30
May
Posted by mjudd1113 in Uncategorized. Leave a comment
A big THANK YOU!!! to the 35 volunteers who worked together to make this event the biggest and best Heart of the Park celebration. The morning set up crew of Rich Zahner, Robert Braunstein, Brandon Koehne, Larry Sasscer, Theresa Wellman, Wayne and Linda Opp, Gary Wilson, Dan Judd, Mike Winters, Rosy and Gordon Bowring had tables, chairs and canopies set up and ready to go by noon! Annie Braunstein stepped in and handled the cash boxes, and Mike Kalashian was there to make sure the PayPal widgets worked. Susan Mosher was our busy photographer recording the four- hour event. Be sure to check out her great pics on this website.
Lisa Myers led the bird watching tour with a large group of enthusiastic birders.
Rod Carpenter brought together sponsors, PRNS staff, and the creator of the islands, Pat Pizzo, for the long-awaited ribbon cutting and dedication. Ellie Carpenter arranged the big red bow between the fences, and the robot bringing in the giant scissors was a big hit. Sunny Wagstaff’s photo presentation of building the islands from beginning to end showed the tremendous teamwork and effort it took to bring the project to completion.
Back in the main corral, Linda Opp and Jean LaMarca signed up eight new members and one renewal, while handing out membership applications to several interested attendees. Thanks to Linda Abad and Sophia Snyder who tried in vain to keep the ice cream and water cold, while manning the refreshment booth, while Kari Snyder ran the 50/50 raffle.
Rod Carpenter and his Dog Parade Team entertained the pet lovers with a well-run dog parade. Judges Courtney Granner, Johnny Khamis, and Stacey Winters presided over the large group of large and small dogs, both in costume and not, as owners proudly led their charges for the Strut Your Mutt event. Joy Stevens ran a smooth operation as the Master of Ceremonies, while Dick Stevens, Bunny Granner, Ellie Carpenter, Rosy Bowring, and David Chai registered the participants, helped give out prizes, and kept the whole event running smoothly. Rod did a wonderful job of rounding up all the volunteers for this event and making sure it ran smoothly.
Rich Grialou and Pat Burrow coordinated the booth for the Meet the Artists display, making sure all who were interested learned about the forthcoming mural painting project for the twelve concrete water vaults throughout Fontana and TJ Martin Parks. Thanks to Michele Dexter who brought the sound system from the D-10 council office for our use, Sunny Wagstaff for our backup MFPA sound system, all the displays, banners, stage, and so much more. Lee Pauser was there for the sixth year with his display of nesting boxes, bird species and their eggs, and a raft of information on barn owls in our parks. Finally, thanks to the organizations who sponsored the informational tables contributing so much to our event.
The$2/$5 raffle was a big hit with raffle items brought in by the MFPA Board of Directors, and Pat Pizzo who went after the Boulder Ridge golf certificate with a vengeance, finally wearing them down. Nancy Kalashian, Christine Noordam, Annie Braunstein and Michelle Judd did the amazing task of arranging the items, finding extra tables when they ran out of space and making sure each item had the correct ticket bag for the raffle draws. Mike Kalashian fulfilled his role as the “ticket hawker”, bringing raffle sales to a new height.
I close with thanks to my family for their long-suffering support of this event, as well as our neighbor, Ron Guevara who is always there to lend my husband and the rest of our volunteers a hand getting everything cleaned up and out of the park at the end of the day.
Linda Wilson
2
May
Posted by mjudd1113 in Uncategorized. 2 comments
MARTIN-FONTANA PARKS ASSOCIATION 