Rotary Club Gives Good Idea Award, $1,000 Grant to Six Tustin Teachers

The Rotary Club of Tustin honored six Tustin Unified School District teachers with its Good Idea Award, which includes a $1,000 grant for supplies and materials to support quality educational programs.

The teachers and their programs are Helen Killingback and Jane Singer of A.G. Currie Middle School, for “Fine Arts for the Severely Handicapped”; Marilyn Kochendorfer of Jean Thorman Elementary, for “Little Kids Have a ‘Write’ to Read,” and Nancy McCloud of Arroyo Elementary, for “Disability Unit.”

The others are Shirley Saunders of Jeane E. Thomas Elementary, for “Reach Out Through Art,” and Barbara Watts of Marjorie Veeh Elementary, for “Using Your Senses--The Basis of Learning.”

Bill Harwood, awards coordinator, said the program was developed to encourage classroom teachers to come up with new ideas and methods to improve the quality of instruction for Tustin students, as well as to recognize exemplary efforts of teachers.

Juan Cordova, an 11-year-old student at Pomona Elementary School, was honored with an award for helping Costa Mesa police break a youth gang terrorizing his schoolmates.

The Villa Nova restaurant’s Outstanding Citizen Award notes that, with Cordova’s help, the five youths forcibly taking lunch money from students were arrested and convicted of extortion, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

All five members of the gang received felony convictions and were placed in juvenile detention, Officer Dennis Jefcoat said.

Manny Herrera of Placentia, a Cal State Fullerton graduate and former real estate salesman, was named Affiliate of the Year by the North Orange County Board of Realtors.

Now a sales representative with the Orange County office of Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co. in Santa Ana, Herrera was honored for his work on several real estate board programs.

They include a canned food collection program at shopping centers for the Salvation Army and for directing “Mardi Gras Magic,” a musical fund-raising revue performed by Board of Realtors members and Special Olympics children.

Sgt. Richard Powell, 46, a 22-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department and head of the Dana Point Harbor Patrol office for the past seven years, was honored in a brief ceremony by the Dana Point Coast Guard Auxiliary. Powell said he will retire from the department in March.

Automobile dealer Robert D. McLaren of Fullerton is among 15 dealers throughout the United States and Canada honored for their contributions to education by Northwood Institute, a private accredited college specializing in practical career preparation in the business field.

McLaren, president of Bob McLaren BMW, helped establish an educational program that eventually was offered at Fullerton College.

Roselie Vasquez, a senior at Saddleback High School in Santa Ana, will be one of 40 U.S. teen-agers to attend the Soviet-American Youth Summit scheduled April 16-23 in Helsinki, Finland.

Roselie participated in a student group involved in Soviet-U.S. relations in Washington during Soviet General-Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit, and she recently interacted with 15 Soviet students touring Orange County to learn more about life styles in the United States.

She is the only student selected from Orange County.

Sheila Hallaway of Dana Point was installed as the first female commander of the Dana Point Power Squadron and is the first woman to hold the post in any squadron in District 28, which covers California, Arizona and Colorado, squadron spokesman Ralph Bache said. She succeeds Craig Page as head of the 60-member squadron.

Anneke J. Sherohman, an Orange Coast College culinary arts student, won a bronze medal for her display of cakes, petits fours and chocolate at the Culinary Salon and Trade Show hosted by the Chefs de Cuisine in Palm Springs. She entered the show as a student but competed in the apprentice and professional chef category.

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