Toll students go to Washington, D.C.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) met on March 20 in Washington D.C. with a group of 70 seventh- and eighth-grade students and their chaperons from Glendale’s Toll Middle School.
The students were visiting during their spring break, and Schiff took time to discuss his priorities in Congress, as well as answer a number of questions from the students.
“They were very well informed on the important issues facing our nation and asked great questions about my work here in Congress,” Schiff said. “I am always inspired by our youth, especially when they take an interest in our public discourse and politics.”
The group met the Congressman on the East Side steps of the Capitol Building in between committee hearings. Students asked a number of questions ranging from the importance of the United States recognizing the Armenian Genocide to funding for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the challenges of being in Congress.
Scout presented leadership honor
Steven Cronkhite received the Explorer Leadership Award from the Learning for Life section of the Boy Scouts of America in February.
Cronkhite graduated from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Departments Explorer Academy in 2007 and joined the Crescenta Valley Explorer Post 514. He was promoted to sergeant in early 2008 and then to lieutenant in late 2008.
He helped increase the size of the post from four Explorers to 12 in less than a year’s time and has trained the newer Explorers, preparing them for radio code tests, physical fitness training and hands-on training.
Cronkhite has been a part of the station’s community events, like the Fiesta Days Run and Parade, Run for the Hungry, and food and toy drives. In 2008, he assisted with “Tip-a-Cop” at a local restaurant that benefited the Special Olympics. His involvement helped to bring in $5,000.
In 2009, he received the “County of Los Angeles 2009 Youth Volunteer of the Year” award. In 2010, while on a ride-along with deputies, he assisted a parent in the middle of Ralphs grocery store while the parent’s child was having seizures. For this he was awarded the Field Operations Region 1 service pin.
In 2010, Cronkhite was promoted to captain. He has also completed Criminal Justice classes at Pasadena City College. In 2011, he began service in the volunteer patrol in the Crescenta Valley Station area, where he performs vacation checks for local residents and is an extra set of eyes on the lookout for illegal activity.
He has completed more than 150 ride-alongs, and has donated more than 4,000 hours to the department and the residents of Los Angeles County. Though he aged out of the Explorer program this year, Cronkhite and has become an advisor with the post and continues to train the other Explorers.
Teacher receives outstanding member
Susie Hoard, Sunland Elementary Gifted Magnet teacher, was honored as the Gamma Lambda Outstanding Member of 2013 at the Area IX Spring Festival at the Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills in March.
Gamma Lambda is the local chapter of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an association of women educators. Hoard has been the second vice president of Gamma Lambda for the last three years. She has provided programs for this group, which consists of active and retired teachers in the Glendale and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Glendale district teachers include Rosie Waterman, Barbara Colby, Jeannie Smith, Amber Hall, Debbie Kramer, Karen Nagao and Darlene Goguen.
Hoard, a fifth-grade teacher of the gifted, teaches U.S. history and was selected to participate at the Colonial Williamsburg Institute in 2010, then was invited back to serve as a peer facilitator. She also mentors student teachers from Cal State Northridge and Cal State Los Angeles.
Hoard, her husband, Kevin, and 17-year-old son, Corey, reside in Montrose. Corey is a senior at Clark Magnet High School.
--
JOYCE RUDOLPH can be contacted at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.