Jane Au of Rancho Palos Verdes and...

Jane Au of Rancho Palos Verdes and Gerry Rische of Torrance have received Women of Achievement awards in recognition of their volunteer contributions to the Torrance YWCA.

Au has held a variety of YWCA offices and was previously awarded the YWCA’s President’s Award. She has been president of the South Coast Botanic Garden Board and is on the boards of the League of Women Voters and the Southern California Regional Occupational Center Foundation Advisory Board. In 1991, she was selected as Volunteer of the Year by the County Department of Aboreta and Gardens.

Rische has been a member of the Torrance YWCA board of directors for 15 years. She has just completed her fourth term as YWCA president and has chaired numerous Y committees. She was recipient of the YWCA President’s Award and the National YWCA Award for Women in Public Service. A teacher at North High School for 36 years, she was chairwoman of the Torrance Civil Service Commission.

Grace LaPoint of Rolling Hills Estates has been appointed director of volunteer services at South Bay Hospital in Redondo Beach. She has been a member of the auxiliary since 1981 and has served as auxiliary president and on the auxiliary board. She has held offices with the Los Angeles West Area Council of Hospital Volunteers and the California Assn. of Hospital and Health Systems Volunteer Committee. She is a past Torrance YWCA Woman of the Year.

A painting by Manhattan Beach artist Nixon Galloway has been accepted for a juried exhibition at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, Va. Galloway’s painting, “Midway the Beginning,” is part of an art show commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Midway and the United States’ involvement in the Pacific during World War II. The show consists of 37 works by members of the American Society of Aviation Artists and runs through July 13. The Aviation Art Forum ’92 will be in San Diego Oct. 18-24.

Wayne Shimohara is the new president of the Gardena Valley Chamber of Commerce. Shimohara is vice president and branch manager of the Bank of California, Gardena. Joe Shitara, owner of Compu-Banner in Gardena, is president-elect. Vice presidents are Georth Rooth, Memorial Hospital; Frank Onderka, NFK Realty; Jerry Davis, Southern California Gas Co.; Mel Hostetler, Bonded Process Service, and Randy Doerschel, Gardena Insurance.

Linda Elliott of Redondo Beach is recipient of the Status of Women Award, presented by the American Assn. of University Women, Palos Verdes Peninsula. Elliott is director of Palos Verdes Library District. The award honors her outstanding contributions and leadership in her profession, in volunteer activities and in the community, and for her sensitivity to women’s issues and her position as a role model for other women.

Dancer Bobby Burgess has been named Cotillion Master for the forthcoming season of the Palos Verdes Intermediate Cotillion and the Palos Verdes Assembly. The Palos Verdes Intermediate and Miraleste Intermediate Cotillions are sponsored by the PTA and are open to all Palos Verdes Unified School District students in the sixth to eighth grades. The Palos Verdes Assembly is a nonprofit organization that gives young adults experience in social graces and cotillion dance.

Burgess was the featured dancer for more than 21 seasons on “The Lawrence Welk Show” and appears regularly in top theater-in-the-round venues, at state and county fairs, dance conventions and club dates. He began his dancing career at age 4 and by 13 was a member of Walt Disney’s original troupe of Mouseketeers. He is cotillion master for the Beverly Hills Cotillion and the Burgess Cotillion in Long Beach. An accredited teacher of dance, he has conducted classes in dance theory at USC. He is married to Kristie Floren, a graduate of Rolling Hills High School and daughter of Welk’s accordionist, Myron Floren. They have four children.

Torrance resident Bill Applegate has been inducted into the Golden Book of Distinguished Service by the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Applegate has been a YMCA volunteer since 1979. He guided a capital campaign that raised $4.2 million to help fund construction of a Family Health and Physical Education Center in Torrance. In 1985, he became the first recipient of the Waller Taylor II Exceptional Service Award. He is a four-term member of the Torrance City Council and served on several city commissions before his election. He and his wife, Linda, have two grown sons.

Dr. Janet Switzer has received the 1992 Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award from Soroptimist International Del Amo/Torrance. She is the founder of the Switzer Center, a nonprofit day school for educational therapy with facilities in downtown Torrance and South Torrance. Educational therapy employs a combination of techniques that involve physiological and emotional treatment. It is one of the most accepted approaches to helping children who appear normal but who suffer disabilities that keep them from achieving full competency.