Eleven make their bows to society
For nearly 60 years, The La Cañada Thursday Club has sponsored young women from our community in the “Bal Blanc de Noel” presentation of Les Fleurettes debutantes.
This year, the Thursday Club will present 11 young women to society at a black-tie gala to be held Thursday night at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The Bal Blanc de Noel is the culminating event which celebrates their completion of a 16-month program of social and community service, as well as cultural education, personal development training and etiquette instruction.
The presenter for the evening will be La Cañada Flintridge Mayor Donald Voss. During the ceremony, the Thursday Club will present the traditional camellia charm to each debutante as a gift from the club. Following the presentation, the debutantes will dance the traditional first waltz with their fathers.
Denise Greenawalt is chair of the debutante program and the Bal Blanc de Noel. Lorie Mackenzie is the Thursday Club’s board of directors liaison for the debutante class. Jeanie Kay is the group’s provisional chair.
Les Fleurettes provisionals who will be presented as debutantes are: Celine Marie Aenlle-Rocha, Kristin Ellen Brisbois, Katharine Grace Cooper, Haley Corina-Camille Herkert, Mackenzie Suzanne Hobby, Charlotte Susan Kay, Elizabeth Duey Malchione, Therese Jeannine McGuigan, Elizabeth Leslie Miller, Lauren Elizabeth O’Leary and Alexandra Hanson Preiss.
Celine Aenlle-Rocha
Celine Marie Aenlle-Rocha is the daughter of Fernando and Valerie Aenlle-Rocha and the granddaughter of Anthony and Cornella Green of Ontario, Calif., and Fernando and Ada Aenlle-Rocha of Miami, Fla. She is a senior at La Cañada High School.
Celine is a member of the National Society of High School Scholars and is an advanced-placement scholar. She was a finalist in the National Merit Hispanic Recognition Program, and is a Commended National Merit Scholar.
Celine’s love of music began in elementary school when she learned to play the flute. She remained involved in band throughout middle and high school and is a four-year member of the LCHS marching band. Celine has a leadership role on the student band council and has traveled with the band to perform in Spain and New Orleans.
Celine has studied flute and music theory at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles and was a member of the 2008-2009 Colburn Youth Ensemble. She participated in the Idyllwild summer music program and was a member of the Symphonic Band.
Celine has studied piano for two years and recently played keyboard in her school production of “Les Miserables.” Celine is also a member of TACH, a group that supports and raises funds for Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, and the Spanish Club.
Celine began writing short stories at age 8. She has written two novels and is currently working on her third. A Girl Scout since kindergarten, Celine earned the Gold Award last spring for presenting a series of creative writing workshops for children at the La Cañada Public Library and at Andrew Jackson Elementary School in Altadena, where she also taught fifth graders to read music and play piano.
Celine plans to attend a four-year university with a major in English and creative writing. She plans to become a writer.
Miss Celine Marie Aenlle-Rocha is being presented by her father, Mr. Fernando Lazaro Aenlle-Rocha. Her escort is Andrew John Nelson and her presentation song is “The Way You Look Tonight.”
Kristin Brisbois
Kristin Ellen Brisbois is the daughter of Roy and Brenda Brisbois and the granddaughter of Clarence and Mary Ellen Conzelman and Roy and Helen Brisbois. She is a senior at Flintridge Preparatory School.
Kristin has been recognized by the California Scholarship Federation for her academic achievement.
Kristin is very active in the Flintridge Prep community. She currently serves as a peer counselor responsible for mentoring a group of 7th graders. She is a past president of Prep’s French Honor Society and was recently awarded the school’s Community Service Award. As part of Prep’s varsity girls swimming squad, she received the team’s Most Valuable Player Award. She was selected to be a founding member of the Pasadena Independent School Foundation and continues to serve in that organization responsible for investigating and approving grants to local charities.
Kristin loves to travel and has visited nearly 30 countries. She studied in Segovia, Spain last summer as part of a Brown University program. Her travels led to an interest in studying and protecting natural resources. She is a member of the L.A. Zoo Eco Program, teaching and leading student groups. She is active in the Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots Program, which is dedicated to protecting the habitat of lowland gorillas. Kristin is also active in community service and has received numerous awards for her efforts.
She earned her Girl Scout Gold Award for leading a project that taught senior citizens how to prepare for an emergency. Kristin also provided the seniors with disaster preparedness kits.
Kristin plans to attend a four-year university to study art history. She looks forward to having the opportunity to study abroad.
Miss Kristin Ellen Brisbois is being presented by her father, Mr. Roy Morse Brisbois.
