We are your
holiday BBQ Hardware
supply stop!
CASITAS PLAZA CARPINTERIA • 1024 CASITAS PASS RD • 684-2100
SHIRLEY KIMBERLIN Everything I list turns to SOLD! 805-886-0228 skimberlin@aol.com
This week’s listings on the back page
Local hero remembered
Boyd
This year’s Women of Inspiration honorees were, from left, Susan Robeck, Carol Paladini and Carrie Lundquist of the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara, Rebecca Costa Smith and Lindsey Connolly of Destined for Grace, Girls Inc. Executive Director Victoria Juarez and Cynder Sinclair of Nonprofit Kinect.
Women of Inspiration enjoys record attendance
A sea of supporters filled the Girls Inc. of Carpinteria gymnasium on May 19 to help improve the lives of local girls and honor local women. The annual Women of Inspiration luncheon boasted record attendance, and organizers hope that record fundraising will result as well, giving local girls even greater opportunities to cultivate their smarts, strength and boldness. Stunning the crowd with her heartfelt, unfiltered message was inspirational speaker Alix Generous. The 21-year-old woman whose Asperger’s went undiagnosed as a child and who was misdiagnosed with various mental illnesses and learning disabilities, shared her unique perspective on the world. As a teen, she said, she lumped everyone into two categories: normal and not. Through years of treatment, she came to recognize her own gifts and to see that everyone struggles with who they are and how they fit in. Now Generous is working toward a degree in neuroscience and has spoken at the United Nations and traveled the world. “Your problems and your past don’t define you,” she told the audience, “but how you deal with them does.” Girls Inc. Executive Director Victoria
Juarez told the crowd that while Generous is already making her mark, members of Girls Inc. of Carpinteria are also bound for greatness. “Someday these girls are going to change the world,” she said. Under Juarez’s leadership, the local organization has shifted its focus toward a college-bound program called Eureka!, which engages girls in science, technology, engineering and math while giving them the support needed to be successful in college and their careers. Ana Delgado and Maria Zamora, two Carpinteria High School freshmen who are enrolled in the Eureka! program, emceed the luncheon. Poised and confident in front of the massive crowd, the girls reported on progress made by women around the world and locally in the last year. Twenty-two nations are led by female presidents; Paris has its first female mayor; and the CHS girls tennis team won back-to-back league and CIF titles. Santa Barbara area women are annually honored at the Women of Inspiration luncheon for their accomplishments and leadership. This year’s Carpinteria
INSPIRATION continued on page 5
WoZNY
Dulce Soto, mother of army Specialist Jaime rodriguez Jr., who was killed in iraq in 2007, appears with her other children, alex and elizabeth rodriguez. Jaime’s photos and medals adorn the wall behind the family.
Fallen soldier immortalized by Carpinteria artist By Kateri WozNy
Army Specialist Jaime Rodriguez Jr. was described as an open, laid back and a joker. “He used to tell me I was ‘phat’ (cool),” smiled his mother, Dulce Soto. “I would say, ‘I love you, too.’” on July 26, 2007, Soto was beginning her day like any other when the knock came on her door that no mother wants to hear: Her 19-year-old son had died on impact from a bomb near his vehicle in Saqlawiyah, a city northwest of Fallujah. Rodriguez was in the middle of his tour before his death and had been shipped off to Iraq in January 2007. He was less than a month away from a scheduled two-week leave. “I looked through the peep hole and saw the Army and police officers. I knew why they were there. I just lost it,” Soto said. Eerily enough, Soto had a dream on July 4 in which she felt like she was dying and saw Rodriguez’s and her late mother’s faces in passing. In fear, she called her son. “I thought something would happen to me and wanted to speak to
Jaime. His last words to me were I love you. I told him I loved him too and be careful,” Soto said. A 2005 graduate of Carpinteria High School, Rodriguez enrolled in the Army shortly after he finished school because he wanted to help his country and also “liked the physical aspect and to be outside,” according to his brother Alex. After completing basic training, he returned to Carpinteria in 2006 and saw his family for the last time that Thanksgiving. “He used to joke with me and say it’s my fault he joined the Army because I never bought him a toy gun growing up,” Soto said. one week after the devastating news, Rodriguez’s body was flown back to Santa Barbara for the funeral and burial. over 50 family members and friends came in to pay their final respects to a young man who had sacrificed his life for his country. Rodriguez was also awarded five posthumous medals, which hang in
RODRIGUEZ continued on page 3