B4
OCT. 12, 2012
THE COAST NEWS
L E G E N D A R Y
L O C A L S
O F
ENCINITAS A message to my favorite Superhero Dear Max: I ’ v e just been watching that brilliant video Matthew and Tiffany ALISON BURNS made for your website maxspartacus.com/ and I want to tell you again how much I am inspired by that photo of you in your superman costume and the tattoo on your beautifully smooth head. Later your blonde curls all grew back. Next I heard you were planning a Mohican. I bet that scared the bad guys! I thought it was pretty cool the way you described how you knew you had cancer: “one day my ear started to hurt and it was my tumor walking out of my ear” and I’m so glad it kept walking long enough to give you all those magical years swimming with dolphins, playing football on the beach and bouncing on your hospital bed with all your friends. Do you know you have more best friends than anyone else on this planet? You even got to fly a plane. Not a lot of eight year olds can boast that one! But I guess Superheroes need a pilot’s license if they’re going to save the world. Sadly I know that your cancer is so rare, it makes you one in a million. But I think you’d be one in a million anyway. Even a million million. You said once that you wanted to show other kids you could be strong so that they can be strong too.You’ve really achieved that goal Max. We are all stronger because of you. — Alison
— Alison Burns is president of the Encinitas Historical Society and author of “Legendary Locals of Encinitas”
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OPTIMISTS IN ACTION Optimist Club of Carlsbad members, from left, Nancy Tillinghast, David Emerick and Marsha Emerick, are among those pairing with the North County Junior Golf Association for the 16th annual golf tournament at 11 a.m. Oct. 22 at El Camino Country Club, 3202 Vista Way, Oceanside. The day includes lunch, golf/cart, raffles, golf awards, prizes, appetizers, dinner and a silent auction. Proceeds will benefit youth of North County. Call (760) 633-3096 or (760) 579-6634 for reservations. Courtesy photo
Large limb closes street, wakes neighbors after fall overnight By Tony Cagala
Image Caption: A legend in his own precious lifetime, Max Spartacus Kleckner is living proof of how a community can unite when one of its members is under siege. Max was just four when, in July 2008, he was diagnosed with Stage IV rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer found in just 300 children worldwide each year. The tumor was inoperable because of its proximity to the brain and optic nerve and had already metastasized into Max’s bone marrow. Max had a passion for superheroes, so it made sense for his parents, Mark and Natalie, to explain his treatment in terms of good guys and bad. They told Max that the doctors would install a semipermanent “superhero port” in his chest to give all the superhero cells easy access to the enemy. After chemotherapy in San Diego, Max went to Houston to begin an eight-week course of proton radiation therapy. But three weeks into treatment Max encountered another enemy—Hurricane Ike— and treatment was suspended. Battle-weary, but still triumphant, Max and his parents returned to their Cardiff home to find their neighbors had wrapped every tree, gate, fence, and
pole in their front yard in gold ribbons. Our superhero had a good year until the cancer relapsed. This is when Cardiff-bythe-Sea went into overdrive: neighbors, restaurants, and other local businesses staged benefits—including volleyball tournaments, street parties, auctions, and raffles—to mop up the costs not covered by insurance. In a time when so many people have their own concerns, one small boy was still able to unite hundreds of people in a show of financial, spiritual, and emotional aid. Mark Kleckner calls it a very bright spot in a very dark place. It may take a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to heal one. (Photograph by Aaron Feldman/True Photography.)
SOLANA BEACH — The large limb off of a more than 50 foot tall pine tree in a Solana Beach neighborhood gave way late Friday night, taking with it utility poles and cabling and creating unsafe conditions for the families living on the property. Residents in a converted duplex on the 300 block of Granados Street were woken to the sounds of the falling limb. Monique Magdaleno, who lives in one of the units with her son, said she was lying in bed around 10 p.m. when she heard the sounds. The noise, she said, was like a machine gun or firecrackers. “I almost ducked,” she said when she heard it. “It took a while for it to come down.” She watched as the limb fell and pulled down the utility cables and poles. The fallen limb knocked down five utility poles and two blocks’ worth (approximately 1,000 feet) of power, phone and TV cabling. Time Warner, AT&T and SDG&E were on scene and worked throughout the night to restore the equipment. AT&T and SDG&E reinstalled the five poles; Granados Street had remained closed as cabling was still being hoisted off of the ground Saturday afternoon The home was built in 1951, said Maria Suggett, who had only been living at the property for the past three months. She said she thought the tree was about the same age.
Residents on the 300 block of Granados Street receive a rude awakening overnight Oct. 5 when the limb off of a more than 50 foot tall pine tree falls, taking with it utility poles and cables. The tree, which is thought to be rotten, has created an unsafe area for residents living under and near the precarious pine. Photo by Tony Cagala
“A neighborhood legend has fallen,” Suggett said. “I think it rotted out, and about a third of it toppled over last night and it caused considerable damage,” she said. There was no official damage report made, according to the Sheriff’s Department, and there were no apparent injuries. Magdaleno said that the responding firefighters told her and Suggett that it was unsafe for them to stay at the residence, due to safety concerns that the remainder of the tree could collapse. The remaining tree branches are angled precariously over the roof of their residence and another neighbor’s home next door. Magdaleno and Suggett have contacted the owner of the property Paul Parker, who told Magdaleno that he’s arranged for the tree to be removed as soon as Saturday. The tree has never
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been an issue before said Magdaleno and Suggett. Suggett has a table underneath the tree where she and her grandkids would have picnics. “It wasn’t a scary looking, this tree is about ready to go, kind of look; it looked very stable,” she said. “It wasn’t a frightening tree at all, it was pretty comfortable actually,” Suggett added. Dr. Lisa Longworth and her husband have lived in a residence just above the property where the tree is, and have been trying to work with the owner to trim the tree, she said, because it’s “huge.” She said they’ve paid several thousands of dollars to have the tree trimmed. The tree, Longworth added, is “very much in our face. We look out to that tree.” Once the tree is removed Suggett said that she’ll give the chopped up tree to friends and neighbors for use as firewood.