Jogging the Rugged Pacific Crest Trail
Bob Holtel is doing the ultimate jog.
A teacher at West High School in Torrance, Holtel is attempting to jog the Pacific Crest Trail. Only about 500 hardy souls have managed even to hike the entire trail, which runs about 2,500 miles from border to border between Mexico and Canada, up and down some of the most beautiful and strenuous terrain imaginable.
Holtel is two-thirds of the way through the three-part undertaking he began last summer at the Mexican border near Campo. In 58 days, the 53-year-old Manhattan Beach resident logged 1,055 miles to Donner Pass north of Lake Tahoe.
He resumed the second leg this summer on July 5 and expects to reach the Washington/Oregon border at the Bridge of the Gods on the Columbia River on Sept. 8, having run 1,040 miles. Holtel plans to average a little more than 23 miles a day, running 45 days with 21 days of rest.
A post card in mid-July from Crater Lake, Ore., informed friends he had seen “one large, active rattler” and had been “serenaded by counselors” after they discovered he was sprinting by on his way to Canada.
Next summer, Holtel plans to tackle the final, and shortest, leg, stretching up through Washington. Although only about 500 miles, most of that segment climbs through the Cascade Mountains and may contain some of the steepest and coldest territory along the trail.
Soap Box Racer
“They’re scared of me now,” said Chris Pineda, 12, of Garden Grove. After three years of shooting for it, Pineda made his mark in the soap box derby racing world by finishing second in the junior division at the All-American Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio, this month.
Pineda, who’ll be a sixth-grader at Garden Grove Christian School this fall, lost his fifth, and last, race down the 954-foot track in a photo-finish against the ultimate champion--9-year-old Marc Behan of Dover, N. H. But the finals were a breeze compared to the regional trials in Rancho Cucamunga where Pineda had to beat all 22 drivers in individual races to qualify for Akron.
Pineda has built three cars, the first of which his sister, Lisa, 8, drives in the derby rallies in which they both compete during the year. Pineda became interested in soap box cars when he and his father attended a car show several years ago. As a result, he said he has learned how to use his hands, how to use tools and has learned about aerodynamics.
“You want the car to be round and small. You want it to pass through the air clean, with no drag,” explained Pineda, who wants to be an astronaut when he grows up.
Pineda’s mother, Rosanne, thinks her son’s hobby has been a good learning experience, teaching him good sportsmanship and “it has brought the family closeness.”
For information about soap box racing in this area, write All-American Soap Box Derby, P.O. Box 7233 Derby Downs, Akron, Ohio 44306.
Summer Camp in U.S.S.R.
One of the things Lionela Amaya learned this summer is that Soviet teen-agers prefer an American rock group named Oingo Boingo.
The 15-year-old girl, who will be a sophomore at San Pedro High School this fall, spent a month this summer at Camp Artek on the Black Sea in the Soviet Union. She went to Russia with eight other American teen-agers to make friends, to have fun and to share cultures.
More than 3,000 children from 50 countries attended the camp as guests of the Russian government. Each international delegation lived with a group of Russian children and were supervised by two young counselors from their own country and two from the Soviet Union.
In California, the Society for Cultural Relations/USA-USSR, affiliated with the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship provides students with applications to attend the annual camp.
Noting that many of her friends expressed alarm when she told them where she was going, Amaya said: “I know a lot of kids are probably afraid to go and it seems really too bad because (the kids) were real nice to us; they were always smiling and very sincere. I’m afraid if they came here, the kids wouldn’t be that nice.”
In the past 10 years about 10 students from California have gone, including Amaya’s brother, Adriano, who hopes to return as a camp counselor when he is 21.
Amaya said the Americans became particularly friendly with a black delegation from South Africa and she learned a lot about apartheid. Although the children had political and educational discussions daily, they also went to the beach, had parties and dances, played games and had celebrations. The American group’s special celebration was on the Fourth of July when they were presented with roses and gifts. They in turn performed American folk songs and dances for the other campers.
“We all learned how to get along better,” said Amaya, who had taken along her assortment of music tapes and items like T-shirts, hats and posters to exchange with other campers. “We were just a bunch of kids who wanted to make friends and have a good time.”
No Yearbook in 60 Years
Sol Marshall has not received his yearbook yet. He graduated from Hollenbeck Junior High in 1926, moved to Milwaukee and never received it.
“I don’t know why it comes to mind now,” Marshall said. “Maybe because it has been 60 years since I graduated. It wasn’t important to me then, but now as I become older, with anniversaries being celebrated, it becomes more important.”
Marshall moved back to Los Angeles in 1949 and has worked 25 years for the Jewish Centers Assn. Since most of the students at Hollenbeck in Boyle Heights in the 1920s and 1930s were Jewish, he thinks some of the people he has met over the years may have been his classmates. But Marshall was at Hollenbeck only that one year, and does not remember names.
He has made extensive inquiries at the school, but no one can find a yearbook from that year. Marshall said that although he was quiet and had his “head in books most of the time,” graduation from the school had special meaning for him.
“Actually I am looking for the people and I was thinking of the yearbook as a way of finding them,” he explained. Anyone with information may write Marshall at 8210 Varna Ave., Van Nuys 91402-5599.
Anti-Stigma Contest
Gloria Duckett, a professional portrait artist from Los Angeles, nabbed first place in an art contest recently, but her winning picture was not a portrait. It was an attempt to educate the community about mental illness by showing that all people are “more alike than different.”
All 20 participants in the anti-stigma art contest, sponsored by the San Fernando Valley Community Support System Action Group, were mental health clients. The group works to provide the least restrictive alternatives to hospitalization for the mentally ill--such as vocational rehabilitation, transitional living and socialization programs.
Duckett won a blue ribbon and her picture was made into posters that will be displayed at churches and public buildings in the community. The group meets the second Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. in the East San Fernando Valley Mental Health Service Building on 12148 Victory Blvd. in North Hollywood. For information, call Judy Cooperberg at (818) 509-1800.