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volume 131, number 122
wednesDAY, december 5, 2012
Boy Scout Christmas tree lot opens for holiday season Proceeds help fund troop activities, service projects
News iN Brief
New business offers printing services, tech repair On Saturday, Kyle Thomas and Brett Andersen opened Aggie Tech at University Mall. The store replaced Aggie Express’s former location. Aggie Express went out of business at the end of August. Andersen said in an email that Aggie Tech follows Aggie Express’s business model by providing shipping through UPS and FedEx, textbook buyback and printing and copying services. In addition, the store offers tech repair for computers, phones and video game consoles. Retail prod-
Mark Allinder / Aggie
Davis resident Sean Adams and Scouts Sam McPherson and Derek Denardo (left to right) work at the Davis Boy Scout Christmas tree lot at 480 Mace Blvd. The lot will be open until Dec. 24.
By MEREDITH STURMER Aggie News Writer
On Nov. 23, the Davis Boy Scout Christmas tree lot officially opened for this year’s Christmas season. The lot will remain open until Dec. 24. The tree lot is located at 480 Mace Blvd., on the corner of Mace and Cowell boulevards across from Nugget Market. It is the lot’s 52nd year of operation and its third year at this location. According to 2012 Davis Boy Scout Christmas Tree Lot foreman Jim Borchers, the lot is not only a Davis tradition and a convenient place to pick up a Christmas tree, but also a way to support the local Boy Scouts and the community as a whole. “There are five troops in the city of Davis, and they all come together to help work on the lot,” Borchers said. “The scouts get to be helpful, and it’s a fun activity for all the boys.” The five Boy Scout troops who work on the lot are Troops 66, 111, 139, 199 and 466. Venture Crews 66 and 111 are also involved. The scouts do most of the work on the lot themselves, such as loading trees and trimming branches. “We trim the branches,” said Andrew Borchers, son of foreman Jim Borchers and a scout in Troop 111. “We also cut off the bottoms of the trees if they need it.” Parent volunteers and scout leaders help with the lot’s organization
and operation. Each year a different parent volunteer serves as foreman of the lot. “People come in and buy trees, and we help them carry them out to their cars,” said Chris Garrison, a scout in Troop 111. “Some people have trouble deciding [on a tree], so we can also help them pick one out. We’ve even helped carry people’s trees down the street to their houses.” According to Jim Borchers, the Mace and Cowell location is a very desirable place to have the tree lot because they have access to power and don’t need to use a generator. The lot sells a wide variety of trees, ranging from small three-foot trees to seven-foot Douglas-firs. “We also sell wreaths and mistletoe,” Garrison said. Proceeds from the tree lot go toward scholarships for scouts to attend summer camps, adventure experiences such as hiking and funding various service projects the scouts are involved with throughout the year, according to Jim Borchers. One such service project is the scouts’ citywide April food drive for the Davis Short Term Emergency Action Committee (STEAC). STEAC collects donated goods such as food and clothing and provides assistance to over 400 families and 800 children in need in the city of Davis each year. The tree lot is a STEAC collection point, so vis-
itors can drop off canned goods to be donated to STEAC even if they are not purchasing a tree or other decorations. Other service projects and community efforts the scouts work on throughout the year include placing flags on the graves of veterans in the Davis Cemetery on Veterans Day. In addition, they prepare and serve meals at the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter and clean up trash and recycling after the annual Davis World Cup American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) soccer tournament. The scouts also collect household items discarded from apartment complexes after “move-out weekend” in August to be reused by anyone in need. This year, the scouts can also provide trees to businesses and facilities requiring certified fire-resistant trees. The trees can either be treated to become fire-resistant or flocked with a fire-resistant white “snow,” and come with a tag certifying that they meet the requirements of the California Fire Marshal. Interested businesses can inquire at davisbschristmastreelot@gmail. com. The lot is open Monday through Friday from 1 to 9 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. MEREDITH STURMER can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
UC Davis students create clothing for charity The Runaway Robot awarded Entrepreneurial Fund Grant By DANIEL RIESGO Aggie Features Writer
A UC Davis student’s ambition to better the world has driven him to the world of entrepreneurship. What started as a New Year’s resolution is quickly turning into reality in the form of The Runaway Robot, a clothing company “focused on trying to make the world a better place” one shirt at a time. Alexander Ogloza, a third-year communication major, along with 11 or so interns, has created the company to help charity missions around the United States. The artist responsible for the company’s inception and the art on the clothing is Tomio Hayase-Izu, a thirdyear environmental policy major.
