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www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014 925.672.0500

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Clayton resident ChristyHarris died last week after along battle with cancer. She wasjust three weeks short of her50th birthday.

She was diagnosed inDecember 2012 when anannoying pain in her hip turnedout to be a fast-growing tumor.

Not one to go down with-out a fight, the spirited motherof three mounted a two yearbattle that included leadershipposts in Clayton’s Relay forLife, the two day event spon-sored by the American CancerAssociation.

In 2012, Harris served as

the event’s team recruitmentleader, never suspecting that,one year later, she would beleading her own team of morethan 100 around the field.“Team Christy” all wore brightblue t-shirts and a life-size like-ness of Harris towered over thewalkers. Across her blue-cladchest, she wore a banner thatread “Fighting Like Hell.”

In 2007, Harris and husbandJoel, realized a long-held dreamand opened Clayton Books inthe Clayton Station. For thenext three years, her quick witand “book banter” made thestore a community center. In2010, the store closed, unableto compete against publisherswho were selling online at less

than wholesale.Sadness spread through the

community at the news of herdeath. “She loved her family,her church, her neighbors,friends and Clayton Books,”said Sunny Solomon, long-timeemployee and the store’s BookLady. “The loss of a bookstoreis one thing, but the loss ofChristy Harris leaves a huge gapin the community of Clayton.”

“Christy loved the finerthings,” says her friend BethKenneally. “But lived for thesimple basic beauties in life;grace and love and grateful-ness…She was a shining light.”

See page 6 for obituaryand funeral arrangements.

Concord has a sister.Her name is Kitakami and

she lives in Japan. And, for 40years she and Concord have

been sisters.Like all sisters, when some-

thing bad happens to one, theother does something to makeher feel better.

So, when the earthquake andtsunami hit Fukushima Prefec-

ture three years ago and turnedlife in Japan upside down, Con-cord did something to make hersister feel better.

In Japan, legend has it if youmake 1000 origami cranes forsomeone who suffers, you are

sending good luck and hope forfull healing and recovery. Con-cord did one better for her sis-ter—she made 10,000 cranes!

Today, these cranes “fly”

By now, most people aroundthe Clayton Valley area areaware of the success of ClaytonValley Charter High School.

Now, some others are takingnotice:

The U.S. House of Repre-sentatives.

This week, CVCHS Execu-tive Director David Linzey andadministrator Neil McChesney

are in Washington D.C., speak-ing to members of Congress on“Raising the Bar: How CharterSchools are Impacting PublicEducation.”

“We’re very excited” Linzeysaid last week of the invitation,made on behalf of Congress-man George Miller, an earlysupporter of the CVCHS char-

ter. They are two of just fivecharter school leaders fromacross the country invited to theHouse of Representatives Con-gressional Hearing on Educa-tion and the Workforce onMarch 12.

“They want us to tell theCVCHS story,” Lindsay said.“They want to hear about the

great success and the dramaticchange in our school’s cultureonce we became a charterschool.”

Since becoming a charterschool in 2012, the school’s aca-demics have skyrocketed, andthe improvement in last year’sAPI scores made CVCHS oneof the top academic high school

in the state.Linzey and McChesney both

credit the change to becoming acharter school, yet they both saythat traditional schools can dothe same things, with the will,leadership and teacher support.

“Becoming a charter school

On Wednesday, March 5, theClayton City Council and Mt.Diablo Unified School districtheld a historic joint meeting.

During the struggles to winapproval for Clayton ValleyHigh School to become a char-ter school, it became apparentthat the relationship betweenour city council and the schooldistrict was very thin.

Vice Mayor David Shuey ledan effort to establish a strongerrelationship between the cityand the district. Unfortunately,the school board at the time hadno interest in meeting with ourcity council or a sub-committeeof our council.

However, I believe that ViceMayor Shuey’s efforts exposed aneed for greater collaborationbetween the MDUSD and thecities that it serves.

Council meets withMDUSD trustees

See Origami page 4

Rochelle Douglass; rochellezphotography.com

ON THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE FUKUSHIMA EARTHQUAKE, an origami sculpture created from more than 10,000 cranes hangs inthe lobby of the Brendan Theater. The cranes represent luck and healing and were folded by the community to supportConcord’s sister city in Japan.

National leaders to hear of CVCHS successLinzey, McChesney speak in Washington of high school’s conversion to charter

See CVCHS, page 8

‘Team Christy’ captain loses battle with cancer

Tamara Steiner

CHRISTY HARRIS WITH HUSBAND JOEL, led more than 100 sup-porters in the first laps of the 2013 American Cancer SocietyRelay for Life while undergoing chemo for a fast spreadingcancer. Harris lost the battle last week after “Fighting LikeHell” for nearly two years.

The city of Clayton justturned the Big 5-0.

As many residents know,the town of Clayton wasfounded by Joel Clayton in1857 but it took 107 years tobecome an incorporated city.In 1964, a dedicated group offounding mothers and fathersvigorously resisted a potentialtake-over by Concord, work-ing to ensure Clayton’s inde-pendence and self-direction.

