Foothills Sentry February 2022

Page 7 Foothills Sentry February 2022 oc gourmet gal Serving Southern California Now Taking Valentine's Day Orders (949) 929-8211 Mini Sweetheart Board for Two - $40 Free delivery in Orange, OPA & Villa Park Why send flowers, when you can send cheese. oc gourmet gal created the most beautiful charcuterie board for us. She went out of her way to ask about our preferences to make sure we were satis fi ed. The presentation was gorgeous and everything was delicious! Totally above and beyond our expectations. “ ” ocgourmetgal.com ocgourmetgal@gmail.com social: @ocgourmetgal TAWC names Young Women of the Month During the academic year, Tus- tin Area Woman’s Club recogniz- es a senior from each Tustin Uni- fied High School every month. January’s awardees are Zoe Skin- ner, Keira Baum and Elma Sakka. Zoe Skinner, from Foothill High, is serving on the Associated Student Body (ASB) Executive Board as secretary, making this her fourth year with ASB. She was co-captain of the varsity ten- nis team, which was CIF runner- up this season, and vice president of the Ethan and Choco’s Book Club supporting CHOC. Zoe is an International Baccalaureate can- didate, and plans to attend Boston College to study marketing and advertising. Keira Baum has lived in Tustin her entire life. The Tustin High student supports her community through intern work with Tustin Connect Schools Foundation, and through the T.I.D.E.S. ocean en- vironmental club. She is the pres- ident of the Femineers engineer- ing club, and looks forward to presenting engineering projects at Cal Poly Pomona’s Annual Sum- mit. She is a leader in the Model United Nations Conference via her position as high secretariat. Beckman High School’s Elma Sakka is originally from Damas- cus, Syria. She says she is grate- ful for her amazing teachers at Beckman. Her favorite class is forensic science, is fully prepared for college, and cannot wait to see what lies ahead for her. The Young Women of the Month are recognized at the TAWC general meetings, which take place the second Wednesday of the month at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge. Tustin Area Wom- an’s Club is a nonprofit com- munity service organization. For more information, please visit the website at TustinAreaWoman- sClub.com. Zoe Skinner, Foothill High Keira Baum, Tustin High Elma Sakka, Beckman High The Woman’s Club of Orange had a sell-out crowd for its Quarterma- nia fundraiser held Jan. 15. All proceeds from the event will be award- ed to local charities. To learn more about the Woman’s Club of Orange, please call (714) 744-6469. Save the date for April flower show Get those flowers and plants growing to enter in the 83rd An- nual Woman’s Club of Orange Flower Show. “Garden Party” will be held at the Clubhouse at 121 S. Center St. on Thursday, April 21. Be sure to get the young folks involved and enter in the pre- school through 12th grade divi- sions for homegrown plants and flower displays. For further information, see womanscluboforrange.org . At least February is short! Preparedness postponed Ironic, right? But with rain, flood and urgent ongoing debris clean-up, the planned Canyons Emergency Preparedness Acad- emy, CEPA 9, scheduled to be- gin last month, is rescheduled for spring. That training will now be sponsored by the Inter- Canyon League (ICL), whose recently resigned Dion Sorrel’s Director-at-Large position was filled via appointment of Celeste Veerkamp. With object lessons galore in Silverado, welcome, if long overdue, Modjeska Canyon Road storm drain realignment will be completed by late Feb- ruary. Lately nearly everybody around here wears orange. Expect traffic delays. Friends of Fran Janet Coughlin, 30-year Sil- verado resident and longtime Joplin Youth Center library tech, generously steps up as Friends of the Library chair this month to re- place the irreplaceable Fran Wil- liams. Members of the History Committee might invite Fran to share her full story, but her ten- ure began when her retirement and the county’s 1994 bankruptcy thrust her into the volunteer op- portunity of a lifetime. Threats to close the six smallest OC libraries were unacceptable to Fran. She and others mailed Supervisors tin cans with the message, “Can the library closure plan,” and won, with a hybrid volunteer/profes- sional scheme keeping tiny Sil- verado Library open and staffed four days a week. She established the Silverado Friends of the Li- brary under the auspices of the ICL, securing nonprofit sponsor- ship. Saving the library moved to supporting it with fundraiser