Celebrating grads and a giving spirit
Have you noticed the reduction in auto traffic in the morning hours? Due, in part, to the end of the school year that included the graduation of several hundred of our local students.
In this week’s Crescenta Valley Sun, we’ve provided a snapshot of the graduates of Crescenta Valley and Clark Magnet high schools and Rosemont Middle School and also offer a listing of promoted sixth-graders from our eight public elementary schools.
Whew! What a job pulling together the lists and looking over the several hundred photos taken by Leonard Coutin, Eric Matejka, Mary O’Keefe and Nicholas Louie. These four really worked overtime (just kidding, bean counters) to get some fantastic shots that you won’t find anywhere else.
As I went through the photos, I couldn’t help but notice the look of hope that most of the high school graduates had on their faces. It was so inspiring to see them, perched on the springboard into adulthood, ready to take on the world.
As the editorial staff looked over the photos, we recalled our own graduations from elementary, middle and high school. I remember each, my sixth, ninth and senior events. Each brings a smile to my face as I recall the dresses I wore, the corsages that my father gave me for my sixth and ninth grade graduations (he died in the summer between my junior and senior years), the restaurants we went to celebrate my special days. I hope that my own children will recall each of their promotions with the same excitement and joy.
Congratulations to the graduating classes and the hardworking teachers, staff and administrators at our local schools who shepherded our kids to these milestones.
Next week we are planning to profile some of the teachers and administrators who are leaving the district, either to go on to other opportunities or who are retiring. So, stay tuned.
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A number of weeks ago, we did an article on a local Girl Scout troop that collected canned products and then donated them to a Glendale foodbank [“Troop makes a ‘sweet’ donation,” May 16).
Troop 716 told of a recent visit to the Glendale Salvation Army and the depleted food bank supplies. The visit spurred them into action and, in typical Girl Scout style, they figured out a way to help.
One of the young ladies, Isabel Martos-Repath, celebrated her 12th birthday by having her guests bring 12 food items each for donation to the Salvation Army. Her friends brought an estimated 162 pounds of product.
This story has been on my mind. I know that many are facing harsh financial times and I don’t see any change on the horizon. I subscribe to the motto that many hands make the burden light and, in keeping in that spirit, I would like to send out an appeal for canned goods. They can either be brought here to the Valley Sun offices and I will periodically drop them off at the Salvation Army, or they can be taken directly to the foodbank.
If everyone purchased one extra product each time they did a grocery shopping, imagine what a powerful impact it would make at the foodbank.
When you go shopping, make a note to buy something extra. You can drop off a single can or wait until you collect a whole box and drop it off here at 1061 Valley Sun Lane in La Cañada. If you frequent Glendale, donations are accepted Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 320 W. Windsor Road.
As Richard White, the Glendale Salvation Army’s director of social services said to me, “The good thing about food is it’s a one-to-one relation. Every can that’s brought in will end up in someone’s cupboard.”