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Hometown News Since 1916 Making Communities Better Through Print.™ VOL. CIV, NO. XVIX
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020
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BOY SCOUTS
MEMORIAL DAY
Happy and Safe Memorial Day
TROOP 51 GATHERS TO HONOR PEACE OFFICERS MEMORIAL DAY
Freedom Flight Team Soars Over California Tenet CEO Mark Lisa leads Estrella Warbirds in honor of nurses for Hospital Week
By NICHOLAS MATTSON nic@atascaderonews.com
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“Troop 51 has the honor of the responsible for the flags at the Monument in cooperation with the Vandenberg Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars who erected the Monument in 2013,” said Nicole.
emorial Day weekend brings us together for a somber reflection to remember those who gave their lives in service, and a joyful reunion with friends and family as summer approaches on the horizon. This year is different — 2020 will always be different for us. Our national reflection and admiration for servicemen and servicewomen remains high as the point atop Marines’ barracks cover, and as solemn as a salute — but we have added another war to our list. Our coronavirus war called for a new soldier, and took lives on American soil. Our soldiers on the front lines were nurses and doctors, delivery persons and grocers. It has been a war to protect our most vulnerable and a war that called for full participation from sea to shining sea. It may be appropriate that Memorial Day is our first national holiday after the coronavirus washed across our country. Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, with roots in the aftermath of the American Civil War. As we face COVID-19, we do so in a country that faces an ideological divide. COVID-19 has brought us together at first, and it will be up to us to stay together. It is told that in late April 1866, an assembly of four Mississippi women traveled to decorate graves of soldiers who died in the Battle of Shiloh. They found Confederate graves in good condition and cared for alongside graves of Union soldiers untended. Moved by the scene, they honored the Union soldiers’ graves with flower decorations as well, in somber grief for lives lost. Memorial Day is the first national holiday to fall, and the only holiday
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From left, George Marrett, Mark Lisa, and Wayne Rice prepare for take off. Contributed photo STAFF REPORT
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hile many around California experienced the flyover of the Air National Guard that spanned through much of Northern California and the Central Coast, employees and staff got a more personally-connected salute courtesy of the Freedom Flight team at the Estrella Warbird Museum in Paso Robles on Wednesday. It was more personal, because it featured Tenet Health Central Coast CEO Mark Lisa leading the formation of classic World War II-era airplanes to honor Twin Cities Community Hospital and Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center as part of National Nurses Week and National Hospital Week observances. “I was fortunate to be asked to fly among the Freedom Flight team and to be able to show my appreciation and respect for all that the Tenet Health Central Coast team does for our communities – not just this week, or during a crisis, but every day,” said Lisa. “It is very important to recognize front-line workers and it is National Hospital and
Boy Scouts from Troop 51 salute as they lower the flags to half-staff in honor of Peace Officers Memorial Day. Photo courtesy of Nicole Hider
By HAYLEY MATTSON hayley@atascaderonews.com
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n Friday, May 15 in honor of Peace Officers Memorial Day, scouts from Troop 51 gathered at the Atascadero American Heritage Monument in masks
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to lower the flags to half-staff in honor of the local, state, and federal peace officers who have died or have been disabled in the line of duty. This was the first time the scouts have seen each other in person since the shelter-athome orders were put in place
back in the middle of March due to COVID-19. “It was hard for everyone not to shake hands or give each other hugs, but it felt great to be back together and doing service in the community,” said Nicole Hider, a parent and Troop 51 Committee Chair.
SANTA ROSA ACADEMIC ACADEMY
Roadrunners Rally to Appreciate their Extended Family Mutual appreciation and expression of love binds a school community together sky, teachers, and staff from Santa Rosa Academic Academy surrounded the school’s parking lot, decorated with ATASCADERO — On Friday, May balloons, signs, and streamers as students 15, with the sun high in the late-spring and their families filed through the lot in
By NICHOLAS MATTSON nic@atascaderonews.com
LOCAL NEWS
SPORTS
a student-appreciation parade. The nearly spontaneous event brought the Roadrunner family together for a moment of mutual appreciation and expression of love and care.
RECORD
“This was just to get the families families having to do this.” together,” SRAA teacher and event orgaSince March 13, the students and nizer Sarah Holland said. “We were feel- teachers practiced distance learning, ing a lull — I was feeling a lull for sure, in the momentum, and the burnout of CONTINUED ON PAGE A14
RECORD
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WEATHER
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COUNTY MEETS CRITERIA From the State to advance reopening of businesses | A3
NORTH COUNTY Senior athletes moving up to college level sports | A4
STAN MANNING Saying
goodbye to a piece of Atascadero history | A10
COVERED CALIFORNIA
Special enrollment begins due to COVID-19 | A11
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Thank you,
to our teachers, nurses and frontline workers.
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