Fifty years ago, on March3, 1964, in a record turnout,91 percent of the town’s 364registered voters cast their bal-lots for independence. Themeasure passed 251 to 61 andClayton became Contra CostaCounty’s 13th city. The firstcity council meeting was heldon March 18 of that year.

To commemorate the city’s50th anniversary, the ClaytonHistorical Society will open aspecial new exhibit at theClayton Museum at 4:30 p.m.next Tuesday, March 18.

At 7 p.m., the “liberty” bellwill ring once more when theClayton City Council meets inthe historic Endeavor Hall tocommemorate that first citycouncil meeting. The public isinvited to share in the celebra-tion. Rumor has it, there willbe birthday cake.

Museum,councilcelebrate 50 years

CLAYTON’S FIRST CITY HALL wasin a tiny red building at thecorner of Oak and MainStreets. The building waslater a real estate office anda hair salon. It burned downThanksgiving weekend,2010. The photo was takenby Eldora Hoyer whose hus-band, Bob Hoyer, wasClayton’s first mayor.

Origami crane sculpture sends support to sister city

See Mayor page 6

TAMARA STEINER

Clayton Pioneer

TAMARA STEINER

Clayton Pioneer

PEGGY SPEAR

Clayton Pioneer

HANK STRATFORD

MAYOR’S CORNER

Front PageAdvertising IItt WWoorrkkssPut your ‘sticky note’ here& listen to the phone ring.

Call Clayton Pioneer 925-672-0500

Students, teachers and par-ents filled Hoyer Hall last weekwhen the Clayton City Councilhonored eight local students fortheir outstanding Self-disciplineas part of the Do The RightThing program.

From MDES, Ella Haber-meyer and Jared Rickard wereeach recognized by their teach-ers for their maturity. “Ella setsthe perfect example,” said herteacher, Mrs. Ills.

“No matter how much of agoofball everyone else is being,Jared is always in control,” histeacher said.

Diablo View Middle Schoolprincipal, Patti Bannister, stoodwith Payton Mannie and Madi-son Webster and relayed theirteachers’ comments. Studentbody president, Payton Mannie,is “quiet, motivated and directsstudents. She has really helpedwhile her teacher has been outon maternity leave.”

Madison Webster, the

school’s yearbook editor, wasremarkable for her consistency,said Mrs. Bannister. She has alsostepped up while her teacher hasbeen out. “She is just a general-ly nice person,” she said.

From Clayton Valley CharterHigh School, Shane Reardonwas nominated by his scienceteacher who said he “gives his alleveryday. He is serious andwants everything just right.”

Megan Lobsinger’s teacher,Jeanne Costello, said “Megan isan awesome student. She workshard, she’s kind and I could justgo on and on.”

Miguel Hernandez is “intrin-sically” motivated, his teachersaid. “He doesn’t need motiva-tion from anyone except him-self.”

Ariana Rahbari was honoredbut was not present for theawards.

The DTRT initiative hasbeen enthusiastically adopted bythe schools, police and commu-

nity groups. The program iden-tifies six character traits that areemphasized on a rotating basisthroughout the year: Self-disci-pline, Integrity, Courage,Responsibility, Respect andKindness.

To bean or not tobean…that was the questionthat 18 local chefs had to answerbefore they filled their pots inpreparation for the 14th annualClayton Club Chili Cook-off onMarch 2. Ten of the chili-meis-ters were from Clayton, sevenfrom Concord and one fromBay Point.

First place and a $300 prizewent to Tammy Parris fromConcord, who has participated

in this contest three times andcame in first place in 2010. Par-ris wouldn’t share her winningrecipe but said that her mediumspicy chili included tri-tip andpork sausage and no beans.

Second place and $200 wasawarded to Clayton residentRenee Stevenson, whose mildchili was made with beef, baconand black beans.

Savanna Rike of Claytontook third place and a $100

prize with her medium-spicychili made with brisket, porkbelly and red beans.

The lucky judges were Clay-ton City Council membersHoward Geller and Jim Diazand Clayton Pioneer PublisherRobert Steiner. The chili wasgraded on a scale of 1 to 10,based on their aroma, color,thickness, flavor/taste, andaftertaste.

Jennifer Jay

CVCHS teacher, JenniferDeAngelis will marry Christo-pher Krnich in Piedmont onJune 14. The couple announcedtheir engagement at a familywine tasting party in Sonoma onFeb. 23.

Jennifer is a 2002 ClaytonValley High graduate and thedaughter of Don and JeanneDeAngelis. She graduated fromChico State University in 2006.

Christopher graduated fromClayton Valley in 2000 and fromNorthern Arizona University in2004 He is a sales representativefor Liberty Mutual Insurance.

Christopher is the son ofAnn and Randy Welty of Clay-ton and Nick and FlorenzaKrnich of Rancho Santa Fe,CA.

Jennifer DeAngelis,Christopher Krnichplan June wedding

Fourth-grader Reagan Richardsonwon the Highlands Elementary spellingbee on Feb. 7. She competed against 15of the top spellers from the fourth andfifth grades, winning with “anonymity”and “juxtapose.”

Reagan is currently preparing tocompete in the county spelling bee onMar. 22.

