Californian Radio to discuss pit bulls: misunderstood sweethearts or vicious potential killers that need to be outlawed?

* ... PIT BULLS: Did you know that in any given year pit bull type dogs account for about 60 percent of all fatal dog attacks? And when you add in Rottweilers, the number jumps to 73 percent? So how do you feel about pit bulls? Are they misunderstood sweethearts or a vicious breed that should be outlawed or at least regulated? Is it the owner that makes them mean or is it in their DNA? I will be discussing the subject Monday, on Californian Radio KERN 1180, to talk about Bakersfield's unofficial mascot. Tune in to share your stories, good and bad, by calling 842-KERN (5376) The show begins at 9 a.m.

 * ... ROY CLARK: Roy Clark, who along with the late Buck Owens made the TV show "Hee Haw" famous, played recently at The Crystal Palace but it wasn't a performance that left everyone pleased. Caleb Melton posted his own frustration on The Bakersfield Californian/Opinion's Facebook wall when he said Clark rejected his efforts to get a picture of him. "Just wanted to say if anyone did or wants to see Roy Clark live don't do it, because he knows how to shatter a person's childhood memories and has no heart." Melton dropped by Clark's bus and asked if he could get a picture. And this was after he wrote a heartfelt letter to Clark telling him how much he meant to him. "All I got was a thanks but no... he even gave the heartfelt letter back to his band manger to give back to me. He could have signed it but he didn't even do that... Mr. Clark has forgotten that if wasn't for fans like me, he would be a no one. Now I know why Buck Owens wanted to stay away from Nashville."

 * ... BAD FORM: Local businessman Herb Walker shared his frustration with me about people who use our community as their personal trash can. Herb owns a building on District Boulevard that houses the local YMCA, and over the weekend someone used his parking lot to change the oil of their motorcycle, leaving behind three Coke bottles full of oil and other assorted trash. "Who on earth does this?" he asked. Apparently, a lot of folks around town.

* ... HONOREE: Want to feel good about today's youth? Then consider Wendi Wu, a senior at Independence High School who was chosen as the "Young Woman Defining Philanthropy" at the Women's and Girls' Fund luncheon this week. Check out her accomplishments: She is a member of Independence’s Energies and Utilities Academy, she has an impressive academic record and she has a long list of community service accomplishments.  She’s also one of 1,000 students nationally selected for a Gates Millenium Scholarship. As a Gates Scholar, Wendi will have a full ride through college, including the medical degree she will pursue. (photo of Wendi with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (left) and Judi McCarthy (no relation) of the Women's and Girls' Fund.)

 * ... STRANDED: Reader Richard C. Clason wrote to respond to an earlier post by a woman who wondered why no one stopped to help when she ran out of gas. "If all she did was pull to the side of the road and get out of her car there is no reason for anyone to stop to help.  If she were to raise her hood, the men of Bakersfield would have stopped to help at the universal sign.  I know the firefighters would have stopped to help under those conditions, as I retired from the Kern County Fire Department, and know the mind set of those folks. Perhaps the best advise I could give her was some I received from my father almost 50 years ago, 'IT DOESN'T COST ANY MORE TO KEEP THE TOP HALF OF YOUR GAS TANK FULL THAN THE BOTTOM HALF!'"

* ... BOMB SHELTERS: All the memories about bomb shelters being built following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis brought this note from reader Glen Worrell. "The principal of the school where I was teaching and living (in the College Heights area) said he wasn't going to build a bomb shelter. He was just going (if necessary) to get a piece of plastic to cover the air vent, take his shotgun and cover the air vent. When someone came out to see what was wrong he and his wife WOULD get in the bomb shelter!"

 * ... DUCK AND COVER: Sue Anderson, a counselor at the Hort School, recalled the bomb drills when she was in private grade school. "We would all go into the church and lay under the pews, and were always cautioned to cover our head and get all of our limbs underneath the pew.  Looking back, it seems sort of naiive that we thought a church pew would save us from total destruction.  I had dreams about this for years."

