Countdown To Relay For Life
It’s that time of year again…the American Cancer Society Foothills Relay for Life! The Crescenta Valley is a community-oriented place to live, and the Foothills Relay for Life is a community-based event.

In recent years, through the generosity of those who live in the Crescenta Valley, we raised around $100,000 or more each year. Your donations go toward cancer research, the creation of new treatments, and on-going patient care programs such as free transportation to and from cancer treatment appointments, beauty and hair programs for those who are undergoing chemotherapy, and many other patient-oriented activities.

Foothills Relay for Life is a volunteer event. Since we are a volunteer effort, we are able to give 97¢ of every dollar we raise to the American Cancer Society. We do this thanks to the generosity of local restaurants and businesses that donate their products and time free of charge. Approximately 80% of each dollar we present to the American Cancer Society goes directly toward research, treatments, and patient programs. So you may be confident that your donations make a difference.

Our 2013 event runs 9 a.m. Saturday, May 11 through 9 a.m. Sunday, May 12 on the Clark Magnet High School athletic field, 4747 New York Ave., La Crescenta. We will kick it off with a Survivor Lap that honors cancer survivors and their care-givers. The highlight of the event is the Luminaria Ceremony. It takes place at 9 p.m. Saturday. Participants purchase luminaria bags that event volunteers decorate with names of those who are fighting the battle, or honoring the memory of those who lost the battle. We light the bags, turn the field lights off, and walk the track holding candles while the names of all we are honoring are read aloud. It’s a very moving experience.

We have live bands and music throughout the day, plenty of food (free of charge to those who raise $100 or more), and late movies for the young and the not-so-young. In short it’s a 24-hour party, a party that makes a difference.

Again … this is a community event. If you wish to learn how you may participate, buy a luminaria bag, form a team, or join a team, we invite you to visit our website … www.foothillsrelayfor life.com, Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FoothillsRelayForLife, or drop by our booth at the Montrose Harvest Market on Sunday, April 21, April 28 or May 5.

Hopefully one day it won’t be necessary to hold this event. But we’re not there yet. With your help, we will get closer!

Chuck Boone
La Crescenta

Weighs in on Gun Issue
One of the great things about a small local town paper is that it is small and local. So when truly great issues are addressed, they can be seen through your neighbor’s eyes and therefore often more clearly through your own. Jim Chase’s My Thoughts, Exactly of March 21, “Shooting Down City Council Decision,” opened with the two of us sharing a great deal of ground here in the Crescenta Valley. Like him, I became interested in guns before I was 10 and my grandfather gave me his .22 when I was 12 in 1957. I still have it. I, with friends, taught our sons to use firearms responsibly. But [I had] a point of very real revelation.

On July 18, 1984 I began what has become an earnest, vital search which I believe applies to me, my neighbor and everyone to do something. On that date, a deranged assassin assaulted a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro. Chilling [how] the 29-year-old description of the slaughter will evoke Sandy Hook, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Columbine and, sadly, others.

Armed with an Uzi and other assault weapons, he killed 22 including his suicide and injured 19. Yes, Mr. Chase, something must be done. You decry the “do something” politicians. But you as a responsible gun owner, aficionado and knowledgeable engaged citizen with a public forum which, I might add, commands great power, offer exactly nothing.

I’ll take the politicians “do something” lacking attempts to a Crescenta Valley Weekly columnist that focuses on what is truly a meaningless issue of the Gun Show’s site.

If it is so sustainable, it will survive quite well, thank you. All this amazing local controversy, including every speaker pro and con that spoke before the city council, is not worth the life of one of these victims.

McDonald’s, to its credit, tore down their San Ysidro restaurant. McDonald’s “did something.”

As for my personal solutions, I realize I’m out of words but I’d love Mr. Chase’s thoughts are to deal with guns as we do vehicles – each registered/renewed yearly. Licensed/tagged, safety inspected. Owner/operators tested/licensed regularly. And if you shoot your friend in the face, you lose your license and gun for five years.

But what do I know?

Shalom.
Tim Jagoe
La Crescenta