Motivated, disciplined students recognized by City Council

Chefs awarded Chili Cook-off prizes

DTRT STUDENTS HONORED AT MARCH 4 CITY COUNCIL MEETING:Back row: Mayor Hank Stratford, Payton Mannie, ShaneReardon, Miguel Hernandez, Megan Lobsinger and MadisonWebster; Front: Ella Habermeyer and Jared Rickard.

Reagan Richardson wins Highland Bee

Photo: Jennifer Jay

14TH ANNUAL CLAYTON CLUB CHILI CONTEST JUDGES AND WINNERS: From left, Jim Diaz, TammyParris, Howard Geller, Renee Stevenson, Bob Steiner, Savanna Rike and Clayton Club owner,Steve Barton.

Page 2 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

Around Town

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35 Jalalon Place ..................$526,000 . . . .1749 . . . . .3/2.5 . . . . . .2/27/14

585 Mount Olivet .................$660,000 . . . .2177 . . . . .4/3 . . . . . . .2/27/14

5190 Keller Ridge Drive.......$785,000 . . . .3079 . . . . .3/3 . . . . . . .2/25/14

5848 Mitchell Canyon Ct .....$760,000 . . . .2924 . . . . .5/2.5 . . . . . .2/24/14

1549 Haviland Pl .................$600,000 . . . .1739 . . . . .4/3 . . . . . . .2/21/14

1800 Trail Ride Rd...............$530,000 . . . .1819 . . . . .3/2.5 . . . . . .2/18/14

5023 Keller Ridge Drive.......$590,000 . . . .1911 . . . . .4/2.5 . . . . . .2/14/14

1169 Shell Lane ...................$406,000 . . . .1355 . . . . .3/2.5 . . . . . .2/13/14

3022 Windmill Canyon Dr....$601,500 . . . .1877 . . . . .3/2.5 . . . . . . .2/4/14

214 Mountaire Circle............$700,000 . . . .2743 . . . . .5/2.5 . . . . . . .2/3/14

308 Mount Palomar Place ...$671,000 . . . .2694 . . . . .5/3 . . . . . . .1/23/14

70 Weatherly Drive ..............$606,300 . . . .1782 . . . . .3/2.5 . . . . . .1/22/14

3 Long Creek Circle.............$309,000 . . . .966 . . . . . .2/2 . . . . . . .1/15/14

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The Clayton CommunityLibrary will celebrate its 19thbirthday at the annual Creek-side Arts festival March 21, 22and 23.

“Creekside Arts 2014!Mount Diablo…Rising Fromthe Ashes” will highlight therecent Morgan Fire, and the

regeneration of the local hill-sides affected by the blaze.

Nature is just part of thefocus of the festival, whichcelebrates the visual and per-forming arts and culture of thecommunity through art sales,craft demonstrations andentertainment.

Here is a schedule ofevents:

Friday, March 21, 6 to8:30 p.m.: Opening reception,sampling of art for sale,demonstrations by local artists,and refreshments.

Saturday, March 22, 10a.m. to 6 p.m.: More than 40artists will be on hand todemonstrate and sell theirwares, including plein air paint-ing with Patsy Taylor; mem-bers of Walnut Creek CivicArts; a copper enamelingdemonstration by Rana Miller-Owen; and “Cora’s Quilt,” aClayton Civil War tale of ayoung girl living on Mt. Dia-blo, told by Joy Koonin inauthentic period clothing andincluding quilt square crafts.There will also be wildlifeexperts, including representa-tives from Save Mount Diablo,who will discuss “Mount Dia-blo Morgan Fire and Regener-ation on the Mountain,” withan outdoor tour to follow.Artist Jeffrey DeSalles will leadthe Clayton Spring Artwalktour through downtown Clay-ton, followed by a “Meet theAuthor, Artist, Eco Group”question-and-answer sessions.

Sunday, March 23, 12 to 5p.m. (Library opens at 1 p.m.):Ongoing sales and exhibits bymore than 40 East Bayartists/vendors; children’sentertainment; craft demon-strations; and a performancepoetry workshop with TazYamaguchi, an award-winningfilmmaker. There will also be a“Ukulele Jam” with Ehu Ali-don, and a demonstration of

Taiko drumming by DiabloTaiko.

Festival-goers can also votefor their favorite artwork inthe People’s Choice Award, tobe announced at the end ofthe weekend.

The event will be heldthroughout the inside of thelibrary, Hoyer Hall communityroom, adjoining outdoorcourtyard and interpretive areain the certified wildlife habitat.For more information contactArlene at 925-673-9777, emailcreeksideartsfest@gmail.com,or visit claytonlibrary.org.

Creekside Arts festival highlights fire

MICHAEL YASHAR’S OIL PAINTING, REFLECTION POND #2, is just oneof several paintings on exhibit during the Creekside ArtsCelebration next weekend at the Clayton library. Pictured arelibrary staff members Doug Thomas and Karen Hansen-Smith.

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Page 4 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

across the lobby of the BrendanTheater downtown Concord in a60’ foot long banner that lookslike an inverted rainbow.

The sculpture, which wasunveiled to the public last Sun-day, was created by Diablo ValleyCollege teacher Sean Olson tomark the third anniversary ofthe Fukushima tsunami. Olsonhas worked with large origamiinstallations in the past. Hislargest was constructed of25,000 pieces that he made him-self.