Women and Girls Fund addresses violence against women and a reader rants

 * ... GIRLS FUND: Violence against women has long been one of our community's greatest problems, so it was nice to see the Women and Girls Fund handing out some grants to combat it. The Alliance Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault and the Kern County Network for Children were each awarded $10,000 during a luncheon at Seven Oaks County Club last week. The Alliance will use the money for education programs for 600 young women in rural Kern County, and the Network's funds will go for circumstances where children witness domestic violence or suicide of a parent or caregiver. The girls fund has an endowment of some $460,000 within the Kern Community Foundation.
 
* ... PORTUGAL BOUND: Joe and Judy Mullins are two Bakersfield natives who now live in Loveland, Colorado, and wrote to share a story about their son Kevin and his wife Angelina. They both attended high school in Bakersfield and Kevin later graduated from CSUB with a BS in religious studies. After moving to Lubbock, Texas, to attend the Sunset Bible School, they moved  to Dublin, Ireland. They returned to Bakersfield so Angelina could finish her degree at CSUB. They are now planning on moving to Portugal to work with a church planting organization called Kontact Mission. Why Portugal? Turns out Angelina's mother was originally from the Azores Islands, immigrated to the United States as a teenager and became a teacher at Shafter High School. Her name is Maria Sanchez. "Our kids have sold everything except their basic essentials, and those are being freighted to Lisbon as I write this. Kevin will be working as a contractor for his current employer there in Bakersfield, Lightspeed internet, and Angelina will be giving birth to their first child in September. I just wanted you to know of two more Bakersfield natives who grew up there and gone on to truly make a difference in this world."

 * ... READER SOUND OFF: This from reader Barbara Meuleman: "Why do you continue to write notes about the higher-income people who send their children off to schools and then return to Bakersfield, blah, blah, blah, which apparently makes you and them so proud of our town.....but then you follow up with an ending not  about what people call Bakersfield. A touch of Johnny Carson and not needed. Bakersfield is Bakersfield, not Bako, or anything else somebody thinks is cute. I'd hate to see what nickname they give their children, by the way.  I love Bakersfield and am disappointed when it is not built up, but instead given names that reflect we are either stupid, just in off of the farm, or whatever. Who started this, and why is is so important to label a wonderful, compassionate town when there are other ways to use the space?  Let's let the name Bakersfield be important, well thought of and if with a nickname, a great one, not one that pulls it down to the level of "dumb blonde" jokes.  Thanks, beano...whoops Mr. Beene."

 * ...SAN JOSE STATE: Got an interesting email from insurance risk consultant John Pryor, who was remembering some special local folks who graduated from San Jose State. In his words. "In 1954, four Bakersfield residents graduated from San Jose State wearing traditional caps and gowns for the ceremony in Spartan Stadium.  However, underneath this traditional garb, they each wore US Navy officers' uniforms.  Dick Giles, Bob Gorman, John Pryor, and Terry Whitney 'went forward' to receive their degrees.  Then they each removed their cap and gown and - now in their naval officers' uniform - went forward a second time to receive their commission from a senior US Navy officer.  Each immediately reported for active duty with orders to ships or duty stations ranging from Japan to France -- and points in between."  

  For background, John said Dick Giles' career was in sales management for Hopper, Inc. and McCarthy Tank and  Steel, Bob Gorman, who passed away last year, was a local workers' compensation consultant, Whitney was CEO of Welch Grape Company in Buffalo NY (now living in San Francisco), and John was a local insurance broker.

* ... BAKERSFIELDISM : You know you're  from Bakersfield when you know that ordering a "half and half" at Luigi's means half pasta and half beans.

 

Kern Women and Girl's Fund recognizes Stella McMurtrey, Nicole Mercado and hands out grants

Great to see that even in this economy, when you couldn't blame anybody for cutting back, that there remains a lot of generosity in our community. Today at a luncheon over at Seven Oaks County Club the Women and Girl's Fund of Kern County (it works under the umbrella of the Kern Community Foundation) recognized some outstanding citizens and handed out grants to deserving organizations. Among those recognized for Women Defining Philanthropy, folks who show leadership in philanthropy, in addition to community service:
* NICOLE MERCADO: A senior, East High School – in addition to a 3.94 GPA and class rank of 28/497, she is an athlete, student leader, CSF member, Youth Leadership Bakersfield. She participates in and raises money for Bakersfield Relay for Life. We are making a $500 donation in honor to Bakersfield Relay for Life (East High Team).
* STELLA MCMURTREY: 90 years young. Has belonged to at least a dozen civic groups including Woman’s Club, Italian Heritage Dante Assn., Vision 2020, Symphony Associates. A leader in the Assistance League of Bakersfield. Leadership in financial support for McMurtrey Aquatic Center, capital campaign for Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, CSUB, Assistance League, and Bakersfield Museum of Art. We are making a $250 donation in her honor to the SPCA and a $250 donation in her honor to the Assistance League scholarship program.

The fund also issued $20,000 in grants to:
* $4,000 to Kern High School District Foundation to support Foothill High School’s program to mentor African American girls toward achievement of their A-G requirements to qualify for the UC system. Project G.O.A.L. is modeled after the B.E.S.T program for African American males.
* $7,000 to Garden Pathways to expand their capacity to mentor youth and adults through Family to Family Mentoring. The grant partially underwrites the hire of support staff to assist in recruiting up to 50 new mentors.
* $9,000 to the Kernville Union School District Family Resource Center for “Eyes Wide Open,” a pilot project to mentor junior high girls (Wallace Middle School) from at-risk or single-parent families.

How one local non-profit negotiates a tough economy, and succeeds in spite of it

The Women and Girl's Fund is a relatively young local charity devoted to providing a helping hand to needy young women in our community. It was the brain child of Judi McCarthy, and she has single-handedly taken it from nowhere to a fund with assets of more than $300,000. To understand Judi you have to understand she is the daughter of a Marine and has the drive and discipline to show for it. So how is the fund faring during this tumultuous time? Judi tells me the fund reached a high of $385,000 briefly and then - like everything else - took a huge hit in the market collapse. She explained the year it has been:

"We approached our founders (donors of $1,000 or more) with the prospect of reduced grant making in 2009, and they donated enough to the grant making pot to keep our grant impact even ($20,000).... In addition they added to the endowment."

Judi laid the success of the fund at the feet of her "great supporters," but no doubt it is also a testament to her own drive. Judi has moved on to become chairman of the Board at the Kern Community Foundation (where the WGF funds reside) and Mary Bynum is now running the WGF. New grants will be annnounced at an April 29 luncheon and in the meantime, the group will honor three artists at a March 19 event at Ice House Framing and Gallery.

Open your wallets: it's charity fund raising season

If it's March in Bakersfield it means it's time for a charity fund raiser virtually every weekend and many weekdays. Pretty soon the golf courses will be in full swing for the non profits: Link to Life, Monsignor Leddy, the Plank Foundation tournaments just to name a few. It will be interesting to see how this sour economy affects the non profits; there's already ample evidence that they are suffering and local giving is way down. Just a few of the events coming up:
* The "Architects of Hope" dinner benefiting the St. Jude Dream Home giveaway is this Wednesday (March 4) t the Petroleum Club.
* CASA kicked off his annual round of parties and events this past weekend with the Hayden family's "Field of Dreams." Next up: Don Martin hosts "An Evening at the Historic Brownstone" on Saturday, March 21.
* Kern County Women in Art will hold a "celebration and auction" at the Icehouse Framing & Gallery on Thursday, March 19. The Women and Girls' Fund, part of the Kern Community Foundation, is the beneficary.
* And finally there's always the annual Cioppino feed hosted by Bakersfield West Rotary over at Monsignor Leddy Hall at Garces High School on March 28. This is one of my favorite fund raisers of the year and the cioppino is outstanding. This year it benefits the Bakersfield Memorial Hospital Foundation for the pediatric care unit, the local Ronald McDonald house and the Boys and Girls Club.
Stay tuned. These are just a few of what will be a tsunami of fund raisers this year.