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Labor Walks the Walk for Alex
August 23 - September 5, 2013
Serving the Seven Cities of the Harbor Area
committee. “This was a major factor in our ability to donate over $73,000 in 2012 and over $75,000 in 2013.” Port of Los Angeles ILWU Locals were joined by locals in Port Hueneme, Port of San Francisco, and the locals in the Pacific Northwest. Maynez said he hopes to extend Walk the Coast to San Diego. Imbagliazzo gave high praise to local business owners such as the Kosmides family, proprietors of Fantastic Cafe and Broiler Grill, and Vanessa Caldera of La Cocina Mexicana for their donations of food and refreshments at the event. “Because these businesses donated this food we were able to donate all proceeds from food sales directly to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.” Pacific Crane Maintenance donated all the children’s games, jumpers, snow cone machines and photo booth and Ports America paid for the flyover from the Tiger Squadron, which number
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aerial maneuvers over the breakwater. This year also marked the events second annual poker tournament, which saw the number of contestants rise from 38 to 108. The tournament was a slugfest that ended with a tie between Local 13 dispatcher Jesse “Ungie” Lopez and local resident Victor H. The casino didn’t have the complete spelling of the winner’s name. The tournament was a called a tie at 1:30a.m. The tournament raised $5,660, which included $1,200 from the raffle and silent auction. Though the event’s turnout wasn’t what organizers hoped, it did give them some excitement for Walk the Coast events to come. I was happy to see that we were able to raise $75,000 this year, which was more than we raised last year with a smaller turnout,” Maynez said. “On the positive side, we learned a lot about fundraising. My goal is to see us hit $100,000 next year, including San Francisco, Port Hueneme, and possibly San Diego.”
Rep. Janice Hahn awarded Congressional recognition to Alex Lemonade Stand president, Liz Scott, and NBC4 weatherman, Fritz Coleman, for their contributions in the fight against childhood cancers. Photo by Betty Guevara.