Council Gives Senior Girl Scouts Gold Award for Their Shining Achievement

The Girl Scout Council of Orange County has named recipients of its Gold Award, the highest award given to Senior Girl Scouts.

“Girls who earn the annual Gold Award are outstanding in every way, not only in Girl Scouting but in their everyday lives,” said Bernice K. Hird, council president. “The Gold Award requires the greatest achievement in service, career exploration and acquisition of skills.”

The award winners are Karen Alexander and Rachel Miller, both of El Toro; Susan Baer of Placentia; Heidi Bartel of Buena Park; Elise Baur, Kristen Daugherty, Heather Foster, Christy Lomenzo, Jeanette Naura and Heather Sterling, all of Yorba Linda; Heather Bouvier of San Juan Capistrano, and Julie Burden and Michelle Strand of Costa Mesa.

Other recipients are Kimberly Burtch, Suzanne Dean, Jenny Ealy and Karin Stein of Cypress; Nancy Campbell and Laurene Harding of Seal Beach; Pam Crane of Irvine; Kim Crist of Orange; Cara Dutra of Huntington Beach; Marie Eiland of Laguna Niguel; Jean Ferguson of Garden Grove; Christine Lowy, Joyce Truban and Brenda Underwood, all of Santa Ana; Vibeke Seymour of Capistrano Beach; Ronda Steckler of Anaheim, and Heather Wierman of Westminster.

Carmen Cable, an accounting technical assistant for the Saddleback Community College District, was named 1988 Outstanding Employee. The San Clemente resident was nominated by fellow employees.

The American National Red Cross presented a service award to Winnie Bersinger, 88, of Freedom Village in El Toro in honor of 45 years of active Red Cross participation during World War I, World War II and the Korean War.

“I have loved the work and the good friends I have made through the years,” said Bersinger, who currently works with a group that uses donated materials to make items for veterans hospitals and other organizations.

The first ever Oarsman Award for extraordinary contributions to the Orange Coast College crew was presented to Joseph M. Thomas of Newport Beach, a longtime supporter who has provided three high-technology, eight-oared shells to the team, as well as helping finance trips to England.

In recognition of his support of the crew, Thomas received a bronze sculpture depicting an oarsman standing on a dock with an oar.

“Joe is a giver, and he never asks for anything in return,” crew coach Dave Grant said. “It is wonderful to do something for him.”

The Orange Coast Optimist Club selected Westminster area students Brent Kato of La Quinta High School and Lori Yamato of Westminster High School to be Optimist Male and Female of the Year based on their community involvement, leadership in school activities and grade-point average. Each received a plaque and a $1,000 scholarship.

Yorba Linda resident Greg Mannino, who won a silver medal in the disabled slalom ski event in the 1988 Calgary Olympics, will be honored by the Yorba Linda Middle School, which will declare June 7 as Greg Mannino Day.

Mannino, a former student at the school, will speak at a school assembly and tell how he was able to compete in sports after losing a leg in a 1979 accident.

After secretly marrying at the Santa Ana Courthouse in 1938, Annette and Bernard Kaplan of Huntington Beach will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday at the Balboa Bay Club.

Tamara Lynn Wink, 19, of Santa Ana, winner of the California Young Miss of America contest, will compete Aug. 22 against 70 others in Hawaii for the National Young Miss of America title.

An Orange Coast College student, Wink was selected on the basis of a personal interview, poise, personality and beauty. She also won the bathing suit portion of the competition.

In an earlier pageant, Wink was named Miss Teen Orange County and won a trip to Hawaii as well as a modeling scholarship.

Rick Muth of Orco Block Co. in Stanton has been installed as president of the Concrete Masonry Assn. of California and Nevada, an organization of concrete block manufacturers.

Submit items to Three Cheers, Los Angeles Times, c/o Herbert J. Vida, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif., 92626.