Around Town: Therapy center seeks donations

Orange County Speech Services, a Huntington Beach-based pediatric therapy center, has launched an online campaign to raise $10,000 for equipment for special-needs children.

The campaign, which began Dec. 31, specifically seeks equipment and supplies for occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy. As of Monday, the center had raised $477 from eight donors.

“We want to offer greater support for the autism community, more social groups for younger children and teens, parental training, seminars and support groups,” center director Elizabeth Nideffer said in a release. “Reaching our goal would be an unbelievable opportunity to maximize our impact on the children and families in our community.”

Those interested in contributing to the campaign may visit gofundme.com/xghxbe4k.

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Wintersburg author to sign book

Mary Adams Urashima, the author of “Historic Wintersburg in Huntington Beach,” will sign her book Jan. 23 at Heritage Hill Historical Park in Lake Forest.

Urashima, a longtime advocate of saving the Japanese-American historic site from demolition, will sign copies from 2 to 4 p.m. at the park at 25151 Serrano Road.

In an interview with the Independent two years ago, Urashima called the Wintersburg property, which once served as a hub for the local Japanese-American farming and religious community, “iconic in American history, Japanese history and civil liberties history.”

Advocates of saving the Wintersburg site, located by the intersection of Warner Avenue and Nichols Lane, won a victory last year when the National Trust for Historic Preservation proclaimed it a “national treasure.”