Wilmington Society Keeps Youth Calendar Promise

From first-grader Paul Bojorquez’s flat-toned watercolor of a ship passing through Angels Gate to sixth-grader Norma Viveros’ surrealistic depiction of a pleasure boat at sea, the Wilmington Historical Society’s second annual Youth Art Calendar is full of artistic surprises.

But it almost wasn’t published.

The historical society’s members hosted an art competition in October; 400 schoolchildren from throughout the harbor area entered. Thirteen winners were selected and, as the society had done the year before, it promised the youngsters their work would be printed in a calendar.

There were just two little glitches: no money and no experience.

“We told the children that the calendar would be produced (but) we had no money,” said Gertrude Schwab, one of three members of the society’s cultural and arts committee. “We were panic-stricken. We didn’t know anything about producing a calendar.”

According to Schwab, the 1989 calendars were produced by a consultant and financed by grant money from the Port of Los Angeles. But the consultant was unavailable to work on the 1990 project, and the grant money had already been spent on a community Christmas parade.

So Schwab and her committee raised the $6,300 printing cost by soliciting donations from area businesses, borrowing $2,400 from the society, which had raised the money at a charity function, and kicking in a few hundred dollars of their own.

One committee member, Joyce Ulstrup, said she spent “a few sleepless nights” charting the weeks and months on her home computer.

To the committee’s relief, the calendars were released last week--albeit four weeks into the new year. They are now on sale for $2.50 apiece, 2 cents less than the printing cost. They are available at the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, the San Pedro Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, and through Schwab. The project leader said she hopes that, added to the business donations, the sales will cover the cost of the loan from the society and leave a little seed money for next year.

Although Schwab said she at times had doubts, Ulstrup said she always knew the project would come to fruition: “I think that when you promise something to children you must produce. That was the guiding force.”

As was the case last year, this year’s calendar focuses on children’s interpretations of the Port of Los Angeles.

“It’s just truly a delight,” said painter Ruth Eyrich of Lakewood, who judged the art competition, “because it is so totally uninhibited, and it’s all their own off-the-wall interpretations. The quality of it is youthful exuberance.”