Around Town: Chamber to present Business & Leadership Awards at Thursday luncheon

The Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce will present its annual Business & Leadership Awards at a luncheon from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at SeaCliff Country Club, 6501 Palm Ave.

The event will honor 11 individuals and businesses for their leadership, business practices and/or volunteerism.

To register or for more information, visit www.hbchamber.com or contact Phoenix Freeman at pfreeman@hbcoc.com or (714) 500-6108.

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Surf icons will share stories at H.B. event Thursday night

Two legends of surfing will share tales from five decades of surf culture on Thursday night at the Huntington Beach Art Center.

Robert August, a surfer and board shaper known as a star of the iconic 1966 surfing movie “The Endless Summer,” and Jericho Poppler, the 1970 women’s U.S. surfing champion and a pioneer of women’s professional surfing, will speak after four local storytellers who are competing in an event called “Huntington Beach Searches for Greatest Storyteller.”

August and Poppler, both of whom have stars on Huntington Beach’s Surfing Walk of Fame, will speak after intermission. The show will close with a short tale by Bob Slay, winner of this year’s “Long Beach Searches for Greatest Storyteller” competition.

The event is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. at the art center, 538 Main St. Tickets are $6 and are available at the door or online at brownpapertickets.com/event/2405746.

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Eddie Aikau exhibit opening at surf museum

The opening of the surf exhibit “Eddie Goes!” is set for 5 p.m. Thursday at the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach.

The display features artifacts on loan from the family of late big-wave surfer Eddie Aikau.

After the opening, the exhibit will be available Tuesdays through Sundays with a $2 admission price.

The museum is at 411 Olive Ave. For hours and more information, call (714) 960-3483 or visit surfingmuseum.org.

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Fountain Valley tree lighting set for Saturday

Fountain Valley will have a free holiday party with traditional tree lighting from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Fountain Valley Recreation Center and Sports Park, 16400 Brookhurst St.

Visitors can watch the tree being lighted by the mayor along with special guests from the North and South poles, followed by a fireworks show.

The event also will feature live entertainment, crafts and games, and Fountain Valley firefighters will collect new unwrapped toys to donate to the Spark of Love campaign for needy children. Local nonprofit youth organizations will offer food for purchase.

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Toys for Tots to collect donations in Huntington Beach

Residents can donate a new unwrapped toy to the Marines’ Toys for Tots program from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Toys “R” Us at 7212 Edinger Ave. in Huntington Beach.

PODS containers will be onsite for collecting the toys.

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OCTA bus plan to be subject of Huntington Beach meeting

A draft plan by the Orange County Transportation Authority that would reallocate bus service countywide to address changing demand will be the subject of a public meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Huntington Beach Central Library, 7111 Talbert Ave.

If implemented next year, the proposal would shift service from low-performing routes to areas where there is higher demand in an effort to offer more frequent and faster service. The plan is projected to increase OCTA bus ridership by 1.6 million boardings during the next three years.

In addition, plans include development of mobile ticketing and real-time passenger information and possible fare adjustments.

Comments from the Huntington Beach meeting and others will be considered for a final plan to be developed before the OCTA board considers it in February.

Passengers also can take surveys placed on buses or comment online at octa.net.

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Coastline Community College selected as one of best for vets

Coastline Community College has been selected as a 2016 Best for Vets College by Military Times.

More than 600 schools participated in a Military Times survey consisting of more than 120 questions, according to a news release.

The survey assessed student services available and the academic achievements of military and veteran students. Colleges were evaluated by their military culture on campus, student support, special accommodations offered and financial incentives.

Coastline, which has a campus in Fountain Valley, was ranked No. 13 on the list for online and nontraditional schools. For a college to be on the list, more than half its classes must be online only or most students don’t attend classes at a central campus.

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Horsemen Inc. marks 20 years of investigations

Horsemen Inc., a Huntington Beach-based company that investigates insurance fraud, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Horsemen, founded by its president, Patrick Carroll, has an active clientele of more than 260 insurance companies and has conducted more than 50,000 cases in a dozen states, according to a news release. It currently focuses on California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.

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H.B. student on winning Cal Poly tech team

Alexa Coburn, a mechanical engineering major from Huntington Beach, was a member of a Cal Poly Society of Women Engineers team that won three first-place awards at the national society’s conference in October in Nashville, Tenn. The team, including almost 30 Cal Poly students spanning eight engineering disciplines, captured the event’s highest honor and a $5,000 prize for its winning entry in the Team Tech Competition.

“The goal was to design, prototype and test a standardized payload to demonstrate the plug-and-play civilian capability of the Desert Hawk III, an unmanned aerial vehicle made by Lockheed Martin, our industry sponsor,” said Wyatt Ayling, the team’s co-director.

Though the technical requirements were spelled out by the company, the nature of the payload was up to the team to develop.