March of Dimes Volunteers Honored at Annual Dinner

The Orange County chapter of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation honored 10 volunteers at its 52nd annual dinner at the Newport Beach Tennis Club.

Costa Mesa resident Wendy Hafer was named Volunteer of the Year.

Others honorees included Ruth Ko, publisher of Orange Coast magazine, who was named Outstanding Fund-Raising Volunteer; Dr. Ralph W. Rucker of Children’s Hospital of Orange County, who was named Outstanding Community Service Volunteer, and Homer Maertz, a Laguna Hills Leisure World resident who was named winner of the Grace O’Brien Memorial Award for outstanding volunteerism.

In addition, longtime March of Dimes volunteer Bill Johnson and former Rams linebacker Carl Ekern were honored for overall volunteer excellence (the award to Ekern was given posthumously); Madeline Biesty, a senior at Irvine High School, won the Outstanding Youth Volunteer Award, and Chuck Winn, who collected $5,900 for last year’s WalkAmerica event, was presented the John Finger Memorial Award.

Newport Beach resident Ercyl Dixon, who contributed 320 hours of volunteer service last year, and Charity Burseth, a third-grader from Huntington Beach, were also honored.

Christine Mar, 17, a senior at University High School in Irvine, has been named a student ambassador to the Soviet Union for this summer. Her selection was announced by Spokane, Wash.-based Initiative for Understanding, a student foreign-exchange program.

She will attend orientation meetings in the spring for her 23-day trip, which will include visits to Moscow, Leningrad and three other cities to share experiences with Russian students.

Mar, 1990 Irvine Young Woman of the Year, served four years in student government and is a member of the Orange County Youth Advisory Council Against Drug Abuse.

Tustin resident William F. Davenport, an engineer, has been elected president of the Municipal Water District of Orange County. A 10-year member, he represents Division 4, which includes Orange, Villa Park and parts of Irvine, El Toro, Lake Forest and Tustin.

Yorba Linda resident Steve Speak has been named vice president of patient care services at the 221-bed Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills.

Anita and John Spinell have been named Citizens of the Year in Los Alamitos; David Shawver received the same honor in Stanton, and Jaunetta Strohmyer was chosen in Cypress.

All will be honored, along with others selected by their communities, on Feb. 23 at Cypress College’s Americana awards dinner. The dinner, to be held at the Disneyland Hotel, will raise funds for needy students at the college.

Tustin Webelos Cub Scout Paul Truzzoline of St. Cecilia Pack 323 was presented his Parvuli Dei religious medal in a ceremony at St. Norbert Catholic Church of Orange. The award is presented to enhance the religious knowledge and spiritual growth of Scouts.

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