June 2009 Archives
Scott and Jackie Vance of Lakewood, hiked the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand in May 2009.
Long Beach Bethany Lutheran School's 8th grade class in front
of the White House in Washington, D.C. in May.
Roy and Bobbie Broce of Long Beach visiting Juneau, Alaska on May 22. Bobbie always wanted to see Alaska, so for her 55th birthday present, Roy took her to Alaska on a 13 day tour.
Camp Fire USA Long Beach Area Council is proud to announce that five of our members have earned their Wohelo Awards,
Students who participated in the 2009 Buono Pizza's Poetry Competition.
Students holding certificates are poetry contest winners. The other students are all part of Holy Innocents Student Council. Back Row (l-r) Mario Pena, Jordan Hixon, Sister Faustina, Frank Buono, Jason Devera and Alfred Lucero, Front Row (l-r) Lucia Cortez, 2nd place, Sofia Francisco, 5th place, Astrid Quirarte, 4th place, Matias Posada, 3rd place and Casey Nyguen 1st place
This is my best shot of the American Flag.
In memory of Dan Torres, committed to the Long Beach Community
BRIAN STAPFER
This is Doris, she is our cool pet. She will do almost anything for a hot dog, even pose as one. She can be seen almost daily in her red buggy strolling the Los Altos Shopping Center making everyone smile. That's what she does.....and she loves it.
Lori Loucks
Standing in front of King Lear at the Musuem of Art in Keywest are Dave Flores, a 58 year resident of Long Beach and Steve Williams of Rancho Cucomunga. We took a short vacation in March, riding Harleys from Fort Lauderdale to Keywest, Florida.
Dave Flores
We traveled to Manhattan, New York in June. Here we are at the "Top of the Rock", Rockefeller Center with the Empire State building in the background.
Cheryl & Percy Mallari
Lakewood
This photo was taken by Mallory Sullivan of Long Beach. Mallory is 13 years old and in the 7th grade at Oak Middle School in Los Alamitos. A hummingbird built a nest in her front yard and she captured this photo.submitted by her mom, Janie Sullivan Van Fleet
This is our dog, Earl the Girl. She's an almost fifteen-year-old Dachshund. She loves sleeping with us, and does so every night after her late-night snack of kibbles. Here she is on Christmas morning last year, ready for breakfast in bed.Andrea La Vela
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard J. Beltz celebrated their 70th anniversary June 24, 2009.
One of Southern California's oldest residents celebrated her 104th birthday June 5 at her doctor's office. More than a dozen staff gathered for the centenarians birthday party in the lobby of Dr. Torrado-Ridgley's office. The CareMore health plan staff sang to the birthday girl, who was presented with flowers and a cake. The party was also catered and refreshments were served to guests and other patients in the building.
"As a physician, it's always a pleasure to have healthy patients living past 100 years old," says Dr. Beatriz Torrado-Ridgley, Ferne's doctor at CareMore in Downey. "Ferne is so adorable and the staff at CareMore loves her because she is always so full of life and energy."
Ferne attended the party with her good friend Mary Reed, and said, "My friends and my doctors are what keep me alive and well, and for that, I am very thankful".
Anne Milo
Graduating with acceptances to universities like Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCI, UC Santa Cruz, and Cal State Long Beach, Millikan High School's Gold Robe students maintained 4.0 gradepoint averages for four years: Front Row (left to right): Truong Tran, Alicia Wariner, Sarah Lacombe, Min-Minh-Ho, Sarah Lacombe. Back Row, Scott Egan, Daniel Shultz, Tamara Hashimoto, Michael Diaz.