The sculpture, althoughinstalled in sections, looks seam-less. Working with a glue gun,Olson hung the origami birds,some with wingspan of less thanan inch, others up to a foot wide,

in a soft, subtle pattern of colorthat stretches side to side acrossthe lobby.

“I wanted texture rather thana solid set of colors,” Olson said.“Not blunt; softer, more sub-tle—unlike the space.”

His challenge with this proj-ect was not one of numbers, butof time. He typically needs atleast six months to complete aninstallation. He didn’t start onthis one until October.

The crane project first tookflight after the tsunami, at a can-dlelight vigil in Todos SantosPlaza held by Concord Ambas-sadors, volunteers who coordi-nate the Sister City Program.The community responded firstwith 1000 cranes, then 5000,

then 8,000, until finally morethan 10,000 of the brightly col-ored, folded paper cranes filledthe garage of one of the volun-teers.

“I have been amazed at thecommunity support,” Olsonsaid. “People coming out tomake cranes for something thathappened on the other side ofthe world.”

The unveiling of the sculp-ture last Sunday kicks off prepa-rations for the sister city visit inOctober when a delegation fromKitakami will arrive in Concordto commemorate the 40thanniversary of the two cities’ sis-terhood.

The relationship began in1974 when two cable TV execu-tives met at a conference,became friends and persuadedtheir city leaders to approve thepartnership. Every five years, adelegation from one city visitsthe other.

When the Kitakami delega-tion visits Concord in October,they will need places to stay.Those who wish to host a visitorshould contact city clerk, MaryRae Lehman (925) 671-3495 forinformation.

The origami sculpture will beon display during theater hoursat the Brendan Theater, 1985Willow Pass Rd. There is nocharge to enter the lobby forthose who only want to view thesculpture.

For more information on the Con-cord Ambassadors and Kitakami, goto www.concordambassadors.org.

Mount Diablo State Park willhost the Stage 3 finish of the2014 Amgen Tour of Californiabike race, and the park is lookingfor a few hundred friends to helpout.

Park officials are looking torecruit several hundred volun-teers as course marshals, in hos-

pitality, in media support and ahost of other volunteer roles.The finish will be on Tuesday,May 13 at the Summit. Thisevent will attract many thou-sands of spectators and liveworldwide TV coverage. It isone of the premier road bikeraces in the world and will fea-

ture the best international ridersand teams competing today. Inpast years the race has swungthrough the streets of Claytonand Walnut Creek.

To register as a prospective vol-unteer visit www.amgentourofcali-fornia.com/Tour/volunteer.html.

Amgen Race seeks volunteer marshals

THE FOLDED PAPER BIRDS making up the sculpture range in sizefrom less than one inch to more than a foot across.

Origami, from page 1

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agents. Call 693-0757 for details.

Real Estate Agents

Be Successful! Lynne French is

expanding and interviewing for a

few agents. Call her today 672-

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VOLUNTEERS

NEEDED

Help Fight Hunger

Anna Chan – AKA: The Lemon

Lady needs your help! Weekly

commitment appreciated. For

more info and contact numbers,

go to thelemonlady.blogspot.com.

Clayton Historical Society

Museum

The Clayton Historical Society

Museum needs a greeter for two

hours per month from 2-4 p.m.

Wednesdays or Sundays. Call the

museum at 672-0240 and leave

your name.

Clayton Community Library

Needs volunteers. Minimum age

13. Minimum commitment is 6

months. Some training provided.

Contact Arlene at 673-9777 or

nielsenjanc@aol.com.

Meals on Wheels

Meals on Wheels is looking for

volunteer drivers one day a week

between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30

p.m. Make a tremendous differ-

ence to seniors in your communi-

ty. Contact Sharon Fitzgerald at

932-8607 or sfitzgerald@

mowsos.org today!

P.O. Box 1246

6200 Center Street, Suite H, Clayton, CA 94517

TAMARA AND ROBERT STEINER, PublishersTAMARA STEINER, EditorPETE CRUZ, Graphic DesignPEGGY SPEAR, Copy Editor JAY BEDECARRÉ, Sports PAMELA WIESENDANGER, Administration

STAFF WRITERS: Denisen Hartlove, Pam Wiesendanger, Peggy SpearWe remember Jill Bedecarré - Her spirit is our muse

AUTOMOTIVE

Clayton Valley Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .672-3900

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Iron Horse Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .566-8666

Tipperary Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216-2679

Dining and Entertainment

Clayton Club Saloon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .673-0440

Oakhurst Country Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .672-9737

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Scavenger Hunt – Smile Tu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280-4880

Financial, Insurance and Legal Services

DuRee, Daniel – The Law Office of . . . . . . . . . . .210-1400

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Travis Credit Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .888-698-0000

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Doorstep Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .349-4568

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Clayton Furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .686-2299

Diablo Lawnscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381-3757

Interiors Panache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .672-7920

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Nichols Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .672-9955

The Floor Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .969-9890

The Maids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .798-6243

Utopic Gardens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .524-0055

Waraner Bros. Tree Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .831-2323

Waraner Tree Experts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .250-0334

