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VILLAGE NEWS
Scott Appleby & Kerry ApplebyPayne
LA JOLLA
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San Diego Community Newspaper Group
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2011
DRE#01197544 DRE#01071814
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 17, Number 8
NOVEMBER SHOWERS
Penny Shipley, right, stands with her husband, bartender Joe Koors (complete with pink hair) and Verdes El Ranchero owner Gloria Green. Green is donating $2 to breast cancer research for every pink margarita sold in support of Shipley, a breast cancer survivor. Courtesy photo
A ‘green’ LJ restaurant goes pink for breast cancer fight BY MARIKO LAMB | VILLAGE NEWS
bring stunning coastal views Photographer Don Balch captured this dramatic sunset after a rainstorm in early November. The inclement weather over the last couple weekends may not have been popular with beach goers, but it has created breathtaking scenery for the already-striking landscape. For more beautiful photos taken in and around La Jolla, turn to Page 12.
Verdes El Ranchero, always decked out with the vibrant colors of Mexico, will don pink this weekend to cheer on participants of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure as walkers pass by the restaurant on Nov. 18 — the first day of the 60mile walk to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research. The restaurant’s bartender, Joe Koors, is even going all out for the effort by sporting a new, bright-pink hairstyle. Guests won’t find him at the restaurant over the weekend dishing out cocktails, but he can be spotted among the sea of walkers alongside his wife, Penny Shipley — a local champion in the fight against breast cancer. “I don’t like to be considered a survivor, but more of a breast cancer [butt] kicker, because I really feel like I kicked breast cancer’s butt,” Shipley said. She and her husband decided to take part in the walk in February, a few months after Shipley completed her final
chemotherapy treatments. “I thought, ‘What better way to celebrate?’” she said. “Team Lucky Penny” set out to raise $10,000 for the cause — an effort supported by Verdes El Ranchero owners Mike and Gloria Green, who set up a fundraising event on Nov. 12 to help the team reach its goal. That goal, it turns out, has been met — and then some. The team has raised more than $12,000. Part of Team Lucky Penny’s donations came from the fundraiser, which raised more than $4,000, but even more have come from efforts like the pink margarita initiative, for which the Greens are donating $2 for every rose-colored drink sold. The funds, Shipley said, are used for more than just research. “Of course, they go toward research to find the cause and development of treatments, but many people don't realize that a lot of the donations will help support such efforts as providing trans-
SEE CANCER, Page 2
The price tag of freedom is worth it for Korean War veteran Editor’s note: This is the third install- our country needed it.” which still affects some of the nerves In April 1950, he joined the Cali- in his fingers and legs today. ment in a series throughout the month of “If you’re from New York, you November highlighting veterans’ experi- fornia Army National Guard. By September, when Villegas was just 18 understand what snow is, but some of ences. BY MARIKO LAMB | VILLAGE NEWS “Freedom is not free,” said Jess Villegas, a Korean War veteran, referring to a motto he and his fellow soldiers repeated during the war. Villegas, 79, grew up in a citrusgrowing, Mexican-American community outside of Riverside where he worked in the orange fields after finishing ninth grade. “Most of us — about 70 percent of us — went into the service,” he said. “We didn’t say, ‘Hell no, we won’t go.’ We went to serve our country because
years old, the entire division from San Diego to Santa Maria was activated for duty. He recalled the harsh, wintry conditions of Korea when he was stationed there in 1951. He and his fellow soldiers, he said, got each other through the difficult elements. “Because you live with death every day, you never know when your time was up being an infantryman,” he said. “We all were a band of brothers. Anybody would give you the last scoop of his C-ration if you asked for it.” As a California-bred soldier, Villegas was shocked by the biting cold,
the guys from back East used to laugh at me because a lot of the guys came from New England, the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, so they were used to it,” he said, adding that at about 130 pounds, he was quite thin — but still had to wear 40 pounds of clothing in addition to carrying his rifle and ammunition around his waist. Then there was the enemy to contend with. “Anyone who tells you he wasn’t scared is not telling you the truth,” he said. “I was frightened.” Villegas said the nature of the con-
flicts gave American troops the impression that the Chinese soldiers they fought lived lives that “didn’t mean anything to them” — not unlike the kamikaze pilots in WWII and suicide bombers in the Middle East. “It was not unusual for them to attack an outpost of ours with a company, and no matter how many died, it didn’t matter to them,” he said. “We Americans fight to live and they fight to die. That’s the difference between our systems of government. In our country, life means a lot.” Villegas recalls the moment he returned to American soil after being away for 17 months. “Nothing feels better or more wonJess Villegas joined the California Army
SEE VETERAN, Page 6 National Guard in April 1950. Courtesy photo