Her escort is Jason Granger Bunn and her presentation song is “Beauty and the Beast.”
Katharine Cooper
Katharine Grace Cooper is the daughter of Dr. Peter and Judith Cooper. Her mother, Judith Cooper, is the current president of the La Cañada Thursday Club. Katharine is the granddaughter of Mrs. Shirley Cooper and Mrs. Lois Rizkowsky. She is a senior at Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena.
Katharine is a member of the National Society of High School Scholars, the Quill & Scroll International Honor Society and the Tri-M Music Honor Society.
She loves to write and has been on the staff of her school newspaper, Spyglass, for the past four years. Last summer, she attended a college-level journalism course at the University of Southern California and was one of two students to be published in Neon Tommy, USC’s electronic news journal.
Katharine is ASB Community Service co-chair at Westridge. She has played on Westridge’s varsity tennis team for the past four years, was selected for the Prep League’s Second Team-Doubles Tennis last year, and currently serves as co-captain of her school team.
Katharine has a life-long passion for singing. She is president of the Westridge Glee Club and will travel with the group next spring to perform in Japan. For the past six years, she has been singing with the renowned Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and is currently a member of its Concert Choir. She has appeared in LA Opera’s “Hansel & Gretel,” performed at the Hollywood Bowl with Maestro Esa Pekka Salonen and toured extensively, both nationally and internationally, with her choirs.
Katharine likes to bake, listen to music and watch reality television. She enjoys traveling with family and friends.
Katharine plans to attend a four-year university to study journalism and communications. She hopes to have a career as a documentary filmmaker or investigative journalist.
Miss Katharine Grace Cooper is being presented by her father, Dr. Peter Gates Cooper. Her escort is Jarryd Myron Tarkanian Cooper and her presentation song is “My Cherie Amour.”
Haley Herkert
Haley Corina-Camille Herkert is the daughter of John and Miriam Herkert and the granddaughter of Dr. Juan Carretero. She is a senior at La Cañada High School.
Haley is treasurer of La Cañada High School’s UNICEF club, secretary of the Cultural Awareness club and historian for the current events club. She is the back-page editor for the school’s newspaper and is a member of the yearbook staff. In her junior year, Haley participated in La Cañada High’s Business Institute, where her final project on brand extensions earned Haley first place.
Haley’s interest in politics led her to the Crescenta Cañada YMCA’s Youth and Government program. During the past three years, she has been appointed to several committee chair positions and this year she was nominated for the statewide position of president pro-tempore. Haley has also been a member of her high school’s mock trial team for the past two years.
Haley is a regular volunteer at the Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge and is treasurer of the center’s student-run Youth Outreach & Events Committee. She also been a ball coach at the center for two years.
Haley has been a Girl Scout for 13 years. She earned her Gold Award in her junior year. Her project involved raising money to purchase backpacks and school supplies for orphans in Bolivia. She also traveled to Bolivia to deliver the backpacks and school supplies to 105 children in a Bolivian orphanage. She has been a day-camp counselor and was selected to be a banner carrier in this year’s Rose Parade as a member of the Tournament of Roses troop. Haley also taught cultural awareness badges to several local Brownie troops and has helped other troops plan their Silver- and Gold-award projects.
Haley plans to attend a four-year university to pursue a degree in political science. She hopes to have a career in politics or in education as a teacher.
Miss Haley Corina-Camille Herkert is being presented by her father, Mr. John Herman Herkert. Her escort is Patrick Fenton Moore and her presentation song is “Here Comes The Sun.”
Mackenzie Hobby
Mackenzie Suzanne Hobby is the daughter of Kevin and Connie Hobby. She is a senior at Crescenta Valley High School.
Mackenzie enjoys sports, especially swimming and surfing. She is on the Rose Bowl swim team and has been on the competitive team for the past nine years. She is also on her high school’s varsity swim team, is a team leader and has been honored with the team’s MVP award. She has been the boys’ water polo manager, assisting coaches with schedules and keeping the state of the players. She enjoys working with children and has been a swim instructor at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center.
Mackenzie is an active member of’ La Crescenta Presbyterian Church. She taught Vacation Bible School during the summer of her freshman and sophomore years. She was a leader on her church youth group’s mission trips to Arizona, where the group worked with a church on an Indian reservation. She is also a member of the Falcon Christian Athletic Club at her high school.
Mackenzie has been a Girl Scout for 11 years. She has earned her Silver and Gold awards. Her Gold project involved working with deacons at three Presbyterian churches to set up an audio/visual library that contained CDs and DVDs of community events that could be shared with the homebound.