Mailing Services

The UPS Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .689-6245

Optometry

Foresight Optometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .672-4100

Pet Services

Cat Hospital of Clayton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .672-2287

Monte Vista Veterinary Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . .276-5744

Pittsburg Pet Resort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .432-7387

Rodie's Feed and Pet Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .672-4600

Real Estate and Mortgage Services

French, Lynne – Windermere Real Estate . . . . . .672-8787

Howard, Don – Better Homes Realty . . . . . . . . . .408-3184

Howard, Emily – Better Homes Realty . . . . . . . .408-1871

Klock, Leigh – Coldwell Banker . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212-5593

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Vujnovich, George - Better Homes Realty . . . . . .672-4433

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Earthquake Arabians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .360-7454

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Diamond Terrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .524-5100

Services, Other

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Recycling Center & Transfer Station . . . . . . . . . .473-0180

Travel

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Directory of Advertisers

PIONEER INFOCONTACT USTel: (925) 672-0500Fax: (925) 672-6580

Tamara Steinertamara@claytonpioneer.com

Send ads toads@claytonpioneer.com

Send Sports News tosports@claytonpioneer.com

Send Club News toclubnews@claytonpioneer.com

Send Church News tochurchnews@claytonpioneer.com

Send School News toschoolnews@claytonpioneer.com

Send Classified Ads toclassified@claytonpioneer.com

CLASSIFIEDSClassified rates per insertion:$48 for first 30 words, 40 cents

each additional word Non-profit: $24 for first 30

words, 20 cents each additional word To place your classified ad over thephone, call the office at (925) 672-0500 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. All classifieds must be paid for inadvance by credit card (Master Cardor Visa) We will not accept any ad thatdiscriminates on the basis of race,color, sex, religion, nationality, familystatus or disability. The Clayton Pio-neer reserves the right to reject anyadvertising we believe is unsuitable.

LET US KNOW Weddings, engagements, anniver-

saries, births and deaths all weavetogether as part of the fabric of ourcommunity. Please let us know ofthese important events. We ask onlythat the announcement be for a resi-dent in our home delivery area. Sub-mit on our website and be sure toattach a JPG photo that is at least 3

MB but not bigger than 6MB. Youcan also mail or bring your print tothe office and we can scan it for you.

Also on the website are forms forcalendar items, events & press releases.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORThe Clayton Pioneer welcomes

letters from our readers. As a generalrule, letters should be 250 words orless and submitted at least one weekprior to publication date. Letters con-cerning current issues will have prior-ity. We may edit letters for length andclarity. All letters will be published atthe editor’s discretion. Please includename, address and daytime telephonenumber. We will not print anonymousletters. E-mail your letter totamara@claytonpioneer.com. Lettersmust be submitted via E-mail.

CIRCULATIONTotal circulation of the Clayton

Pioneer is 15,500. Papers are deliv-ered to households in ZIP codes94517, 94518 and 94521.

In Clayton, all papers are deliv-ered Every Door Direct by the USPost Office. We cannot start or stopdelivery to individual addresses.

All Concord delivery is by carrierand delivered twice a month on a Fri-day morning. To stop delivery for anyreason, call the office at (925) 672-0500 or email circulation@clayton-pioneer.com.

If you are NOT receiving thePioneer, please check the distributionmap on the website. If you live in theshaded area and are not receiving thepaper, please call us or send an emailto circulation@claytonpioneer.com.If you are not in the shaded area,please be patient. We will come toyour neighborhood soon.

SUBSCRIPTIONSTo subscribe, call the office at

(925) 672-0500. Subscriptions are$50/year and are for full year only.

Classified

IntegrityDo the Right Thing

March 14, 2014 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com Page 5

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With nearly 2 million veter-ans in California and a genera-tion of them returning homefrom two wars, Contra CostaCounty Library has launched atimely and relevant project,War Ink, an online exhibit ofIraq and Afghanistan veteranmemorial tattoo art.

War Ink will launch on Vet-erans Day 2014, and representsa platform to explore the unfil-tered record of war that veter-ans have documented on theirbody; their story, told theirway.

Currently, War Ink will con-sist of a virtual-multimedia

exhibit of 18 veterans. Eachveteran’s story surroundingtheir tattoos will be recordedby StoryCorps’ Military VoicesInitiative, and be pho-tographed by Shaun Robertswhose work has been featuredin GQ and Wired.com. Theexhibit will be curated by JasonDeitch, a former Amy Rangerand PhD graduate from theUniversity of California,Berkeley. Veterans interestedin the project are encouragedto contact Jason directly atjasonadeitch@gmail.com or510-593-8423.

CCC Library seeks tattooedveterans for ‘War Art’ exhibit

FREE LAWN

MOWINGIf you are in need of your lawn

mowed due to some hardship,

email bearcat1824@yahoo.com.

Clayton resident. Not a profes-

sional; just looking to help some-

one that needs it.

TUTORS NEEDEDDiablo Valley Literacy Council,

English tutors. Must attend both

training classes: Mar. 22, Mar. 29.

Nominal fee for training and

materials. Go to dvlc.tripod.com,

call 685-3881 or email

dvlc4esl@gmail.com.

