“I am honored to present this award to Gila Katz. Gila’s dedication and commitment to the local community is a shining example of the difference one person can make,” Assemblywoman Betsy Butler said in a Monday ceremony inside the Capitol’s Assembly chamber.
“Her efforts to install the 9/11 Memorial Bench in Hermosa Beach ensure we will not forget those we lost despite the passing years,” Butler said. “Gila has touched many lives and the South Bay is a better place because of her volunteerism and community involvement.”
In addition to her work at the Police Department, Katz conducts weekly Shabbat Services at several senior facilities throughout the district. She also volunteers at the Pacific Inn Senior Housing in Torrance and the Sunrise Senior Center in Hermosa Beach where she provides chaplain services and serves meals to patients.
As a Red Cross Disaster Chaplain, she spent three weeks at Ground Zero in 2001 and several weeks in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Last year she helped spearhead the effort to build and install the 9/11 memorial bench on the greenbelt near City Hall, to honor those killed in the terrorist attacks.
She lives in Hermosa with her husband Julian.
The 53rd Assembly District, represented by Butler, a Democrat, includes the beach cities, Torrance, El Segundo, Lomita, Marina del Rey and parts of Los Angeles. ER
