’ll reimburse you) dropped off at Jane and Bill’s house so we can deliver.� Want To Help More? Let us know if you have a skill to share, useful stuff to donate, or can recommend local caregivers, housekeepers, nannies, drivers, or cooks, etc. Sign up at janeterjung@gmail.com. For text alerts, add your phone number. For Tweet Alerts, follow AlertTopanga. For Nextdoor.com Emergency Posts, join the private group: nextdoor.com/g/gw0xemnvn/.