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“The Runaway Robot is a good example of students taking the initiative by using these resources, creating something greater and hopefully in doing so, giving back to the community,” Hayase-Izu said. “We had a vision, and are doing our best to follow it.” As young as The Runaway Robot is, the company has already been awarded the UC Davis Entrepreneurial Fund Grant. The fund awards “sound business ideas that are motivated not just by profit, but also by a desire to have a positive impact on the Davis community or society at large,” according to the description in their website. Aside from the monetary aid of the grant, the E-fund invited the com-
pany for weekly meetings to talk about the development and growth of The Runaway Robot as well. Hayase-Izu is the lead graphic designer for The Runaway Robot and is the artist who created the drawing that first inspired Ogloza to start the company. “Around a year ago, I acquired a drawing tablet for fun, as I had always liked to doodle in class. After playing around, I began to develop the character that would later become the mascot for Runaway Robot, as he was featured in many of my drawings,” Hayase-Izu said. Ogloza said that as a novice entrepreneur it has not been easy to run the company and order the merchandise. “I didn’t know anyForecast
Flip flop wearers: For the love of all that is holy, put some real shoes on. You’re making me cold. Written by Allison Ferrini, Weather Report courtesy of www.weather.com
thing about the T-shirt industry when I first started Runaway Robot, so a lot of what I’ve learned has been buying samples and testing [them] out,” Ogloza said. “After a while you start to get the feel of it and find something you will be proud of and be able to stand behind it.” The company has required each of its members to venture into the clothing market in order to sell quality apparel. Diana Chan, a fourthyear psychology major and photographer for The Runaway Robot, said she had been interested in fashion when she was younger, but never got to pursue her dream. As part of the company, she now has the opportunity
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ucts such as iPhone cases, bike accessories and computer accessories are also sold. “We want to give students the most affordable and reliable option in town for repairing their most essential gadgets, including but not limited to their PC inexplicably crashing or iPhone screen cracking,” Andersen said. Aggie Tech is open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Claire Tan
Co-founder of Coursera to visit campus Thursday Daphne Koller, cofounder of Coursera, a major provider of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), is scheduled to visit campus Thursday to speak on developments in online education. The lecture, entitled “The Online Revolution: Education for Everyone,” will address MOOCs, top-quality courses from high-ranking universities that are offered for free. MOOCs use technology to bring real course experience to students, according to a press release from Koller. This includes video content, interactive exercises that use auto-grading and peergrading, and peer-to-peer interaction. Andy Jones, a continuing University Writing Program lecturer and Academic Associate Director for Academic Technology Services, said
he was intrigued by Koller after reading that she had received a MacArthur fellowship at 36 and a bachelor’s degree at 17, as well as a master’s degree a year later. “A thought leader in the fields of probability theory and machine learning, in the last year Koller has focused on higher education, and the potential game-changing arrival of Massively Open Online Courses (or MOOCs),” Jones said in an email interview. “We are lucky to have her present her ideas about technology and learning at UC Davis Thursday afternoon.” Currently, Koller is a professor of computer science at Stanford University. The event will take place at 1003 Kemper Hall from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. — Muna Sadek
Architect-contractor teams selected for campus art museum Three pairs of architect-contractor teams have been chosen by a museum selection committee to design and build the new Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, according to a Nov. 30 news release by the UC Davis News Service. The three finalist teams are, Kitchell as the contractor, WORKac as the design architect and Westlake Reed Leskosky as the executive architect; Oliver and Company as the contractor, Henning Larsen Architects as the design architect and Gould Evans as the executive architect; and Whiting-Turner as the contractor, SO–IL as the design architect and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson as the executive architect. The selection process included a series of evaluations and criteria such as art-exhibition experience, design ability, familiarity with the University, understanding of the art and academic communities and team cohesiveness and creativity, according to the release. Each team will have four months to prepare their designs and proposals. Final designs will be unveiled in April. In order to continue par-
ticipation with the campus community, an open call exhibition will be held Feb. 8 to Mar. 17 at Nelson Gallery, during the construction period. People are encouraged to present design ideas and visions for the future of the museum using mediums such as photography, drawings, essays and performances. Ideas and design contributions will be submitted directly to architects and all of the contributions will be displayed during the exhibition. Rachel Teagle, director of the art museum, said she is proud that the museum project has involved conversation and public opinions from open forum meetings. “This is the most direct way we could make sure that community input got to our architects and that it will have an impact on our final museum design,” said Teagle. Ideas can be submitted to kliwong@ucdavis. edu before Feb. 1 at 4 p.m. Winning ideas will be rewarded $500 cash. The museum is estimated to open in 2016. MENGSHI SHAO can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
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Allison Ferrini