Laguna Treasures recognized

OUR LAGUNA

The second annual Laguna Treasures dinner hosted Monday night by

the Laguna Canyon Conservancy was a sell-out.

“We just got to host it because we would have the dinner anyway,”

said conservancy president Carolyn Wood. “The treasures were

nominated by different groups. I think next year we might open the

nominations and make it a really big thing.”

Betty Swenson, Bonnie and Arnold Hano, Ben and Gigi Blount, Jeanne

Bernstein and former mayors Lida Lenney and Phyllis Sweeney were

honored this year for their contributions to Laguna Beach.

“These people called Laguna Treasures sorted through their options

and selected what was best for our town,” said Harry Huggins.

Huggins narrated a slide program highlighting the accomplishments

of the “Treasures,” primarily the preservation of open space.

“Open space is preserved by each new generation,” Huggins said.

“Once it is gone, it is gone for ever.”

If perennial Laguna Greenbelt president Elisabeth Brown is the

mother of all preservationists, Lenney is probably the Godmother. The

former Top of the World Elementary School teacher founded the Laguna

Canyon Conservancy in 1986 and led 7,000 to 10,000 (depending on

who’s counting) protesters on the 1989 Walk that convinced Irvine Co.

owner Donald Bren and county officials that Laguna was serious about

wanting to halt development in Laguna Canyon.

“The walk was an outrageous accomplishment,” Huggins said.

Lenney served as mayor in 1993 and retired from politics at the

end of her term. Her second husband, George Lenney, died in 1995.

She is compiling stories of the walk for a book and is seeking

one-or two-page reminiscences of how people were affected by the

walk, whether or not they participated.

Ben and Gigi Blount met during World War II in Belgium, where she

was born and he served in the military. They were honored as the

Patriots of the Year in the 1998 Patriots Day Parade.

Gigi was in the resistance army in her native land. Ben, who

retired from the military as a full colonel, is an active member of

the Laguna Beach posts of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign

Wars.

Benjamin Franklin Blount III began his career as a preservationist

early. He was only 6 when he and his pals began pulling up stakes and

tearing out grass strips that developers in San Francisco used to

mark the path of a proposed roadway.

“He was an avid Boy Scout when scouting was about conservation,”

Huggins said.

Ben Blount’s Laguna Beach affiliations include the Beautification

Committee, the Laguna Greenbelt Inc. board of directors, Village

Laguna and Laguna North Neighborhood Assn.

He owns four Citroens, which he has restored as a hobby. She still

has the most delightful accent and her name is not pronounced Zhee,

Zhee, as everyone in the audience informed Huggins.

Jeanne Berstein was honored as a spokeswoman for peace,

limitations on nuclear power and weapons and for open space, causes

for which she has sacrificed her body.

In the battle to stop the construction of the toll road she was

arrested for tying herself to machinery. Her body is seen every

Saturday at Main Beach toting signs advocating peace.

“She is most proud of the 11 years of the Laguna Peace Vigil,”

Huggins said.

Berstein became involved in the environmental movement as military

action drew to a close in Vietnam.

Bonnie and Arnold Hano discovered Laguna Beach when it stoutly

reflected the conservative bent of the county, including the Birch

Society.

Arnold Hano protested against proposals to prohibit dogs on the

beach but allow high rises to be built there. He describes himself as

the founding chair of Village Laguna.

The Hanos were at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles when

presidential nominee John F. Kennedy announced a plan for the Peace

Corps. They promised themselves they would join. It took 30 years,

but they finally made it -- and returned to tell the tales.

Arnold Hano is a story-teller by trade, a former freelance

reporter and writer of sports books.

“Laguna Beach would not be the way it is today if Bonnie and

Arnold had not moved here in 1955,” said fellow Treasure Phyllis

Sweeney.

Sweeney came to Laguna in the early 1960s with her husband and

four children. Her public service began with the protest against the

ban on dogs on the beach and continues today. She most recently

facilitated the donation by the Brown Family of land that has been

converted into an oceanfront pocket park.

She was a big supporter of Main Beach Park. She was appointed to

the City Council and served as mayor.

“Phyllis is the one who got me interested in public issues,” Wood

said. “In fact, she appointed to me to the Telecommunications

Committee, in 1976 I think, before the city was completely wired. So

if you don’t like something I do, blame her.”

Swenson was a latecomer to Laguna Beach, She moved here in 1979,

three years after daughter Verna Rollinger was first elected city

clerk.

However, once here, Betty became active in the community. She

served 16 continuous years on the Village Laguna board and 15 years

on the Temple Hills Community Assn. Steering committee. She has been

a member of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy since it was founded -- and

still found time to rescue dogs, including Flash, who moved in with

Rollinger when Swenson moved to a retirement community.

The last slide of the program was a picture of the late Bill

Buckley, who had been nominated this year as a Treasure.

“Bill is no longer with us, but he is still a Laguna Treasure,”

Huggins said.

The 2002 Laguna Treasures were nominated by a committee that

included representatives of various groups: Bette Anderson, Sally

Bellerue, Liz Brown, Ron Chicote, Ann Christoph, Mary Fegraus, Gene

Felder, Jim Hall, Harry Huggins, Councilwoman Toni Iseman, Pam

Quigley, Verna Rollinger, David Rosenman, Pam Strayer, Jinger

Wallace, Carolyn Wood and Wayne Ybarra.

The inaugural Treasures included Charlie Boyd, Pat Sturgis, Tanya

Barton, Joyce Dusenberry, the late Alice Graves, Hortense Miller,

Evelyn Munro, Don Rose, Estelle Warner and Lila Zali.

Gene Felder welcomed guests to the dinner, the first since the

Festival Season hiatus, and introduced previous Treasure honorees;

members of community or cultural organizations, city committees and

boards; city employees; council members and those that want to be.

Among the sell-out crowd: Ellen Harris, Nancy and J.J. Gasparotti,

Bob Borthwick, Marion Jacobs, architect James Willis, Mary and Herb

Rabe, council candidate Melissa O’Neal, Jean Raun of the League of

Women Voters, Faye and Mayor Wayne Baglin and Mrs. James Dilley.

Also: Jeannette and Ed Merrilees, former Mayor Charlie Boyd, Harry

Lawrence, Ed and Kit Drollinger, Doug Reilly, Helen Krugman, Dr. Gary

and Board of Education candidate Betsy Jenkins, Bob Olson, Patricia

Turnier and Kenny Anderson.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call 494-4321 or fax 494-8979.