TUESDAY December 17, 2019
S E R V I N G O U R C O M M U N I T Y S I N C E 1 8 7 9 • W W W. T R I P L I C A T E . C O M
Boutique bestowing ballgowns
A GREAT YEAR
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They’re winners, still John Pritchett For The Triplicate
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hen Del Norte High School football coach Nick White looks back at the 2019 season, it won’t be the wins, the losses -not even the championships - that he’ll remember the most. “Honestly, it is how tight, how close-knit this team is,” the firstyear coach said. “The bond is the biggest thing I will take away.” Simply put, it was the greatest season in Warrior history. Before El Monte High School captured a 32-7 victory Saturday night in the CIF Division 5-AA state championship game in Crescent City, Del Norte had won the 5-AA Northern California championship as well as a North Coast Section title. No other Del Norte football team had ever captured those titles. The Warriors also won their third Big Four Conference crown in the past six years. The seeds of this successful season were planted back in 2017, when then-coach Lewis Nova moved six sophomores up to the varsity, five of whom were still (Above) Del Norte High School football coach Nick White hugs senior quarterback OJ Calleja at with the program this year as the end of the Warriors’ loss Saturday night to El Monte High School, 32-7, in the CIF 5-AA state championship game. Photo by Roger Schultz/Hot Shots Sports Photography. (Below) It’s hard to More Football on Page A3 tell the players from the mud as they line up for the next play. Photo by David Hayes.
By Jessica Goddard Staff Writer
airy godmothers don’t exist only in faraway kingdoms and Disney movies. They’re also in Crescent City, at least during the social seasons. The Fairy Godmother Boutique, coordinated by a group of 12 local women, is back in town and ready to make wishes come true. Twice a year, the boutique opens for the purpose of giving prom and winter ball dresses to high school students who might have difficulty affording them. Local residents donate formal dresses, make-up, jewelry and accessories, then the students can come by the boutique to find outfits for their magical night. “We really try to make it a special boutique experience for the girls, too, so when they come and find the dress they want, we wrap it up for them. We put their accessories in a bag complete with tissue paper,” said Valerie Starkey, one of the boutique’s founders. The dozen friends held the boutique’s opening reception for the winter ball season last Wednesday and invited visiting delegates from Crescent City’s Japanese sister city, Rikuzentakata, to attend. The delegates had visited the boutique when it first opened three years ago, but it has developed considerably since then. The delegates have asked repeatedly about the status of the pop-up shop, according to Lezlie Duncan, one of its founders. “So that’s why we made sure they came through, so they could see now that we really actually are set up and doing it,” Duncan said. Three years later, the boutique has tables adorned with gloves, necklaces and earrings, with lines of dresses hanging from the rustic walls of downtown store Six Degrees of Celebration’s backroom. As the delegates began their recent downtown shopping spree - a regular during their visits - they made sure to see the expanded boutique. And the women were proud to show it off to their sister-city friends. The 12 women behind the boutique are friends from high school. They refer to themselves as the “eighties ladies,” although many local high school students could refer to them as their fairy godmothers. Last year, they gave out 53 dresses for the prom and winter balls. “We all graduated high school together, some of them in 1984, us youngin’s in 1985,” said Starkey. “We’ve just reconnected and redeveloped our friendship, and so twice a year, we get together to do this.” She said the project has considerable community support and clothing donations. “It’s just amazing, this community did this,” Starkey said. “We organized it, but it’s the community that really has made this happen.” More Boutique on Page A2
She’s competing for Miss America By David Hayes Staff Writer oonok Park will be one of 51 very nervous moms on Thursday, when her daughter takes the stage to compete for the title of Miss America. Park, an art teacher at Crescent Elk Middle School, has taken her winter break vacation a little early this year to attend the Miss America Pageant at the Mohegan Sun casino and event center in Mystic Country, Connecticut. Her daughter, Eileen Kim, is seeking to become the first Miss California to win the crown since 1983. Park, born in South Korea and raised in Minnesota, has taught at Crescent Elk for three years. She said her daughter’s journey began as a way to pay for college. “We started looking for scholarships
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and (the Miss California competition) was the largest,” Park said. Kim was attending Chapman University in Orange, Calkifornia, pursuing a degree in international business administration. Park said her daughter almost didn’t become just the third Asian to win the Miss California title. Kim’s first three tries in competition as Miss Culver City resulted in a top-15 placement, top-7... and nothing the third year. Park said Kim almost didn’t apply during her senior year in college, but chose to ignore the one bad result from the previous three tries. The fourth time proved to be the charm. The Miss California competition in recent years has de-emphasized physical More Pageant on Page A5
Soonok Park, who teaches art at Crescent Elk Middle School, is rooting for her daughter, Eileen Kim (at left), the reigning Miss California, who’s competing this week for the Miss America title. Photo by David Hayes.
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