Two Brea Police Officers Honored for Curbing 265 Suspected Drunk Drivers

Brea police officers David Kemp and Steven Hill were presented recognition awards from the county chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) for their vigilance against people who drink and drive.

Together, they accounted for 265 drunk-driving arrests from Jan. 1. Each was presented a plaque with the MADD logo.

Fifteen county cities entered candidates for the award.

MADD spokesperson Janet Cader said national statistics indicate that one of every 10 drivers on the road from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. is drunk, as defined by law, and that one of every three drivers on Orange and Los Angeles County streets is in some degree under the influence during those same hours.

Msgr. Emmett McCarthy, 69, founding pastor of St. Angela Merici Catholic Church in Brea, said he will retire at the beginning of 1988 but will remain active as pastor emeritus and perform missionary work in Mexico.

The parish, which celebrated its silver jubilee in September, grew from a few hundred families to its current 3,000 family membership under McCarthy’s leadership.

Babies born at the Western Medical Center in Santa Ana get a Christmas stocking like no other, because they are individually handcrafted by volunteer Patricia D. Norby, 58, and a handful of helpers.

“Every person does what they want to contribute to the community,” said Norby, of Santa Ana. “This is what I decided to do.”

Norby and the helpers have made 175 stockings that are big enough to hold the babies for the trip home. “They can be used to carry toys later on,” said Norby, who also volunteers in the hospital nursery.

Esperanza High School senior Laurie Franzen, 17, was crowned Miss Debutante California Queen and will compete in February for the national Miss Debutante Pageant in Hawaii. She also won a $500 scholarship.

An honors student, Franzen was selected on the basis of poise, confidence, appearance, personal interviews, academic achievements and involvement in extracurricular activities.

Pageant spokesman Richard Trotter said the pageant is dedicated to recognizing and rewarding excellence. She is the daughter of Marcia and David Franzen, 15-year Anaheim residents.

Merritt Johnson, president of United Way of Orange County, was honored with the Chairman’s Award from the Family Services Assn. of Orange County for “his contributions to the community above and beyond what is required of his position.”

Santa Ana Unified School District students swept the top awards for their literary participation in the 1987 Rainbow Festival Essay Contest sponsored by UC Irvine. The contest topic was “The Color of Culture.”

Winners were Valley High School senior Phung Ngo; Willard Intermediate eighth-grader Jennifer Dutcher; Monte Vista Elementary third-grader Marco Gutierrez, and Madison Elementary first-grader Elizabeth Ochoa.

Balboa Bay Republican Women, Federated, of Newport Beach, named state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), its “Outstanding Republican Woman of Orange County for 1987.” Club members said her selection was based in part on her “outstanding legislative skills and dedication to the cause of good government.”

Following in his father’s footsteps, Andrew Wooding, 23, of Garden Grove, has had his first book published. Called “Does Chocolate Kill Brain Cells?” the book is a tongue-in-cheek look at the life of a missionary who loves chocolate.

It was published in England, where he lives. Wooding is writing a sequel called “Brain Cells, the Sequel.”

His father, Dan Wooding, 46, of Garden Grove, who works for a religious news service in Santa Ana, said he has 20 published books including his latest, an autobiography called “Twenty-Six Lead Soldiers.”

Alice Christiansen of Westminster took top honors at an awards ceremony for volunteer workers at the Apollo Day Training Activity Center for developmentally disabled young adults. She recorded 959 volunteer hours, the most of 10 volunteers who were honored by the Psynetics Foundation, which operates the activity center in Anaheim.

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