The Marshall Academy of Scholars Librarian, Ameelia. Ghareeb is surrounded by participating students at the end of the evening when Marshall held its 3rd Annual Extreme Read Challenge on May 26. Ghareeb, started this as a fun, collaborative event that encourages nothing more than the joy of quietly reading. This year 74 people participated including students, special guests, family members and school staff. Ms. Ghareeb's signature "brain food" trail mix and lots of healthy snacks were served to keep everyone focused. When the gong chimed at the end of four hours, everyone cheered, prizes were distributed and cake served. This year the Marshall Extreme Readers reached a combined total of 10,860 reading minutes. That is the equivalent of seven and a half days of reading!Jeri Lynne Cullison
PTA President, Marshall Middle School
Phyllis Kaufman, Sue Ritter, Rhoda CannonThe four of us have known each other since 1963 (5th grade). We are all from Long Beach and went to Edison Elementary, George Washington Jr. High and then on to Poly High. These pictures were taken at Lake Havasu Mother's Day weekend. We lost contact with Rhoda for over 25 years and just found her last September via the internet. We found out she was only in Moreno Valley. Every year Phyllis and I reminisce about finding Rhoda. It was sort of a "bucket list" for us. I was really starting to give up hope, then Phyllis called me the weekend we got home from Lake Havasu last September to say she finally found Rhoda. I can't even find the words to express how we all felt. The following weekend we headed out to Moreno Valley for our reunion. We just couldn't stop staring and crying and then laughing. Two weeks later we headed to Palm Springs for a weekend getaway and talked into the wee hours about everything. This was the first time all of us finally got to be together out on Lake Havasu. Since finding Rhoda, all of us get together once a month for dinner or just to visit. We seem to never be able to catch up. We are never lost for words. All of our lives have changed since our reunion. We have learned we never know how long we have left and we want to cherish every moment and take advantage of every opportunity we have to be together and create new memories. We are all truly blessed.
Sue Ritter
Fifty years ago on June 17, 1959, Miles and Sharon Hood were married and started their life journey together. Both were born and raised in Long Beach and continued the tradition for their own children, Michael, Matthew and Shannon, raising them in this wonderful city as well. Miles (Mike) worked for the Long Beach Fire Department and retired as a Fire Boat Operator after 32 years. Sharon worked for the Department of Motor Vehicles as the Regional Manager's secretary and retired with a Golden Handshake after more than 25 years.Today they still live a wonderful life together in Long Beach. The couple is very involved in their spiritual community, with their friends, family, now-adult children and their spouses or significant others; and their greatest love their three grandchildren Miles, Patrick & Kelsie.
Congratulations Mom and Dad on your 50th Wedding Anniversary! We all love you so much and wish you a fabulous celebratory weekend!
Shannon Nakamura
Dude is our super friendly four-year-old male cat. We adopted him from PetSmart three years ago. He's more like a dog than a cat. Dude meets us at the door when we come home from work, comes when he is called, loves to give us kisses even upon request, and wakes us up promptly every morning before our wake up call comes through. He loves to get dressed up in costumes and is quite a camera hog. Dude's favorite pasttime is bird watching and stalking stuffed toy mice. He weighs a whopping 20 pounds, but he is on a diet and has already lost a few ounces. Cheryl and Hank Fohring
Trudy Briscoe and Bill Ruzgis of Naples enjoying some time with the giant tortoise in the Galapagos islands off Ecuador.
Jerry Wolff on vacation is Skagway, Alaska this month, taking a cruise with his family on NCL Pearl
Mike Zion of Long Beach in front of the clock tower in Berne, Switzerland during a May 2009 vacation in Zurich, Lucerne, Chur and the Bernese Oberlands.
I caught these bandits red-handed eating my cat's food!Rosie Pominville of Long Beach
By Louise Cunningham
Soroptimist International of Long Beach presented sixteen scholarships and awards to local women. The honorees spoke about their lives and their goals and touched the hearts of everyone. Women and girls were honored from Poly and Wilson High Schools, LBCC, El Camino College, CSULB, CSUDH as well as our SIA Women's Opportunity Awardees. The scholarships aid these women in pursuing their educational goals.
