MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2011
Volume 11 Issue 26
Santa Monica Daily Press KOBE ISN’T HAPPY SEE PAGE 12
We have you covered
THE MORE RAIN? ISSUE
Malibu seventh graders raise supplies for Fiji Community service a part of the lesson plan for students BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
and of the Italian bowling game called bocce. And to say that Greenberg is a player would be grossly understating things. Greenberg is Santa Monica’s pétanque ambassador, having lobbied the powers that be at City Hall — thanks in large part to his friendship with the late mayor, Herb Katz — to recently replace the aging and rarelyused shuffle board courts near the Senior Center with two pétanque courts, which are free and open to the public from 5 a.m. to midnight every day. “I’m addicted to this,” said Greenberg, a former instructor at Santa Monica College who tore up grass in the backyard of his home near the college so he could practice pétanque.
MALIBU HIGH SCHOOL School may be about reading, writing and arithmetic, but learning comprises much more. A Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District seventh grade history class at Malibu High took that lesson to heart, gathering up hundreds of pounds of clothing, shoes, school supplies and medical necessities for an impoverished village in Fiji. Gabby Watkin, a class member, coordinated the effort. She and her mother, Suzanne Donovan, planned a trip to the southeast Asian country of Fiji through a nonprofit that provides healthcare to Fijians when the country's medical system fails. Donovan's background as a doctor specializing in infectious diseases meant that she would be busy working in local hospitals, and Watkin sought a way to give back as well. “(My mom) told me how needy they were, and how poor they were. I started getting really worried about what they would have to deal with there,” Watkin said. An e-mail to the charity in Savusavu, Fiji revealed a shortage of basics for local children, from shoes on their feet down to pencils they would need in classes. This, Watkin felt, was a need she could address. Watkin went to history teacher and baseball coach Ari Jacobs with a proposition: allow her to make an announcement to her seventh grade class about a donation drive to benefit the children of Savusavu, the proceeds of which would travel with Donovan and Watkin when they left for the island nation in November. Jacob decided he could do one better. “I think (community service) is one of the cornerstones of what makes the world go
SEE PÉTANQUE PAGE 9
SEE FIJI PAGE 8
Kevin Herrera kevinh@smdp.com
BALL PLAYER: Mark Greenberg tosses his boule during a game of pétanque at the new public courts in Palisades Park on Friday. It’s one of Europe’s most popular outdoor games — a cousin of both horseshoes and of the Italian bowling game called bocce.
There’s a new game in town Palisades Park shuffle board courts now pétanque playground BY KEVIN HERRERA Editor in Chief
PALISADES PARK For a game that is far from familiar for most Santa Monicans, Mark Greenberg and his boules are starting to attract some attention. It’s Friday morning in Palisades Park and with the iconic Santa Monica Pier providing the perfect backdrop, pairs of tourists and locals in the middle of their
workouts stop and stare as Geenberg crouches inside a small circle drawn in the sand. He pulls his arm back and lets fly a shiny metal boule (French for ball), sending it roughly 15 feet into the air. It lands in the dirt with a thud and rolls a foot toward a small, orange target. Greenberg is pleased, not with the shot, but with the number of onlookers intrigued by the retired photographer’s favorite pastime. “I’ll give you a sheet here that explains the rules and tells you a little bit about the game,” Greenberg said with a noticeable Brooklyn accent as he walked toward two men dressed in casual business attire. The game is pétanque (pronounced paytonk), one of Europe’s most popular outdoor games — a cousin of both horseshoes
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