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March 13, 2015
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Gourmet food revolution at CV KARA NAVOLIO Correspondent
DAVE SHUEY
MAYOR’S CORNER
Keep glass half-full with conservation As we move into March we all need to hope, pray, do a rain dance and act out any other personal superstitions we have to get us some much needed rain and snow or we will all be facing more water rationing and conservation efforts this summer and beyond. Currently, we are being asked to conserve 15 percent. Regardless of the drought, it is important that as our population swells we all start practicing ongoing good water habits. The Contra Costa Water District has all sorts
See Mayor, page 3
Artists draw inspiration at Creekside Arts Festival
GEORGE CURTIS VAN LIEW, with his watercolor “Looking over the Water” will join dozens of artists and performers at the Clayton Library Mar. 27-29 for the Creekside Arts Celebration. PEGGY SPEAR Clayton Pioneer
George Curtis Van Liew was just 10 when he started taking painting classes at Diamond Terrace retirement community, but the fact that he was the only child in the class didn’t stop the budding artist from practicing his craft. Now Van Liew, 18, actually teaches painting in the same room he practiced in, and, after years of volunteering at the event, this year will be a featured artist at Creekside Arts 2015, the annual threeday Clayton arts festival to be held March 27, 28 and 29 in and around the Clayton Library. Although perhaps best known as being part of the musical Clayton family, Van Liew also nursed
See Creekside , page 4
Kara Navolio
CLAYTON VALLEY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS LINE UP AT LUNCH TIME to grab a gourmet meal from “The Hungry Eagle”, the school’s new food truck. Chef Wayne Wells re-invents the school lunch using fresh ingredients that are cooked to order. Besides the Hungry Eagle fare, students can start the day with omelets and load up at the salad bar at lunch.
When it’s meal time at Clayton Valley Charter High School you will not find ladies in white dresses and hair nets dishing up soggy green beans and mystery meat or pizza the texture of cardboard. At CVCHS Chef Wayne Wells is creating a mini food revolution. All the food is prepared on-site, from scratch, and served up by Wells himself, dressed in his official chef ’s jacket or his young, red-jacket wearing assistants. From 6:45 to 7:45 a.m. students, staff, and even some parents line up for their made-toorder omelets. Choosing from 15 fresh ingredients including spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms, students watch while Wells sautés all the ingredients together. He then adds the eggs and flips the omelets over like the expert chef that he is. Wells
See CV Food, page 4
Ipsen finishes heralded collegiate diving career this month in Iowa JAY BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
Clayton’s globetrotting diver Kristian Ipsen spent the first four days this week with eight Stanford teammates at the United States Air Force Academy while he competed in the NCAA Zone E diving championships hoping to qualify in all three events for his final national collegiate meet later this month in Iowa City. “You have to finish in the top eight of an event here in order to make NCAAs. There is a new matrix system that allows anyone who finishes in the top eight of one event to qualify for nationals by finishing in the top 12 of the other events. It’s a better way of handling qualification,” Ipsen said from Colorado Springs this week.
Ipsen went into the Zone qualifying meet on a high after sweeping the one meter, three meter and platform events at his last Pacific 12 swimming and division championships at the end of February in Federal Way, Washington. That facility holds a special place for the senior as it was there in 2012 that he qualified for the United States Olympic team for the London Games where he teamed with Troy Dumais for the bronze medal in the 3M synchronized event. It was the first diving medal for the USA since 2000. Ipsen not only went into the zone meet off his conference success but with a history of seven Zone championships during his first three years at Stanford,
Senior Kristian Ipsen had his best-ever conference meet last month at the Pacific 12 Swimming and Diving Championships in Washington when he swept all three events for Stanford in the same pool where he qualified for the 2012 London Olympics. The All-America from Clayton won six Pac 12 titles in his career and will close out his collegiate diving for the Cardinal Mar. 26-28 in Iowa. Photo courtesy of Steve Clay
See Ipsen, page 3
Area Iranians spring into Naw-ruz celebrations PEGGY SPEAR Clayton Pioneer
ONE OF THE MAJOR ASPECTS OF NAW-RUZ, or Nourouz, the Iranian New Year, is the setting of the "Haft Seen" a lavish table similar to American's Thanksgiving table, but with seven specific items. Many families add other items that represent hope, health and prosperity, or that are significant to them, as Gitty Khatiblou shows here at her table.
Save the Date
While Americans take great pride in many of their New Year’s Eve celebrations, probably not many of them involve jumping over a bonfire. But that is just one of the many symbolic gestures celebrated with the beginning of Nawruz (or No-rooz, Norooz, Nourouz), the Persian New Year, which begins on the Spring Equinox and is their biggest holiday of the year. Called Chahar-Shanbeh Soori, on the Tuesday night — and
April 25 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Clayton City Hall Courtyard
Wednesday morning — before the start of Naw-ruz, many Iranians set small bonfires, and people, young and old, jump over it, saying in Farsi “Give me your beautiful red color (symbolizing health). Take back my yellowish color (symbolizing sickly pallor and bad luck.)” This year, Naw-ruz kicks off on Friday, March 20, and Clayton residents Hugh and Flor Toloui will be ready. “It is a beautiful time of year,” Hugh Toloui says.”We celebrate the renewal of life — all life, human, animal and plants. It’s very significant.”
Naw-ruz — which translates into “New day”— actually lasts 13 days, and is steeped in symbolism, both spiritual and more mundane. Its roots can be traced back more than 50,000 years, says Flor Toloui, but it’s been in the last 2500 years that the celebration became a formal holiday. SEVEN SYMBOLS A major part of New Year ritual is setting the “Haft Seen,” a lavish table similar to American’s Thanksgiving table, but with
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