The day of the patriot

OUR LAGUNA

Retiring Fire Capt. Eugene D’Isabella will serve as the 2003

Patriots Day Parade Grand Marshal.

D’Isabella will be honored at the Parade Brunch, scheduled for 11

a.m. Feb. 2 at Tivoli Terrace. Citizens of the Year Marilyn and Les

Thomas, Patriot of the Year Donald Black and Junior Citizens of the

Year Liz Nelson and Nathan Greene also will be honored. Winners of

the parade program cover, and essay contests will be announced at the

brunch. All honorees are expected to attend.

Tickets to the brunch are $15. For reservations or more parade

information, call 494-6016.

The brunch is one of the very few ways the Patriots Day Parade

Committee raises money. Program ad sales and donations also help.

“This is not the Rose Parade,” committee President Charlie Quilter

said. “It’s a small-town, feel-good parade.”

The committee has abandoned the notion of holding a community fair

in conjunction with the parade, unable to find a viable alternative

to the proposed Peppertree Parking Lot, which the City Council found

unacceptable.

“You weren’t here when we got skinned alive by the merchants over

the bicycle race,” Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman said when Quilter made

the proposal to the City Council at the Dec. 12 meeting.

The fair would eliminate 30 parking spaces on the day of the

parade. The race closed several Downtown streets to vehicular traffic

until late afternoon of the day on which it was run. Downtown

merchants were incensed. Councilman Wayne Baglin has said that race

organizers would have to get merchant support before he would approve

the race again, which the Rotary club has tentatively scheduled for

September 2003.

The council told Quilter he would have to get support from

merchants clear up to Legion Street before it would consider closing

the Peppertree lot for a fair.

“Freedom’s Promise” will be theme of the 38th annual parade, to be

held March 1.

Quilter heads an all-volunteer committee that includes 1st Vice

President Gavin Kentle, 2nd Vice President Hal Werthe, parade sound

system overseer Sunny Budd and brunch organizer/trouble shooter Sande

St. John.

“Sande is good under fire,” said Sandi Werthe, who has been

honored in the past by the committee, as has her husband and Quilter.

The committee also includes parade day volunteers Nadine Connor,

who’s in charge of parking; Charlotte Gros, who gets donations of

food for military participants in the parade; Howard Levin, parade

starter; and newcomers Erin McNiff, Richard Moore and Jim Gothard.

Laguna Beach Woman’s Club members Joan Trivett, Anne Woods, Anne

Johnson and Barbara Williams-Pemberton, volunteer for the participant

check-in desk. Police Sgt. Doris Higgins supervises the traffic

control and enlists volunteers from Explorer Posts in surrounding

communities.

LEADERSHIP LUNCHEON

The 16th annual Leadership Laguna Luncheon will be held Wednesday

at the Hotel Laguna.

Civic, community and business leaders will each have a few minutes

to introduce themselves and share their group’s most significant

accomplishment in 2002 and the most significant goal for 2003.

Participants are advised to limit their introductions to one per

organization and to be succinct. Luncheon founder and Chair Bobbi Cox

wields a mean timer.

The Laguna Beach High School Band under the direction of Wade

Hendricks will entertain during a reception at 11:30 a.m.

Cox will make her opening remarks at noon, followed by the Pledge

of Allegiance led by Grant McCombs. The Rev. Jerry Tankersley will

give the invocation. Mayor Toni Iseman and incoming chamber President

Ken Delino will be the guest speakers.

The luncheon is underwritten by chamber board members Delino, Gary

Alstot, Bill Atkins, Donna Berthiaume, Kathy Conway, Bob Dietrich,

Tim Flanagan, Gerry Foster, Ron Hyrchuk, Dennis Junka, Chris Lange,

Steve Nelson, Veronica Nice, Shaun Tabor and Len Weinstein, with

special consideration by Hotel Laguna owner Claes Andersen.

Reservations and $29 checks must be delivered to the Laguna Beach

Chamber of Commerce no later than Monday. No money will be accepted

at the luncheon.

Make a note on the check if a vegetarian entree is preferred.

Everyone else will be served an entree of Alaskan lingcod with savory

cabbage, carrot brunoise, prosciutto and lemon-scallion beurre blanc;

preceded by a crab-stuffed tomato salad; and followed by coconut cake

with Thai chili infused lemongrass syrup and coconut brittle.

Beverages include coffee, iced tea and one glass of Claes chardonnay.

For more information, call 494-1018.

HONORED

Laguna Beach Fire Department administrative assistant Carrie Joyce

was named Member of the Year by the California Fire Chiefs Assn.

Administrative Services Division.

“It was a total surprise,” said Joyce, Laguna’s only

representative in the 120-member southern section of the division.

The division executive board selects the recipient from

nominations by the members.

“It usually goes to the nominee with the most votes,” said Joyce,

who served on the executive committee for three years. “The

organization was chartered in 1989 and I have been a member since

1990, so my name has been out there.”

The award was presented at the division’s quarterly meeting in

December in Palm Springs.

Joyce will keep the plaque with all honorees names in her office

at City Hall for a year. The award also included a little silver fire

helmet pendant and a $200 donation to a charity of her choice.

“I wanted the donation to go to a fire-related organization,”

Joyce said.

Joyce has worked for the local fire department for 13 1/2 years.

Before that, she worked for the police department for 8 1/2 years,

beginning when she was studying for her criminal justice degree at UC

Irvine.

MEA CULPA

The Log Cabin Club annual dinner at which Laguna Beach resident

Frank Ricchiazzi will be honored will be held Saturday, not Jan. 25,

as published erroneously in the Jan. 10 edition of this column. We

regret the error.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA

92652; hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22; call 494-4321; or

fax 494-8979.