Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 24

THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE SUNDAY 'Odober 30 2005 2 LOCAL Berkeley woman awarded $5000 college scholarship NetAid Global Action Award given for genocide education ROM STA REPORTS An 18 year old Berkeley woman has been awarded $5000 for college following a campaign to educate her peers about the geno cide in Darfur Sudan Annalise Blum and classmate Kath arine Kendrick 18 of San rancisco both graduates of the College Prepara tory School in Oakland were awarded the NetAid Global Action Awards The awards honor American high school students who have organised and led a project that has impacted people in poor countries or raised awareness about global poverty in their own communities NetAid officials said Students wore their ribbons on backpacks baseball hats shoelaces and shirts The students also spoke at school assemblies screened Blum and Kendrick will each' receive $5000 which they can use for college or give to a charitable cause of their choice NetAid organizers said The awards were given because the students educated others at their school about the genocide by selling green ribbons the color of Darfur awareness and donating the funds to Sudanese refugees and hosted guest speakers to teach their classmates about ethnic cleansing ollowing the success of the ribbon campaign the duo designed small wearable pins with pictures of baby chicks to raise money for the dis placed The price of the pin covered the cost of a live chicken for a family dis placed from Darfur The chicken's eggs provided a young people who have shown leader source of food for the hungry and ship in the areas of HIVAIDS preyen raising chickens provided an alterna tlon easlnghungej'and improving tlve livelihood for the refugees access io education The campaign which spread to a A panel of 14 including NBC dozen other high schools raised Anchor Ann Curry and Nobel Peace enough money to buy more than 1200 Laureate Elie Wiesel selected the hon chicks NetAid officials' said orees from hundreds of applicants Blum has deferred her admission to based on their innovation leadership Stanford University for a year to do and impact Thfy wjll be honored Noy tsunami relief work in Thailand and 9 in New York City then go to Cuba in the spring to film a New York based NetAid is a non documentary about idel Castro's edu profit organization that educates in cation program spires and empowers young people to Awards have also been given to fight global poverty Volunteers to perform for church VOLUNTEERS from Disciples of Christ churches throughout Northern California and Nevada are gathering in Oakland next Saturday for Day" a day of work and applied elbow grease to spruce up one of their own churches in need irst Christian Church on 29th Street and airmount Avenue are expecting as many as 250 volunteers to arrive on our doorstep and we have plenty for them to says John Hughes interim pastor for the church which has ties in Oakland dating to the 1870s Event organizers say Oak land's irst Christian Church is one of three out of 60 con gregations in its Northern Cali fornia region selected for this unique form of TLC bridge (near Sacramento) and Santa Cruz are the other two communities where these work parties are taking place on that day" says Hughes are comparing it to an old fashioned barn raising We will be landscaping roofing and painting taking care of all the deferred maintenance things an almost 80 year old church building needs" The Spanish Colonial Revi val style complex has stood at 29th and airmount since 1928 say history files The church's architect was the lo cally prominent William Weeks 1866 1936) who the files say was responsible for dozens of schools libraries and churches throughout the state in the 1920s and '30s His best known buildings still standing in Oakland include the Melrose Branch Library and two hotels: Hotel Lea mlngton on 19th and ranklin streets and the Lake Merritt Hotel on Lakeside Drive 1 1 nA 1 WET DOZENS VOLUNTEERS will be working Nov 5 to spruce up irst Christian Church on airmount Avenue Annalee ALLEN Distinctive Churrigueres que style stucco ornaments gracing the entry portals and atop its tall bell tower a mis sion tile roof and its promi nent hilltop site north of the lake are among stand out fea tures that make the landmark church unique say the files is an estimated 100000 square feet of space including the sanctuary a chapel classrooms and a fel lowship hall with commercial says church member Tim ields an architect by profession and current presi dent of the group up coming work day has been 8 months in the plaiming and we are striving to better serve the community by restoring these spaces in our complex Over time our congregation has dwindled down so we have become very creative about reusing the Currently two Korean LANDMARKS speaking church groups use the chapel a day care facility occupies the basement and AA Meetings take place at the complex on a regular basis ields explains oldest church member is 92 We recently renamed our library in Mr (William) honor" says ields joined the church in 1932 just four years after the church was According to history files Weeks (an active member of the group at the time) had pre viously designed an earlier church for the group at Grand Avenue and Webster Street Proceeds from the sale of the first church which was Mis sion Revival in style were used to build the new struc ture on airmount after it was determined the first location was better suited for commer cial development ields traces his irst Christian membership back but not quite 50 He says his mother pregnant with me when she Joined Her father was a disciple minister from Texas so our family's involvement goes back a long way This commitment to racial diversity has always been im portant to he adds Doris rancis a 38 year member of the church is in charge of the over all coordi nation for joined when I moved here from San rancisco" says rancis who admits to being in her 70s Among other things rancis will be making sure there is plenty of food for volunteers who put in the time Saturday A Stockton church has us" she says are expecting many of them to participate (in the work party)" Their pastor's father was a minister here There are many such ties and connections says rancis there are li censed contractors out there that want to join us I hope they will call Also we need young folks with plenty of en ergy to go up and down the Registrants and donors re ceive a commemorative shirt fellowship and thanks for a job well done says Hughes or more information on the ongoing activities at irst Christian Church and the Nov 5 Day" work party call 835 8167 Commuiiity leaders happy with Bella Vista new look PARK from Local 1 Vista Elementary School stu dents it was nothing more than a wasteland of cracked