rev- enue; reliably underwriting mate- rial contributions like magazine subscriptions and film licensing; imaginative programming, espe- cially adult literacy; working with Silverado Children’s Center on “Story Hour.” Fran advises we not take our library for granted. And that we -- as she has --- fight for it. “We’re stubborn,” she ob- serves. “That’s the only attitude to have in the canyons.” Thanks, friend! Friends with food Many canyon seniors have re- ceived meals under the nutrition- al meal gap program for seniors. Gap Nutrition was paid for with COVID funds disbursed to the county since June of 2020. That program ended on Dec. 31, leav- ing some without meals other than frozen food in what, of- fers Silverado volunteer Natalie Garth, “could be construed as an unnatural relationship with Mr. Stouffer or Ms. Callender.” Can- yon locals have once again risen to the occasion and will deliver home-cooked meals to seniors unable to cook, as well, promises Garth, as some pleasant company. . Mo, Madame, mo betta OC Parks staff have developed a new docent training program for Arden, to provide dedicated volunteers with plenty of infor- mation on our namesake, whose canyon home is visited annually by thousands. Passionate history students and storytellers can learn and then share details of the life of the indelible Madame Modjeska. To become a docent visit www. ocparks.com/about-us/volunteer or contact Historic Park Curator Katie McKay at (949) 923-2230. Parents' bill of rights It was difficult to get a copy from 73rd District Assembly- woman Laurie Davies’ office, but here’s the summary of her promised, as yet unintroduced, legislation responding to “cancel- culture” [sic]. It “would enumer- ate certain rights afforded to Cali- fornia parents under various laws and constitutional provisions. The measure would also increase rights of parents when it comes to information given to them about the education their child is receiv- ing and information on how to become more involved.” Certain rights? Various laws? Constitu- tional provisions? Class? Please discuss. Compare to: “bill of goods.” Eyes on your own paper! A canyons parable Finally, dear readers, you know things are messed up when oth- erwise forthcoming and often enthusiastic local sources won’t speak to Your Humble Canyon Correspondent on the record. Po- litically, our regional landscape resembles a metaphorical debris flow. Imagine, then, once upon a time, a “rustic,” “charming,” and “idyllic” community in the Santa Ana mountains, which is, alas, an unincorporated area, lacks direct engagement from the county’s Flood Control District, relies on volunteers for good and bad, mostly good, but often absent centralized coordination. Imag- ine the elected and appointed officials of its only and singu- lar local governmental entity, a “special district” recreation and parks agency, exercising limited if fungible responsibilities. Imag- ine, yes, as one of many terrific activists testified to the Board of Supervisors that, “…this year is different. In 14 months we’ve had two fires and four floods.” Imagine board members es- tranged, or not even regularly attending meetings. One resigns, and is replaced via a haphazard process absent procedural trans- parency. Imagine claims about emergency powers made without clear definition or authority, mon- ies promised or pledged for rea- sons unexplained, Robert’s Rules of Order a distant memory. But wait. In a few months candidates for three open seats may file, with a fourth replacement appointment likely if intemperate political conditions prevail. The SMRPD board election is in November. "Citric Acid," an online liter- ary arts journal curated by An- drew Tonkovich debuted in Jan- uary. Featuring fiction, poetry, memoirs and essays by Orange County writers, the collection aims to challenge Orange Coun- ty political and cultural stereo- types. It will appear quarterly at citricacid.ink. Happy Birthday to Villa Park! Villa Park, the smallest city in Orange County, celebrated 60 years on Jan. 11. It was officially incorporated on that date in 1962, and its first council meeting was held five days later. The city is only two square miles, with approximately 6,500 residents in 2,050 homes on large lots. The official city bird is the hummingbird; the city tree is the weeping fig, and the official flow- er is the Orange blossom. The city, surrounded by Orange, is ap- propriately known as the Hidden Jewel. City employee Laura Russell designed the anniversary logo, which will be used on official cor- respondence throughout the year.