Mackenzie plans to attend a four-year university to pursue a degree in psychology. After graduation, she hopes to become a family counselor.
Mackenzie Suzanne Hobby is being presented by her father, Mr. Kevin Randall Hobby. Her escort is Christopher Steven Gorvetzian. Her presentation song is “Save The Last Dance For Me.”
Charlotte Kay
Charlotte Susan Kay is the daughter of Terry and Jeanie Kay, and the granddaughter of William and Mary Steinmetz of Palos Verdes. She is a senior at Flintridge Preparatory School.
Charlotte is a member of the California Scholarship Federation. She is an honor student at Flintridge Prep and especially enjoys her advanced-placement government class and studying international relations. She served on the Prom Committee during her junior year. This year, Charlotte was selected to run Prep’s 8th Grade Buddy Program, which pairs up seniors to mentor younger students.
Charlotte’s main passion has always been volleyball. She played four years of competitive club volleyball and has been on the varsity volleyball team at Flintridge Prep for the past three years, currently serving as starting outside hitter. This fall, she received Prep’s co-MVP award for volleyball. Last year, Charlotte joined the Prep softball team and started as the catcher. Last summer, she worked at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center teaching small children to swim.
Charlotte enjoys doing community service, especially with her friends, and has been part of Flintridge Prep’s Leo Club for six years, this year serving on its executive committee. She has also volunteered at the Pasadena Children’s Development Association.
Charlotte plans to go to a four-year university outside of California to study International Business. She hopes to one day work in the fashion or cosmetic industry.
Miss Charlotte Susan Kay is being presented by her father, Mr. Terry Richard Kay.
Her escort is William Allen Guthrie and her presentation song is “Uptown Girl.”
Elizabeth Malchione
Elizabeth Duey Malchione is the daughter of Robert Malchione and Kathleen Duey Malchione and is the granddaughter of George and Helen Duey of Spokane, Wash., and Mario and Thelma Malchione of Avondale, Pa. She is a senior at Polytechnic School.
Elizabeth is an advanced placement scholar with distinction. She won Polytechnic’s Freshman English Award, a Gold Medal in the 2009 National Spanish Examination and the Brown University Book Prize in 2010. She was inducted into the Polytechnic Chapter of the Cum Laude Society in her junior year.
Elizabeth has been very involved on her school newspaper, “The Paw Print,” for the past three years. She is the paper’s co-editor-in-chief. She organizes Polytechnic’s monthly service dinners at Pasadena’s Union Station shelter and is a student ambassador for the Poly admissions office.
Elizabeth has a keen interest in pursuing new languages. She studied Mandarin at Middlebury College’s 2008 summer program and Spanish through Edu-Culture’s 2009 summer program in Salamanca, Spain. This year, Elizabeth has an independent study of Italian with a teacher at Polytechnic.
The Polytechnic faculty selected Elizabeth to prepare students taking the advanced-placement European history exam and also freshmen and sophomores for mid-term and final exams. Last year she met weekly with a 7th grade girl at Hillsides Home for Children.
Elizabeth played two-meter defense on Polytechnic’s junior varsity water polo team for three years. This year she is playing for the varsity squad. She worked as a swim teacher at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in the summer of 2010.
Elizabeth plans to attend a four-year university on the East Coast where she will study history or economics.
Miss Elizabeth Duey Malchione is being presented by her father, Mr. Robert Mario Malchione, and her escort is Robert Shotwell Osen. Her presentation song is “Claire de Lune.”
Therese McGuigan
Therese Jeannine McGuigan is the daughter of Dr. Gary and Jeannine McGuigan and the granddaughter of Dr. Donald McGuigan and Jeane and Charles Nutt. She is a senior at Mayfield Senior High School.
Therese has spent much of her extra-curricular time dedicated to water sports. She has been on the Mayfield varsity swim team for all four years of high school. Last year, her school team placed first at the Prep League Finals. She has also been club swimming on the Rose Bowl Aquatic center team for the past eight years.
Therese is involved in Mayfield’s Multicultural Committee and has helped to arrange diverse speakers and programs to visit the campus. As a retreat leader, she has organized spiritual-guidance activities and team-building exercises with her classmates.
She was inspired to study engineering after participating in a grant program at school that researched solar photovoltaic energy. Therese and a group of Mayfield students recently competed in a JPL invention challenge.
Therese received the Girl Scout bronze and silver awards for her work with a local church’s student activities program. She tutors special-needs students weekly at Hillsides Children’s Learning Center in Pasadena. In her spare time, Therese enjoys reading, baking and watching movies.
