Spotlight on Sierra Madre Volunteers 

Spotlight on Sierra Madre Volunteers is a weekly column that spotlights the people who donate their time to help keep their city ticking.  Check each week to see which of the folks you work side by side with is being recognized in the latest edition.  Click the photo to enlarge it.

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Karma Bell...Has Karma

There are many good-looking, talented women volunteers in Sierra Madre and this column has profiled many of them.

Karma Bell has been "giving back," beginning in the early '80s when the Bell children started school. It was PTA Walk-a-Thon fundraisers, auctions for Little League and light installations at Heasley Field (she's good with power tools).

Then the town fundraisers started: Chamber of Commerce mixers; she volunteered months of service as Chamber office secretary and was president of the organization. Karma started "Dickens Village," a Chamber-sponsored holiday weekend featuring nonprofit booths and music. With the Chamber she was deeply involved in the Wistaria Festival for years. As if those functions weren't enough, Karma helped with the City Youth Master Plan and Downtown Specific Plan.

Of course, the Sierra Madrean ran the Diamond Diner at Heasley and Dapper Fields, and went through the Little League offices: secretary, vice president and president. She never seems to quit.

"I wanted to help. If there's a need, I say to myself, 'I can do that'," and she does.

Karma's father was with the FBI and was in World War II; her parents lived in the Midwest, then to Arkansas where Karma was born. She had a Texas drawl for the years in Tyler, Tex. and said she "grew up with horny toads, sticker burrs, and sulfur on my Girl Scout socks to fend off ticks." The family moved to New Jersey later and she graduated from high school there in 1971.

Karma was an "au pere," traveling to New Hampshire with her employer's family, and that's where she met her future husband, Charlie Bell.

They were both just graduated from college when she and Charley were married. Then Charlie earned his Ph.D. from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and moved to Pasadena where he is employed by JPL.

One day on his way home from work, Charlie took the wrong turn off the freeway "and we found Sierra Madre." And as of this year the Bells have lived in Sierra Madre for 26 years.

They have three sons: Carston, 30, who married another Sierra Madrean, the former Carrie Harfman. Then there is Steven, 26, a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona and married to the former Rhonda Malcolm.

"Our son, Erik, 22, is now doing graduate work at Dartmouth College."

Karma is one of those people who can fix everything: she makes drapes, does re-upholstering, and is handy with a paint brush. It's easy for her. She is also a master cook, and once a year around Christmas the Bells set aside two nights and invite thirty friends to construct gingerbread houses. Last year, eighty-one cups of flour ended up as gingerbread dough for each guest to roll, cut, bake and construct their own masterpieces. Oh, and there are twelve batches of icing to complete those whimsical creations. It's all part of the holiday fun.

Karma does have karma and it follows here wherever she goes.