7 County Groups Win Community Awards From National Education Corp.

The Mothers Against Drunk Driving chapter in Orange received the Chairman’s Award of $15,000 at the National Education Corp.’s annual community awards program and was one of 30 county nonprofit organizations to share in grants totaling $100,000.

The $10,000 President’s Award went to Stop-Gap of Santa Ana for its community service program. The $7,500 Committee Award went to the Blind Children’s Learning Center in Santa Ana

Outstanding Achievement awards for $3,500 each were presented to the Braille Institute Orange County Center in Anaheim; El Modena Community Center in Orange; High Hopes Head Injury Rehabilitation Center in Costa Mesa, and the Santa Ana/Tustin Meals on Wheels and South Coast Symphony, both of Santa Ana.

Irvine-based National Education is the world’s largest provider of training to business, industry and governments.

Professional drag racer Tom Mcewen of Fountain Valley, who lost a son to leukemia in 1973 and since has been actively involved in the Leukemia Society of America, was honored by the group at its annual awards banquet in New Orleans.

The society said Mcewen’s public appearances and personal visits to leukemia patients and their families across the nation have substantially increased public awareness of leukemia and related diseases, and helped raise funds.

“This is exciting. I’ve never really won anything before,” Laguna Hills Leisure World resident Lois Soule Cline said after she took first place in the Saddleback Valley Senior Photo Contest.

Cline won $100 and dinner for eight in the Palm Terrace dining room for her photograph entitled “Senior Artist at Work.” The contest, sponsored by Palm Terrace, a second-phase retirement community in Laguna Beach, is open to those 65 and older.

Mike Haskell, 14, a freshman at La Serna High School in Whittier, was named La Habra Boys Club 1988 Boy of the Year. Dick Guthrie, executive director of the club, said the award is usually given to a high school junior or senior. The last time a freshman was selected was in the early 1970s.

Dr. Edward Kaufman, a UC Irvine professor of psychiatry who is considered a leading authority on alcohol and drug abuse, has been named chief of the UC Irvine chemical dependency service.

Kaufman’s role will involve educating medical professionals in the latest research, diagnosis and treatment methods of chemical dependency. He will do it in his service training role at Capistrano by the Sea Hospital in Dana Point.

Kaufman has been at UC Irvine since 1977 and is currently president-elect of the American Academy of Psychiatry in Alcoholism and Addiction. He also is chairman of the American Psychiatric Assn.’s committee on drug abuse.

Kaufman is also an author and co-author of numerous books, journal articles and presentations on chemical dependency.

Newport Beach resident Greg Barton, a gold medalist in kayaking at the Olympic Games, has been named honorary chairman of the Nov. 4 Reach Out awards program of the Newport-Costa Mesa YMCA.

The award recipients are Theodore (Bob) Robins, Kenneth Fowler and Ann Lewis. All are residents of Costa Mesa and have devoted much of their time and effort to community work. The awards are presented annually to people recognized as positive role models in Orange County.

Judge B. Tam Nomoto of the Central Orange County Municipal Court will be honored Saturday by the Organization of Chinese American Women (OCAW) for her accomplishments and as a role model.

Nomoto was appointed a judge at age 28,

only 5 years after receiving her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She regularly holds mock trials in her courtroom for elementary school students who take on the role of prosecutor and defense attorney.

OCAW spokeswoman Lori Baker Schena said the organization was created in 1977 to help Chinese American women to grow professionally and personally and to integrate into American society. The group has 3,000 members nationwide.

Fountain Valley resident Shirley M. Stoabs, a counselor at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana, was honored by the California Articulation Number Systems, a collaborative effort that facilitates student transfer among the state’s colleges and universities. Stoabs was given a certificate for her “significant contributions in establishing and implementing this unique and effective . . . project.”