Hard-Hat Reception Will Celebrate Youth Center’s Progress

WEST HILLS — The Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus will kick off the final construction phase of its Sports & Youth Complex with a hard-hat reception from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

A $10,000 gift from the West Hills Hospital and Medical Center will be presented, and at least 100 donors are expected to make pledges of $1,000 each, said Jack Mayer, executive director of the complex. The reception will include tours of the facility, expected to open in December.

The completed Sports & Youth Complex will house a 12,000-square-foot gymnasium with bleacher capacity of 500 and community event seating for 800; a 2,000-square-foot youth center with study space and game room; and a multipurpose fitness center.

The Milken Jewish Community Center Campus, at 22622 Vanowen St., was opened in 1987 by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Plans for the sports complex were put on hold when the campus had to be rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

“This finally completes our project,” said Mayer. The campus houses a dozen social service agencies, a preschool, the Finegood Art Gallery and the headquarters of the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance.