Around Town: Fountain Valley’s mayor pro tem dines with Dalai Lama

Fountain Valley Mayor Pro Tem Michael Vo had lunch with the Dalai Lama on Tuesday as the spiritual leader of Tibet made a stop in Newport Beach.

Vo told his City Council colleagues during their meeting Tuesday night that he got an invitation from a local Buddhist monk to attend the small private luncheon at Newport Center’s Island Hotel.

Vo sat to the right of the Dalai Lama while Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait sat to his left. Incoming Fountain Valley City Manager Rob Houston, currently a deputy city manager in Newport, also attended.

“We kind of received a blessing from him for the city,” Vo said in an interview.

The Dalai Lama arrived in Southern California last week to give the commencement address at UC San Diego. After that, he headed north and made speaking appearances for area schoolteachers and business leaders on Monday and Tuesday, according to his office’s website, dalailama.com.

Newport fundraiser Thursday to help animal rescue efforts

The second annual Fashion and Fluff fashion show is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Newport Beach.

The event at Envy Lounge, 4647 MacArthur Blvd., will benefit 1 Nation Under Paws, a pet rescue and adoption group.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit access.ticketleap.com/paws.

OCC to present sailing event Saturday in Newport Beach

Orange Coast College’s School of Sailing & Seamanship in Newport Beach will host its annual Discover Sailing and Summer Sailstice Celebration on Saturday.

The event will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at the school, 1801 W. Coast Hwy. It will include sailing, food and a raffle. Admission is free.

Registration is open at occsailing.com.

Locals to be honored at Costa Mesa gala

Angel Light Academy, a La Quinta-based nonprofit that provides leadership training, will present a gala Saturday in Costa Mesa to recognize several area people for their community service.

The honorees at the event at the Avenue of the Arts hotel include Billy Whitford, founder of the Newport Aquatic Center, and Michele Warner, executive director of the Hemophilia Alliance of Orange County in Huntington Beach, which supports families with children who have bleeding disorders.

Newport fire station hosts Make-A-Wish recipient from Fountain Valley

An 18-year-old Fountain Valley man diagnosed with a germ cell tumor visited a Newport Beach fire station June 15 with help from the Orange County and Inland Empire chapter of Make-A-Wish.

Dominic Laffoon, who has long aspired to be a firefighter and is training as an emergency medical technician, visited Lido Fire Station No. 1 and ate dinner with personnel there.

As part of another wish fulfillment, he will do firefighter work in Seattle.

Laguna nonprofit helps with breast cancer research

The Laurus Project, a Laguna Beach-based breast cancer assistance nonprofit, has given a research grant to a New York City doctor whose work shows promise, according to a news release.

The funds, which start at $20,000, will go to Dr. Linda Vahdat, director of the breast cancer research program at Weill Cornell Medicine. She will study how copper, which has shown to be crucial in activating dormant cancer cells, could be depleted in patients’ blood. Without copper, the body can become biologically hostile to tumor growth.

Seized assets to be auctioned at Newport hotel

High-end assets seized by law enforcement will go on the auction block June 24 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Newport Beach.

An advertisement for the auction shows fine jewelry and timepieces, including his-and-her gold Rolexes, fine art, a $1,000 bill and sports memorabilia including a stadium seat signed by Los Angeles Dodgers players.

The Westfield auction house will conduct the sale. A preview starts at 11 a.m. and the bidding will begin at 11:45 a.m. Admission is free.

The Hyatt is at 1107 Jamboree Road.

Junior League names new president

The Newport Beach-based Junior League of Orange County has named Maria de Vera-Suarez as its new president.

The Tustin Ranch resident has been with the women’s organization since 2009. She is a controller with Venture Retail Group in Aliso Viejo.

‘Movies in the Park’ in Costa Mesa starts June 28

Costa Mesa’s 2017 “Movies in the Park” series will kick off June 28 with a screening of “The Lego Batman Movie” at TeWinkle Park, 970 Arlington Drive.

The movie will start at 5:30 p.m. in the park’s Angels Playground.

St. Joachim Catholic School raises funds for wheelchair nonprofit

Third-graders at St. Joachim Catholic School in Costa Mesa recently raised $5,042 for an Irvine-based nonprofit that provides wheelchairs for people with disabilities.

Students held bake sales, started lemonade stands and sold snacks to help raise money for Free Wheelchair Mission. The amount gathered will help provide wheelchairs to 63 people.

This is the school’s fifth year raising funds for the nonprofit. It has raised $12,620.

Coastline Community College debuts program for local students

Coastline Community College is debuting a program intended to help local first-year students earn a degree or technical certificate.

The Coastline College Promise program will provide vouchers for textbooks, help with first-year enrollment fees and priority registration each semester.

The program is being funded by the Coastline Community College Foundation, whose board pledged $300,000 of its annual budget to help fund it through the fall semester of 2020, according to a news release.

Recent high school graduates from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Huntington Beach Union High School District and Garden Grove Unified School District are encouraged to apply early, as funds are limited.

Project Independence gearing up for walk fundraiser

Project Independence, a Costa Mesa-based nonprofit that helps people with developmental disabilities, is looking for sponsors and gathering teams in preparation for its Walk for Independence on Sept. 9.

The event at TeWinkle Park in Costa Mesa will support the nonprofit.

For more information, contact Todd Eckert at todd@proindependence.org or (714) 549-3464.