Assemblyman Wayne Grisham presented Santa Fe Springs...

Assemblyman Wayne Grisham presented Santa Fe Springs Councilman Luis Escontrias with the Outstanding Hispanic of the Year award for the 63rd Assembly District at a ceremony Saturday in Downey. Escontrias received the award, in its first year, after he was selected from a group of six nominees by a committee of Latino leaders in southeast communities. Cities in the district are Downey, Cerritos, Los Nietos, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs and South Whittier.

Paul Viviano, 32, has been named chief executive officer at Long Beach Community Hospital. He holds master’s degrees in public administration and public health from UCLA, and is a former administrator of Los Alamitos Medical Center and Doctors Hospital of Lakewood. Viviano succeeds Howard Le Vant, who was acting administrator for six months. Le Vant is regional director of Health West Foundation, the Long Beach hospital’s parent company.

Peter H. Grimes, a Downey resident and student at the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, won first place in the table topics division at district Toastmaster competition, in which participants were given a subject and limited time to prepare speeches. Grimes also is a musician and world-class antermediate hurdler.

The National Council of Teachers of English has cited seven high school seniors in the Long Beach Unified School District for outstanding performance in writing. Named as achievement award winners are Nancy Calzada, Jordan High School; Patrick Whalen and Brent Blasnek, Lakewood High School; Mark Dennis, David Fratello and Susan Kendig, Millikan High School; and Timothy Orling, Polytechnic High School.

Faye Jackson, guidance administrator at Cerritos High School, has been elected president of the Cerritos International Training in Communication Club. The club is for adults interested in developing their communication skills, organizational techniques, leadership qualities and creative thinking. It formerly was known as the International Toastmistress Club. Jackson, a club member three years, joined the administrative staff at Cerritos High Schol four years ago, after teaching kindergarten through third grades for 13 years in the Long Beach Unified School District.

Robert Navarro of Pico Rivera has been named a Chevron scholar and will receive a partial year’s tuition at Harvey Mudd College. Navarro is a senior engineering student at the college in Claremont, writes for the Muddraker student newspaper and is a grader for the engineering department.

Miriam E. Smith, executive director of Long Beach Community Services Development Corp., as been appointed as a member of the California Venereal Disease Advisory Council by the state Department of Health Services.

T. Michael Murray, executive director of Whittier Hospital Medical Center, has been honored by Summit Health Ltd., parent company of the hospital, as executive director of the year. Murray was honored for starting new programs, conducting major renovations in several departments and the addition of a 5,000-square-foot emergency room during his 2 1/2 years at the hospital.

Herbert Oliver and Randall Peter, both of Long Beach, have been accepted as volunteers with Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles, which provides role models for fatherless boys. Oliver, 25, is an independent security representative for the U.S. Department of Defense, and Peter, 29, is a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

La Mirada resident Jean Curry has received the Southern California Cable Assn. distinguished service award for municipal relations. Curry, a personnel assistant at Rogers Cablesystems, has produced and hosted 32 half-hour segments of her “Reach Out” cable television program about topics of interest to senior citizens.

Two members of the Downey YMCA gymnastics and dance performing troupe received first-place awards in their age group at the I Love Dance competition held in Los Angeles. Timmy Pedigo and Kelley Hansen, both age 6, danced jitterbug style and earned the highest points of all entrants in competition with 260 acts representing 26 dance studios from throughout the state.

Downey Municipal Court employees exceeded their goal by raising $2,018 for the Statue of Liberty restoration project. Fund drive leaders were Cynthia Loya, Sunda McIver, Antoinette Jewell, Cheryl Brady and Tammy Epps.