While most play beach volleyball only occasionally, Nader Hamda hardly goes a week without setting, spiking, or serving a ball.
“I’ve been playing it probably for the last 30 years,” said Hamda, chief executive of toy robot seller Ozobot of Redondo Beach. “I still try to play every weekend.”
While Hamda, 51, grew up playing soccer, he said he has found that beach volleyball is a much friendlier sport on your body as you age.
“It is to me one of the most forgiving sports on your joints,” he said, noting that the game has mental health benefits, too. “It’s almost therapeutic for me.”
What’s more, age and experience come with advantages, he said.
“We got better in our youth and cagier as we’ve gotten up in age,” said Hamda. “The older you get, you use your brains rather than your strength.”
It’s a lesson that he tries to teach his employees.
“Even at our company, we always talk about working smart, not working hard,” he said.
On the sand, playing smart means focusing on making productive not flashy plays, he said.
“Ultimately, whether you hit it really hard or really soft, as long as it hits the sand it still gets the point,” said Hamda. “Sometimes it’s not about looking good, it’s about getting on the right side of the win column.”
Working on Giving
When Helen MacKinnon worked full time at her West L.A. technology recruiting company, Technical Connections Inc., she wrote checks to support the causes she cared about. But after cutting back to part time in 2010, MacKinnon, 70, decided to take a more active role in boosting the coffers of worthy organizations.
With a friend, she recruited a couple of dozen women to form the Los Angeles Giving Circle, which pools donations to fund L.A.-based organizations serving women and girls. Under sponsorship of the Liberty Hill Foundation, the Giving Circle includes 70 members (mostly women, although men are welcome) and has donated more than $400,000.
The philanthropists share something in common despite coming from different backgrounds and industries.
“We’re all professionals and well-educated. We all recognize that we’re the lucky ones. We got that leg up,” MacKinnon said.
Her desire to make a social contribution stems from family roots. Her parents survived the Holocaust, and MacKinnon was born in a displaced person’s camp in Berlin.
“I’m very grateful to this country,” she said. “It’s always been in my DNA to give back.”
The Giving Circle recently distributed $110,000 in grants, split among Girls & Gangs, New Village Girls Academy, Alexandria House, Women in Non-Traditional Employment Roles, and St. Anne’s. Allocations were made through a vote by members. The atmosphere was emotional – as it often tends to be.
“They thank us for the money, tell us how badly they need it, and then we all cry… in a happy way,” MacKinnon said.
Then the cycle begins again. The Giving Circle will hold its first meeting of the new year on Jan. 10.
Staff reporters Garrett Reim and Daina Beth Solomon contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Jonathan Diamond. He can be reached at [email protected].
