VILLAGE NEWS LA JOLLA
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2010
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Holiday Heroes
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www.SDNEWS.com Volume 16, Number 12
Editor’s note: This story is part of a December series honoring outstanding La Jollans who have gone above and beyond to unselfishly help others.
Santa makes an appearance in his Packard Twin Six automobile called “The Old Black Goose” at the 2009 La Jolla Christmas Parade and Holiday Festival. This year’s parade is set for Dec. 5 and will feature an antique aircraft flyover, live entertainment and the annual Christmas tree lighting. See inside for a complete parade guide. DON BALCH | Village News
Santa comes to town this Sunday Afghan schoolchildren surround school founders Fary Moini and Steve Brown at the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club School in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Nearly 5,000 children attend the school. Courtesy of Steve Brown
From elegant to unstoppable La Jollan devotes life to Afghan refugees, schoolchildren BY KENDRA HARTMANN | VILLAGE NEWS While watching the shocking events of 9/11 unfold on her television, La Jollan Fary Moini felt there had to be something she could do. Not quite knowing where to turn, she approached fellow La Jolla/Golden Triangle Rotary Club member Steve Brown about working with refugees in Afghanistan. As a relatively new Rotarian, she was unsure about how to start such an ambitious project. But with Fary Moini poses among some of the children who attend the Brown’s help, she was soon on her way to spending two Rotary Club School in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Moini started the months in a refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. school in 2004 with fellow Rotarian Steve Brown. Courtesy of Jan Percival Shocked by the horrible conditions the refugees were exposed to, Moini was inspired to take an entirely new path in life. She would eventually give up her Mira Mesa tuxedo Another La Jolla hero spreads hope in shop, sell her condo and move in with a friend to be able to Haiti through hospital services. devote her time to helping the people of Afghanistan. See page 4. “When she came back, she got up in front of our club and Do you know a good samaritan whose efforts deserve to said, ‘This is a horrible situation and they need help,’ and ‘let’s be shared? The Village News wants to hear your stories of go people, we’re going to help them,’” said Jan Percival, a La Jollans’ altruistic actions and noble endeavors. Please friend and fellow Rotarian. send bios and photos to ljvn@sdnews.com. SEE HEROES, Page 5
‘Man in red’ celebrates 25th year as parade’s main attraction BY CLAIRE HARLIN | VILLAGE NEWS It’s time for the kids to get their lists ready. For his 25th year as the jolly star of the La Jolla Christmas Parade & Holiday Festival, Santa’s once again headlining Sunday’s parade, a spectacle that attracts thousands to the village’s sidewalks each year. More than 1,200 will participate in the parade, from marching bands to drill teams to Scout troops. There will be youth marshals and lifeguards, floats and street cars. The Old Globe Theatre’s “Grinch” will also make an appearance. La Jolla Town Council parade organizer Ann Kerr Bache, who has steered the event An equestrian parade parfor 13 years, said there are 12 equestrians ticipant struts through the registered to participate, as well as possibly village during the 2009 two camels — one named “Alibaba” — as festivities. There are 12 part of the La Jolla Presbyterian Church’s horses registered this year. DON BALCH | Village News live nativity. The church is also hosting a free cookie-baking event in its courtyard after the parade. Annette Buis, a La Jollan who has been helping with the parade for 20 years, crafted the ocean-themed artwork that can be seen on parade posters all around the village. Street closures are huge on the day of the parade. Last year Bache said at least 34 cars were towed. For a complete list of closures, participants, events and a map, see the La Jolla Town Council’s parade program inside.
Former Secret Service agents revisit history in La Jolla BY KENDRA HARTMANN | VILLAGE NEWS Rolling along in the presidential motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963, Secret Service agent Clint Hill recently recounted observing a grassy area to his left when he heard the first shot. As he swung his gaze toward the car in front of his, the one carrying John F. Kennedy, he saw the president grab his throat and realized something was wrong. Following his first instinct, he said, he ran to the president’s car, jumped in, pushed the first lady onto the back seat and shielded the presidential couple with his body. “I saw the wound on his head and
saw that his eyes were fixed, and it was then I thought that the wound was probably fatal,” said the retired agent, who will be at Warwick’s on Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. for a talk and signing of the new book “The Kennedy Detail: JFK’s Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence.” His friend and fellow special agent Jerry Blaine, who wrote the book, will join him. Blaine was in Austin, Texas when he heard the news. “None of us said a word to each other on the way back to Washington,” said Blaine. “We were in shock.” After years of silence, Blaine said he decided that, due to the alarming
number of young people who believe in the myriad conspiracy theories surrounding that fateful event, it was time to set the record straight with his firsthand account of the assassination. “This is a story that had to be told,” said Blaine. “There are not many of us [agents] left, and we were afraid the cottage industry of conspiracy theory was going to run away with history.” It was a moment in history that many of those who were involved were reluctant to talk about, Blaine said. Though former Secret Service agents have an annual reunion meet- Secret Service agent Clint Hill, who will be at Warwick’s Dec. 3 to discuss “The Kennedy Detail,” rides in a follow-up car in Dallas on the day of John F. Kennedy’s
SEE KENNEDY, Page 5 assassination.
Courtesy of Jerry Blaine