Winners: Kristin Landuci (Glades B. Neff Award), Amber Ross (Jean Huddleston McGetrick Award), LB City College Scholarship winners: Rose Cohen, Sharon Emory, Monica Hughes, Nimol Mean, Sheryl Ward, Sharareh Moazed (Women & Philanthropy), Poly High S-Club Continuing Education Awards: Natalie Hernandez, Kristina Yukilevich, Sarah Watler, Robin Sweeney (Violet richardson Award), Women's Opportunity Awards: Jessica Gonzalez, Crystal Wright, Maida Navaro
Sam is our cool pet. He always practices safety first by using his seat belt and wearing sunglasses when cruising around Long Beach.
Michael K. & Adrian R.
Our parents, Dan and Dom Encina just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in January. We want to thank them for raising seven wonderful children and help bring up 14 grandkids. We owe them all that we have. Their love and dedication to God, to each other, and to their family, helped them through all the difficult times. A love that stands the test of time, a milestone in life so few will ever reach and experience.
We wish you many more happy years together. WE LOVE YOU!!! Albert, Yollie, Mila, Dick, Vicky, Danny, and Rey
Patti and Gary in 1959 and 2009 below. They were married at the Cal Height Methodist Church April 10, 1959.
My in-laws Gary and Patti Morrison celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in April. They are Long Beach natives. My mother-in-law grew up in the 3800 block of Linden and my father-in-law in the 3800 block of Olive. We celebrated their 50th anniversary at The Reef restaurant.
They are very special people. In fact Gary's mother Jewel Morrison lived to be 100 years old and went to the first school in Long Beach which was in the Bixby's garage.
Stacey A. Morrison
Gary and his best man and friend for almost 70 years Wayne Glenn
Leon Banks with daughter Denise Thomas, grandson Harrison Thomas and grandaughter Hannah Thomas in Santorini, Greece.
Bunco Ladies Celebrating Special Birthdays in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. The Bunco Ladies visited the El Santuario de Chimayo, the Lourdes of America. Left to right, Lolita Heilbron of Long Beach, Joan Warot of Signal Hill, Toni Nunez of Los Alamitos, Cecilia Witt of Long Beach, Catharine Braatvedt of Long Beach and Pam Luckey of Long Beach.
My recent travels to Shanghai China. I am standing before Shanghai Financial Tower the world's third tallest building.
Jorge A. Velez
On May 19 the Kiwanis Club of Long Beach hosted the Annual McClaughry-Doyle Scholarship Luncheon. Eighteen Long Beach area high school students were recognized and given "Leadership and Community Awards". Two outstanding students from nine area high schools were provided cash awards to assist in continuing their education.
Front Row L to R, Nhi Thai, Natalie Hernandez , Dionna Neally, Acacia Haack, Maria Lopez, back row L to R, Steven Lien, Diana Rodriguez, Joseph Rivers, Matthew Wei, Richard McAllister, Sergio Gonzalez, Tyaries Francis. Not pictured are Michael Diaz, Wanda Kao, E'mon White, Jessica Westerfield, Stephanie Purtell
Special is not nearly good enough to say about this very sweet lady. I don't think I have ever worked with anyone who cares so much about her responsibilities as she does. The Custodian Supervisor at Millikan High School became very ill and started "training" her in hopes she could take over as Custodial Supervisor in his absence. She already had much more responsibilities than most could handle as the pool attendant, but that didn't stop her from assisting him and filling in.
Request from the teachers and administraters just keep coming in at a rapid rate and she just "keeps on keeping on." With the technicalities of running the swimming pool equipment, major problems on the home front, and the constant requests for service, I just don't know how she does it. I know one thing for certain, she is tired, very tired and needs a rest but all the real work is about to get under way with summer cleaning and summer school. Her counter part, May Pearl, is taking charge of most of the summer work and thank God for her!
