Placentia Man’s Photo Wins a Place of Honor

The award-winning picture taken by Placentia amateur photographer Dick Krueger has become part of a permanent display at Eastman Kodak’s Journey Into Imagination Pavilion at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.

The picture, titled “Flying Cowboy,” won $200 for Krueger, an insurance sales manager, and was taken at a rodeo in 1988 at the Orange County Fairgrounds. It was chosen from about 500,000 entries.

Krueger, 56, attends Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa and often works as a photographer for the college newspaper.

Mary Katherine Parks, 37, a Huntington Beach single mother of three, was awarded $3,000 for academic excellence in a Kaiser Permanente nursing scholarship program.

The Golden West College nursing student, who is expected to graduate in December and work as an emergency-room or intensive-care nurse, began to pursue a nursing career two years ago after the death of her husband.

“I decided on a career in nursing,” she said. “I had to ask myself, ‘What is my family going to do?’ and I knew it would need a good income.”

Her children are ages 5, 7 and 9.

Greg Scaffidi of Placentia was awarded third place in the Arthritis Foundation’s national photo contest. His photographs, like others in the contest, depict people in various activities, settings and situations conveying messages of hope for those with arthritis. They are on display at the Little Shop of Posters in Fullerton.

Four Orange County men who led police to a accused purse snatcher hiding under a car in a Costa Mesa parking lot were declared Outstanding Citizens by the Newport Beach Villa Nova Restaurant and presented with commemorative plaques and complimentary dinners.

Alan Cirson, Richard Collins, Mark Vanous and Richard Henson combined to chase the suspect by car and on foot.

Danny Herrera, a Golden West College cosmetology student competing against 45 other contestants, won first place and $300 in the recent Men’s Hair Cutting and Styling Competition at the Long Beach Convention Center.

“In the middle of the cut, I realized that most of the other contestants were styling (hair) the same way as me,” said the Huntington Beach resident, who changed the style midway through the event. “Obviously, it paid off.”

Golden West student Don Anderson of Yorba Linda won fourth place and $25.

A photo portrait of Jewell Plummer Cobb, the soon-to-retire president of Cal State Fullerton, has become part of the National Research Council’s collection in its headquarters building in Washington.

The council selects outstanding people who have become leaders in the fields of science, engineering and medicine.

An innovative program that provided free picture books for newborn infants at a local hospital earned Clinton Elementary School in Garden Grove a “Celebrate Literacy” award from the International and Orange County Reading associations.

The school’s “Born to Read” program consisted of a school paper drive and book sale to raise $150 to purchase storybooks for each infant born at Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center during Children’s Book Week last year.

The project was intended to emphasize reading throughout a person’s life.

Placentia resident Larry D. Banares, culinary arts instructor at Orange Coast College and executive chef at the Hotel Queen Mary and Port Properties in Long Beach, was named Orange County’s Chef of the Year.

A former culinary arts student at the college and a former chef at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, Banares, 31, oversees 12 restaurants and three bakeries, supervising a staff of 124.

He is a member of the World Assn. of Cooks’ Societies and is vice president of the Orange Empire Chefs’ Assn.

Anaheim Park Ranger Eric Johnson won the city’s third $500 graffiti award following the arrest and conviction of a suspect who was spray-painting at Brookhurst Park.

Johnson asked for the suspect’s driver’s license after noticing that the man placed a spray can in his jacket. He then called police, as making arrests is not part of a ranger’s duty.

Besides receiving three years’ probation, the suspect paid a $300 fine and $435 in restitution fees.

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