La Cañada History: Students helped eliminate polio with fundraiser dance

Ten Years Ago

The Community Scholarship Foundation of La Cañada Flintridge announced plans for its upcoming luncheon and auction event. The 2004 fundraiser, themed “A Classical Affair,” was to feature Jorge Mester, then music director of the Pasadena Symphony, and actor John de Lancie as guest speakers.

Twenty Years Ago

The night after the Northridge earthquake struck, causing massive damage and displacing people from their homes, the Kiwanis Club of La Cañada cooked up hamburgers and hot dogs for about 250 people who had sought refuge at the Glendale National Guard Armory and another 250 who were being sheltered at Wilson Junior High School, also in Glendale. The local Kiwanians hauled their grill to the parking lot at the Armory, where they set up a base of operations. Members drove some of the food prepared there to the junior high site for distribution.

Thirty Years Ago

Two suspects, who were described by witnesses as being in their 20s, took $3,000 in an armed robbery of Georgee’s Pizza on a Tuesday in late January 1984. Investigators reported that one of the suspects held a carbine-type rifle while forcing a restaurant employee to open the safe.

Forty Years Ago

Mark Anthony, who had just retired as superintendent of Descanso Gardens, was honored in January 1974 for his many years of service at an invitational reception held in the gardens’ Hospitality House. Anthony had arrived at Descanso in August 1955 as an assistant superintendent and had moved up to the top post six years later.

Fifty Years Ago

After several years of trying to establish a United Methodist Church in La Cañada, it was announced in early 1964 that one would be built on Berkshire Place near La Cañada High School. The way was cleared when use of the 3.5-acre site, which had previously been considered for development of townhomes, was approved for the church’s use by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission.

Sixty Years Ago

The La Cañada Youth House (today the Community Center) was the site of a dance for local ninth- and 10th-graders, an event organized to raise money for the March of Dimes, which at that time had as its focus collecting donations to help eliminate polio. To generate funds at the dance, girls baked cookies and were helped in their efforts by Col. Hobart Avery, who gave them lemons to make lemonade and by the local Shopping Bag grocery store, which donated soda water. By the end of the evening, $60 had been raised for the cause.

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