FOR LEASEOffice and retail space for lease

in Historic Clayton City Center:

Village Oaks Center, 6200 Center

St., Clayton. Call Nick Adamson

at (408) 371-8770, ext. 21.

Christine Diane Harris died Wednesday,March 5, 2014, after a 16 month strugglewith cancer. She was born March 28, 1964(a long held secret) in Los Angeles, Califor-nia to David G. and Marcene Munson. In1969 the family moved to Littleton, Col-orado, where they lived for 10 years beforereturning to California to live in Concord.

Christy graduated from Concord HighSchool (1982) and Golden Gate University.She worked briefly at JC Penney and thenfor about seven years at Chevron USA inConcord and San Ramon. From 2007 to2010 Christy owned and managed ClaytonBooks. She was active in clubs, school activ-ities, and several volunteer organizations.

In 1990, Christy married Joel A. Harris ina beautiful ceremony at Treasure Island, andin 1993 they welcomed their first child,Andrew David Harris, joined in 1996 bydaughter Amy Janilee Harris. In 2004 theywelcomed Christy’s sister’s child, CarterMunson-Ring, into their family.

Christy and Joel especially enjoyed enter-taining friends and family at their home inClayton. They loved family vacations to

Tahoe, Disneyland, Florida, Hawaii, Canada,Alaska and Mexico. Recent trips to Africaand Norway were special highlights. Christyand her family could regularly be found atGiants games in their seats in section 115,cheering on their son Andy as he served as abatboy for the visiting teams.

In December 2012, Christy was diag-nosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Inthe following months, she underwentnumerous surgeries and procedures at JohnMuir Hospital in Walnut Creek and at UCSFHospitals in San Francisco. She continuedto maintain her hope for a cure and moretime to spend with her family until the can-cer returned. She died peacefully surround-ed by her loving family.

Christy was a gregarious person wholoved fun and valued friendship highly. Shenourished friendships with so many over theyears, from high school friends, her moms’

groups, neighbors, authors and bookstoreclients, everyone she met. Those friends ral-lied around her in amazing ways during herillness, and her family is so grateful for allthe support offered.

In 2013, Christy and her family spear-headed Team Christy in the American Can-cer Society’s Relay for Life fundraiser, andraised an amazing $40,000 for cancerresearch, with the help of the Clayton com-munity, friends and family. Christy wouldlove nothing more than to be rememberedthrough Team Christy returning for Relayfor Life 2014 to be held on August 16 inClayton. Please sign up for Team Christyand donate through the Clayton Relay forLife website.

Christy will be much missed but hercourage and selflessness serve all of us as awonderful example of how to meet adversi-ty and her love of life inspires us to treasureeach day we have.

Christy is survived by her husband, Joel,son Andrew, daughter Amy, son CarterMunson-Ring, and her parents; along withaunts Donna Kieffer, Joanne Keefe, CarolPerson (Peter), Julie Bothun, and RebeccaAsk (Paul); uncle Lee Peterson (Mary); manycousins and their families; in-laws, Normanand Esther Harris, sister-in-law MarleneCommon (Doug). She was preceded indeath by her sister, Cat Helen Munson, heruncle Alan Peterson, her grandparents, Clif-ford Munson and Gwendolyn Dague andAlton and Helen Peterson; and cousinsErick Person, Peter Chiglo III, and JessePeterson.

Funeral services will be held at GoodShepherd Lutheran Church, 4000 ClaytonRoad in Concord on March 15 at 2 p.m.

Per Christy, Team Christy shirts areappropriate attire.

Please donate to Relay for Life TeamChristy and sign up for the team's event onAug. 18 at Relayforlife.org.

Page 6 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

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THROUGH MARCH 31, 2014

When current School Board PresidentBarbara Oaks reached out to schedule ameeting we were grateful and excited for theopportunity to meet. Along with PresidentOaks, board members Linda Mayo andCheryl Hansen (a Clayton resident) met withthe Clayton City Council in our meetingroom at the Clayton Library.

MDUSD Superintendent Dr. NellieMeyer gave a presentation on the new LocalControl and Accountability Plan (LCAP)and new Local Control Funding Formulas(LCFF.) The state is changing the way itfunds our schools and the way our schoolsare being held accountable. Details are stillbeing worked out but the district seemsenthusiastic about the changes.

We shared what we have been doing as acommunity to promote good character withour Do the Right Thing program.

The Board provided information onenrollment, student achievement, the newCommon Core standards and improvementprojects. Police Chief Chris Thorsen, talkedabout the ongoing challenges at Mt. DiabloElementary School around traffic safety.

The meeting ended with a mutual appre-ciation for the opportunity to exchangeinformation and to have an open dialogue.We sincerely appreciate Barbara Oaks,Cheryl Hansen and Linda Mayo, along withDr. Nellie Meyer and the other districtemployees who were in attendance, for tak-ing the time to meet with us.

The two governing bodies expressed thedesire to meet again, possibly on an annualbasis. We hope that what started off as a his-torical meeting turns into a regular occur-rence.

Email your questions or comments tohstratford@ci.clayton.ca.us

Obituaries

Christine Diane HarrisMarch 28, 1964 – March 5, 2014

Leslie Ann Castro, a 25-year resident ofClayton, died on February 1.