Therese plans to attend a four-year university to pursue a degree in engineering or a related science.
Miss Therese Jeannine McGuigan is being presented by her father, Dr. Gary Donald McGuigan. Her escort is Luke Nathaniel Perez and her presentation song is “The Girl From Ipanema.”
Elizabeth Miller
Elizabeth Leslie Miller is the daughter of Craig and Rita Miller and the granddaughter of Thomas P. Mongoven III and Rita Rae Mongoven, and Dr. Edward I. and Leslea Wenk Miller. She is a senior at La Cañada High School.
Elizabeth is a College Board advanced placement scholar and a winner of the Red Ribbon Week essay contest. She is president of the 2010 Class of Les Fleurettes Debutantes.
Elizabeth is a leader in La Cañada High’s associated student body. She was elected vice president of her sophomore class and activities commissioner of her junior class. She was also selected to participate in the “15 Minute Drill,” which educates students about the dangers of drunk driving.
In her junior year, she was elected to represent her school as a homecoming princess. Elizabeth was on the varsity softball team for three years.
She founded the creative-writing club at La Cañada High and is a past vice president of the Korean Culture Awareness Club.
Elizabeth is a leader in the YMCA’s Youth and Government program. In her sophomore year, she was a committee chair and led a group of 20 students. As a junior, she was elected treasurer and supervised the finances of a group of more than 100 delegates. In her senior year, Elizabeth was elected to serve as chaplain and provided weekly invocations and benedictions and lead the program in team-building activities.
Elizabeth volunteers at St. Bede Church as a teen lead for the confirmation program.
She has been a counselor for the La Cañada Girls Softball Camp and tutored elementary-school children throughout her freshman year. She currently works at a local yogurt shop.
Elizabeth plans to attend a four-year university with a major in philosophy and film studies. She hopes to continue to pursue a graduate degree.
Miss Elizabeth Leslie Miller is being presented by her father, Mr. Craig Jordan Miller. Her escort is Jay Beles Kolina and her presentation song is “Danke Schoen.”
Lauren O’Leary
Lauren Elizabeth O’Leary is the daughter of Daniel O’Leary, Jr. and Lynn O’Leary and is the granddaughter of Eva Combs. She is a senior at La Cañada High School.
Lauren is a member of the California Scholarship Federation. She has been a pitcher for her school’s varsity softball team since her freshman year. She served as captain of the team in both her junior and senior years. Lauren has twice been named the Rio Hondo League most valuable pitcher. Lauren plays travel softball with the Team Smith softball organization.
Lauren is an active participant in the La Cañada Presbyterian Church youth group, where she has served as a small-group leader and member of the leadership team.
Lauren has signed a national letter of intent to play softball at Georgetown University in the Big East Conference. While at Georgetown, she plans to study business administration. Lauren also intends to participate in the Georgetown Study Abroad program and to spend a summer studying in a Spanish-speaking country so she can hone her Spanish-language skills.
Miss Lauren Elizabeth O’Leary is being presented by her father, Mr. Daniel Edmund O’Leary, Jr. Her escort is Woody Alden Buck and her presentation song is “A Whole New World.”
Alexandra Preiss
Alexandra Hanson Preiss is the daughter of Steven and Shari Preiss and the granddaughter of Vivian Berndorf. She is a senior at Flintridge Preparatory High School.
Alexandra has been on the honor roll each year at Prep and has been recognized by the California Scholarship Federation.
She has been part of Flintridge Prep’s student government for the past six years. Last year she was 11th-grade president and this year she serves as student-body treasurer. Alexandra is also an avid member of the Young Republican’s Club and is on the executive committee as treasurer. Alexandra is an 8th-grade buddy, helping to mentor younger students.
Alexandra has played on Flintridge Prep’s Varsity Tennis Team since her freshman year and was co-captain of the team this year. She also plays tennis for the United States Tennis Association and is ranked number 135 in Southern California girls singles.
She has been playing piano for more than 10 years and has studied music theory. Alexandra is involved in the Pasadena Independent School Foundation, a philanthropy program that teaches students how grants are evaluated and applied to local charities. She also volunteers at the Humane Society, where she socializes animals to get them ready for adoption.
Alexandra plans to attend a four-year university where she will work toward a degree in international relations. She plans to pursue a career in the military or in an intelligence organization.
Miss Alexandra Hanson Preiss is being presented by her father, Mr. Steven David Preiss. Her escort is Nicholas Roarke Scherma and her presentation song is “You’re My Best Friend.”