Jim Bays...(retired Millikan school engineer)
I would like to honor my wife and her charity work that she has done.
Sylvia Demjanovich has been a member of Young Ladies Institute for the past nine years. The first Thursday of each month, the ladies get together to make lunches for the homeless. Since they began, they have made nearly 15,000 sandwiches and packed more than 15,000 fruit drinks and thousands of chocolate chip cookies that were made by Richard ``The Cookie Man'' Berry. Besides helping the homeless, they participate in other worthy causes. These exceptional women help the young and old because they want to, not because they have to. Being an institute member has made my bride a better and stronger person.
In only the fifth year of their existence, the Los Alamitos High School Drumline took the gold medal at the Winter Guard International world championship competition April 17 at the University of Dayton Arena, with their show, ``Fade.'' The team competed in a field of 60, exhibiting artistry and precision that earned them a first-place ranking from all six judges across all categories, including General Effect, Performance Analysis and Visual. The Los Al Drumline set a record for high score with its mark of 97.275 in the Scholastic A Division.
The trip to Dayton, Ohio, was financed by students' fundraising efforts and the proceeds from Cow Chip Bingo. Many thanks to all who supported this hard- working and now world championship team.
By Enea Ostrich
St. Joseph High School's Junior Varsity Softball team won first place at the Lakewood Tournament on March 28. In order to achieve this, they had beaten Warren, 4-1; Poly, 21-3; Lakewood,10-0; and then a battle sweep against Downey, ending it with a 5-3 win. Coach Marty, as he is respectfully called by all, is very proud to add a first-place trophy to St. Joseph's JV Softball cabinet. The team also won first place at the Gahr High School Softball Tournament in Cerritos on April 11. The girls battled long and hard for two separate weekends, winning against Norwalk, 9-3; Whittier 8-1; Kennedy, 2-0; and Tesoro, 5-4. The latest cool blue trophy will be placed right next to the fiery red one in the SJHS JV Softball cabinet. Way to go, team! You are 19-0 so far!
Long Beach
Ida Sisemore celebrated her 100th birthday with family in December 2008. She and her late husband, Glenn, raised their children in Compton. Her children, Evelyn Fischer of Corona, Richard Sisemore of Oakview and Donna Colamonico of Long Beach all attended St. Anthony's High School.
Ida was blessed with 10 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren. She loved to tell stories of the Great Depression and how they stood in bread lines for food and how they endured the 1933 earthquake and had to live outside for weeks because of aftershocks.
Her husband died after 57 years of marriage. They instilled in their children love of God, respect for others and especially respect for marriage. All three of her children have been married for more than 50 years. She was a remarkable woman, always doing for others. On May 29, the Lord decided he needed her more than we did. We are not mourning her death; we are celebrating her life.
God bless you Mom, see you in heaven.
By Grandma G.and Linda Gutzky
Norwalk
Jacob Rhodes, 14, will be graduating from St. John of God School in Norwalk on June 12.
During his elementary school years, he accomplished many things. At 6, he started playing basketball and football through Parks and Recreation. He later made the school team. He has an extreme love for sports and stats.
When he was 10, he had a short story published in the Anthology of Short Stories by Young Americans.
He was voted sports commissioner in the sixth grade and was elected to safety and environmental commissioner in the seventh grade.
He was also tested and earned a spot on the school academic decathlon team and, as an eighth-grader, was able to compete with more than 100 other Catholic schools.
He has been accepted to St. Paul High School in Whittier and has received a partial scholarship based on academic testing. He is a very rounded, polite and courteous young man.
His family is VERY proud of him. Congratulations Jacob on all your hard work.
She had three beautiful puppies. We got to experience all that is involved with having puppies and we learned so much about how to be responsible pet owners. She will be greatly missed, but we have more than enough great memories of her that will be with us forever.
We love you Gwen!! Love, Megan, 16, Ryan, 15, and Jack Dixon, 9.
... Long Beach
