LA PALMA : Council Will Honor Family of the Year

The City Council tonight will proclaim 19-year residents Kathy and Roger Grover and their four children the city’s Family of the Year.

The Cultural and Beautification Committee began the competition this year to reward a family whose members contribute to the community.

Judges found the Grovers to be “a very nice family with very clear, solid goals and a real good way of communicating with each other,” said Charlene Hatakeyama, chairwoman of the selection subcommittee. “That came across in the interview. There is open communication with all family members.”

The family members are all active in their church and the three sons have been Boy Scouts. Two of them--Jeff, 23, and Paul, 21--earned Eagle Scout badges, the Scouts’ highest honor.

Roger Grover owns a 7-Eleven market on Pacific Coast Highway in Seal Beach. He serves as counselor to the bishop of Cypress, 2nd Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kathy Grover, who works part time at a local travel agency, is the Young Women’s president of the church’s Cypress stake and works in the choral booster club at Kennedy High School.

Their daughter, Cerrie, 16, is a student at Kennedy High School. Their youngest son, Ryan, 13, attends Walker Junior High.

The family will receive a plaque with the city seal and a proclamation from the City Council at tonight’s meeting.

Families awarded honorable mentions were: Chris and Randy Barnes and their children, Greg and Jennifer; Becky and Clifford Ishii and their daughter, Kami; Joan and Richard Lutz and their daughters, Amy and Elizabeth, and Ken and Pam Tipton and their daughters, Dani, Niki and Rici.