asphalt were peeing on it and one time 1 cut my foot on a piece of glass and had to go see the nurse" fifth grade student Juan Luna said riends of Bella Vista Park approached the nonprofit con servation agency Trust for Public Land and asked if the trust could help them make a park for both students and the community as a whole committed to doing these inner city playgrounds parks and community gardens because we know how much it benefits them the children and the people who live the trust's Reed Holderman said The trust not only applied for state grants and raised money from private donors it worked with the students and the com munity to redesign the park In 2003 city politics got in the way of progress and the stu dents reacted by a chalking" event where they drew their dream for the park on crumbling asphalt When work started moving along again the kids came back from Christmasbreak last year to find their play structure burned by vandals Bella Vista students reacted by holding a march declaring their love and dedication to their school which earned them a Crlssy ield Community Heroes award Construction began in earn est over the past year and it is nearly complete One day tiles designed by children and neigh bors will line the seating areas and a stairway connecting the school with the park congratulate all these people who hung in there and made sure this got built" Coun cilmember Pat Kemighan urnirui 510 581 6750 wwwbeckroofingonline £om BECK ROOING rnMPANV inc amily Owned And Operated Since 1957 utWtoi tpu want BEST" 21123 MEEKLAND AVE HAYWARD (Grand Lake Chinatown) said at the rally proves that if people are willing to stick with it these kinds of big plans can happen There is hope we can make things better in The Trust for Public Land the city of Oakland riends of Bella Vista Park state Assem blymember Wilma Chan teachers and neighborhood kids celebrated the opening of the park on Saturday The park is behind Bella Vista Elementary School at 1025 28th St Oakland 0 AUde by hand yet practical for everyday use We import and sell tohigh end retailers and must dear out excess inventory bytheendofthe year! ITALIAN CERAMICS GLASSWARE WAREHOUSE SALE Nov 5 6 10am 4pm Up to 70 Everything for the table kitchen home decor wwwtuttomlobiz 14496 Wicks Blvd San Leandro CA 94577 Directions: rom 880 exit Marina Blvd west Left at Merced which turns into Wicks at 4th light 14 mile on the left between Burroughs and Hke (before Coca Cola plant) Street Parking only Bring boxes and packing materials No calls please ami 4 I Chief talks of challenges CHIE from Local 1 nies but there are a lot of different techniques and technologies that we employ because of staffing levels Some fire stations are not situated in the centers of their districts Along the Em barcadero (for example) my big fear is that we don't have an adequate amount of pro tection there The station that was there in Jack Lpndon Square (Oakland ire Station 2) is no longer operational Do we have some gaps? Yeah we do have some gaps The department docked its 60 foot fire boat In 2003 when it shut down ire Station 2 because of budget cuts Any hope of bringing the fire boat back? A I'd love to I think a demonstrated need for the boat But we don't have the funding to pay for it Any other trouble spots we should know about? A We have some gaps throughout the city Along the Hayward fault line Whenever we get a major earthquake on that fault line we are going to have a con siderable amount of damage The populations that we saw in the (Hurricane) Katrina incident Those are generally the underserved people in any of our cities I have great concern about how do we best serve and protect those kinds of people We are looking at how we are going to respond to areas impacted (by a major dis aster) How are we going to shelter people? How will we evacuate people and provide water and food for them? Speaking of Katrina we saw an alarming failure on the part of certain gov ernment agencies to truly care for people when they were most vulnerable We know firefighters receive ongoing training to stay on top of firefighting tech niques etc but what about compassion training? Do firefighters re ceive training of that na ture? A Oh yeah yeah We constantly talk about and remind employees about how they are relating to citi zens It's our policy and my personal policy that people are treated with kindness respect and dignity We also have a number of organiza tions within the department One that comes to mind right off the top of my head is Random Acts where they in fact demonstrate that on an ongoing basis (Random Acts is a volunteer group tun by firefighters that has given Harry Potter books to innej city classrooms and a clothes dryer to senior citi zens and started reading groups for children) The quality of police departments is often judged by local crime rates How can we measure the success of a fire depart ment? A I think in a couple of ways Hopefully your fire loss is going down We (also) look at response times How long is it taking you to get there? (Nearly 91 percent of calls are responded to within seven minutes according to OD records) And of course the favorite is public opinion The public will tell you if you're doing a messy Job If you're doing a very good Job they generally have a problem telling you that either Do you think the Oakland ire Department is doing a good job? A Yes I do How could the de partment be better? A I would like to'see us become even more immersed in the community We up graded our medical care so I now have a paramedic on each and every engine a big big deal be cause they do a tremendous Job We have an aging popu lation One of the things I am looking at are ways we can provide some service to that aging population to en sure lheir long term health Those may be things such as having some scheduled visits a couple days a week to senior housing (where we would) do some simple things eg blood pressure checks and preventive medi cine types of things What that does is it begins to re move that idea that Just there when having a bad time Although people know that we are there to help serving people at not a very good time in their lives If we can interdict some of those things that helps Celebrations Congratulations Sharma Robinson and David Tolan On your wedding day Saturday October 15 2005 was one that will be remembered by all in attendance for a life time the ceremony conducted by Minister Valerie Troutt and was ordained by God Love and Tears of joy Ik i validated your marriage The ancestors love you and had given approval Your father James Tolan Sr sister Bridgette Tolan and Katherine Miller Johnson were there in spirit Your families Love you friends adore you May God Bless and keep you!" Prayers and Blessings from eldest member of our family Aunt Reba Williams Your Mother AnnamaeLouiseToltai 3 Celebrations.