Fiesta to help fund center’s renovations

Piñata races, bingo, catered Mexican fare and a live auction are some highlights of the 2007 Fall Fiesta at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 12 at the Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge.

The event costs $100 per ticket, which is about $20 more than in previous years; however, a ticket provides dinner and free drinks — catered by Los Gringos Locos — and one bingo card. Additional bingo cards can be purchased for $20 each.

This is the seventh year the event has offered community members a chance to help support the center and finance a specific necessary project there. A past year’s event helped fund new appliances and remodeling of the center’s kitchen.

“Some great cooking classes have been added in that kitchen,” said Megan Nordvedt, the center’s executive director.

“We try to highlight a certain feature that needs attention, and the community sees what they can do to help,” Nordvedt added.

This year, the Fall Fiesta will help finance a resurfacing project at the center’s sports area, as well as add an awning to the patio area outside the center’s ceramics studio.

A new basketball court area is expected to make the sports area safer for children, as well as offer more opportunities for fun activities there, Nordvedt said.

Penny Ledbetter, president of the board of directors for the Community Center, said she is expecting great things from this year’s fund-raiser.

“In the past, we’ve raised $12,000 to $15,000. But, we’re really ambitious this year and we’re pushing for more because those two patio areas are really in poor shape,” Ledbetter said. “Above and beyond those numbers is where our mission lies.”

The needs selected for this year’s projects are necessary in part because of the large number of people who sign up for classes at the center, Ledbetter said.

“We’re totally full in our classes and the only way we can add more classes is with the patio areas,” she said, adding that staff hopes to add watercolor and drawing classes, as well as a “Mommy and Me” ceramics class, as soon as the ceramics area patio can accommodate the additional students.

The Fall Fiesta’s piñata race — similar to a horse race only with bets placed on giant Mexican party props paraded around the room by selected individuals — as well as a live auction, will also help generate some of the necessary funds, Ledbetter said.

Several items up for bid at the auction will include a Tiger Woods autographed “Tiger Jam Magazine,” and a dinner for 20 hosted at the home of La Cañada resident Mary Pinola. The up-for-auction dinner will include entertainment by guitarist Tom Meredith, wine from Ledbetter and a meal prepared by La Cañada City Councilmember Laura Olhasso.

In addition to raising money, the event allows the center to recognize a community member or group for outstanding contribution to the community.

This year, the Smitty Award — named for Gilbert H. “Smitty” Smith, an early director at the center who was much beloved in the community — will be presented to Mary Pinola.

Among her many accomplishments, Pinola is a former Crescenta Valley ‘honorary mayor,’ founding member of the La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation, 2007 Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year, and a past member of the La Cañada Flintridge Community Center board of directors.

For more information on the 2007 Fall Fiesta, call the Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge at (818) 790-4353 or visit www.cclcf.org.