She was a native Californian, raised inWalnut Creek.

She loved to cook and entertain. Camp-ing and traveling to historic sites werefavorite pastimes. She enjoyed music andclassic TV shows and movies. Leslie lovedher Bay Area sports teams and was alwayscheering for the A’s and 49ers. She was a doglover and always had a soft spot in her heartfor all animals.

There will be a memorial service onMarch 15 at Unity of Walnut Creek, 1871Geary Rd., Walnut Creek, CA 94597

Leslie Ann CastroDecember 13, 1954 – February 1, 2014

(Editor’s note: “6th Man”refers to the school’s fans)

In a story by NorthgateReporter Ivar Laanen in theJan. 17 issue of the Pioneer(“Bad blood ignites meleebetween Northgate and Col-lege Park”), a showdownbetween rivals Northgate andCollege Park basketball (Clay-ton Pioneer, Jan. 17, 2014)received some negative atten-tion. It was said that a “near-riot was averted.

The game that took place atNorthgate a month agobrought out both schools’ 6thMan as well as many fans. Col-lege Park recently revampedtheir 6th Man and has tightcontrols over any chants, com-plete with weekly meetingswith the principal and studentleaders …

(According to student lead-ers) “6th man is meant touphold a positive and compet-itive atmosphere in order tomotivate and support ourteam, not to create a hostileenvironment directing offen-sive remarks toward the oppo-site team.”

During the game, fanscould hear the NG 6th Manchanting profane and vulgarremarks, including a posterregarding a recent transferfrom NG to CP with an offen-sive message. CP had strongadministrator supervision dur-ing the game, and their 6thman remained in positiveform.

Post game, there was someshouting between CP and NG,but no fights occurred. NGdid follow through with notallowing their 6th man to

attend the following game atCP. There were no issues atthe CP game. If administra-tors demonstrate effectiveleadership by simply havingseparate entrances and exits,strong administrator presence,and allowing only appropriatechants, problems can be avert-ed. Changing games times toavoid potential conflicts isunnecessary and punishesplayers, students and parents.There are many healthy rival-ries in existence, and theyshould remain that way.

Christine Crosno

Favors sales tax hike CCCFPD

I received a call last nightfrom a survey companyregarding a new proposed salestax increase that the ContraCosta Transportation Com-mission is considering for anupcoming ballot. A half cent

sales tax already goes to theCCTC. They want to doubleit… I would rather spend(that) added half penny salestax to assist our fire dis-tricts…I want to propose asolution to help (CCCFPD) by(directing) the other half apenny to them. I would voteyes in a heartbeat for the halfcent for fire protection servic-es in Contra Costa. Everyonehas heard that the fire districtsin this county are having seri-ous financial problems. It alsoappears that parcel tax meas-ures are not popular and haveand will fail…I would be will-ing to pay one half of onepenny on sales tax because …it would create about $75 mil-lion for our fire districts. Socontact your representatives,politicians, mayors, and let’sget this critically important firesuppression and EMT/Para-medic delivery under control.

John A GonzalesKnightsen

Letters to the EditorCollege Park says no ‘melee’

East Contra Costa FireProtection District will not puta $98 parcel tax on the ballotin June.

At the March 3 meeting, adeeply divided board voted 5-4against the June ballot after asurvey mailed to 42,000 EastCounty residents produced adismal 863 responses, less than2 percent. While 87 percent ofthose responding supportedthe tax, the low response raterendered the survey “irrele-vant,” said district consultant,

Charles Heath.In January, a phone survey

of 300 voters conducted byUnited Professional Firefight-ers Union told a much darkerstory. In a scientifically con-ducted poll, only 54 percentsaid they would support a par-cel tax.

“Going in June is the equiv-alent of a Hail Mary pass,”Director Greg Cooper said. Henoted that nothing hadchanged since the 2012 elec-tion when 56 percent of thevoters rejected a $197 parceltax.

The consultant hired by thedistrict to conduct the mailing

said it would be “virtuallyimpossible” to pass the parceltax on the June ballot.

So, the district will step uppublic education efforts andwait until the November gen-eral election

Other board membersviewed the mailer in a morepositive light. DirectorStephen Smith thought, giventhe poor response, 87 percentsupport was encouraging. “Itshows that a little aggressiveeducation can have goodresults.”

The survey was not sent toresidents in the MarshCreek/Morgan Territory area

which is served by the Sun-shine Station. Director CherylMorgan suspected it wasbecause the consultant elimi-nated addresses in the 94517ZIP, assuming they are withinthe Contra Costa County FireProtection District. Shedoubts, however, that it wouldhave made a significant differ-ence in the outcome.

East County Fire is cur-rently operating on a federalSAFER grant which will runout in November. Waiting untilthe general election will costthe district $4 million, andeven if the tax passes then, itwill be a full year before the

district sees any revenue,requiring the closing of one,possibly two stations.

The district must have fivestations to adequately respondto a structural fire, said Chair-man Joel Bryant.

When we closed to threestations (after the 2012 parceltax failed), we lost lives; I cangive you names,” Bryant said inan impassioned plea to theboard to go with the June bal-lot. “Whatever number of sta-tions below five means some-

one will call 911 and therewon’t be anyone there.”

Regardless of which ballotthe measure was on, the parceltax is “just a band aid,” Bryantsaid. “I support it to buy time.”

The proposed parcel tax will“sunset” in five years, leavingthe district right back where it istoday. Whether or not the taxmeasure is approved, DirectorStephen Smith states that hefavors exploring a merger withContra Costa County Fire Pro-tection District.

Last month, my articlerevolved around safety on ourroadway here in Clayton. Ispoke of the “Three E’s” oftraffic (Engineering, Educa-

tion, and Enforcement). Ireceived several commentsregarding that article, mostencouraging the Clayton PoliceDepartment to take a moreaggressive role in the“enforcement” component.

Interestingly, the commentscried for more tickets. Thenumbers vary, but on a month-ly basis, the police departmentissues anywhere from 40 to100 tickets. Violations rangefrom speeding, running stopsigns, cell phone violations,right of way violations, etc.

Officers do not cite everyperson they stop; they havediscretion and in some caseschoose to give the violator a

break, issuing only a warning.While this may be disappoint-ing to some, I’m sure it makesthe day of that lucky motoristwho catches a break.

In response to a complaintreceived after last month’s arti-cle, we have placed the surveytrailer in a particular area ofthe city, had our officersobserve to verify the severityof the problem, analyzed itwith respect to time of day andtraffic volume, and yes, evenissued several speeding tickets.

At the Clayton PoliceDepartment, we don’t have adedicated traffic enforcementofficer. All the staff is respon-sible for traffic enforcement.

They also respond to calls forservice ranging from visitingrattle snakes to serious crimi-nal matters. With the resourcesavailable, I believe we are pro-viding excellent overall serviceto our community.

I thank those who took thetime to inform me of trafficmatters they have witnessed.Our swift response to at leastsome of the complaints is tes-tament to the commitment ofthe Clayton Police Depart-ment in working with ourcommunity to solve thesematters.

March 14, 2014 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com Page 7

Q. Several people havetold me to try to buy a prop-erty instead of renting. Theysaid I can build wealth dueto equity. What is equity?

A. A big benefit of buyingreal estate is that you can buyan expensive asset with a rela-tively small amount of yourown cash. This is called lever-age. As your home increases invalue over time — calledappreciation — you earnappreciation on the entireproperty, not just your down-payment amount.

Home equity is the differ-ence between the value of ahome and the liens (usuallymortgages) secured against it.If you buy a $400,000 homeusing a 10 percent cash downpayment and a 90 percentmortgage, you will have$40,000 in equity in the prop-erty. If the property were toincrease 7 percent in just one

year, the property value wouldrise 7 percent to $428,000.However, your equity wouldincrease 70 percent — from$40,000 to 68,000. This is thebeauty of leverage.

Some mortgages help buildequity faster than others. Anamortized loan is completelypaid back during the loan

term. A portion of eachmonthly payment pays theinterest owed and a portiongoes to paying back theamount borrowed (called prin-cipal). So if you borrow$340,000 and it’s paid backwith amortized payments over30 years, you owe the lendernothing at the end of thattime. When you pay the loanoff you will have an additional$340,000 equity in the proper-ty.

Sometimes your leveragecan backfire if property valuesdrop significantly and you haveto sell your home. Despiteperiods of deflation, though,residential real estate in thiscountry has tended to appreci-ate over time. Other ways tobuild equity include payingdown your mortgage by mak-ing extra payments andincreasing the value of yourhome through cost-effectiveimprovements. Also, the short-

er the term of a fully amor-tized mortgage, the quicker theequity build-up. You buildequity faster with a 15 yearamortized loan than one that isamortized over 30 years.

Interest-only loans aren’tamortized, so you will notbuild equity. Another way todeplete equity is to refinanceinto a larger mortgage and takethe difference in the two loanamounts out in cash. This iscalled a “cash out” mortgage.Letting your home fall into dis-repair is another way to dimin-ish your equity. Keeping yourhome well-maintained helps toprotect your equity.

Buying can reap big dividends

Chris Thorsen is Clayton’s chiefof police. For questions and com-ments, call him at (925) 673-7350.

CHRIS THORSEN

BEHIND THE BADGE

Send your question and look for youranswer in a future column. EmailLynne@LynneFrench.com. French is thebroker/owner of Windermere LynneFrench & Associates. Contact her at672-878 7or stop in at 6200 CenterSt., Clayton.

LYNNE FRENCH

REAL ANSWERS

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ECCFPD says no to parcel tax on June ballot

Police still eyeing traffic concerns

TAMARA STEINER

Clayton Pioneer

ACCIDENTS:None.

ARRESTS:Feb. 21, 12:20 p.m. Clayton Rd./Peacock Creek

Dr. A 47-year-old Tracy femalewas arrested for possessing acontrolled substance; possess-ing a narcotic controlled sub-stance; possessing marijuanaone ounce or less while driving.

Feb. 23, 1:20 a.m.Kirker Pass Rd. A 44-year-

old Clayton male was arrestedfor drunk: protective custody.

Feb. 23, 9:40 a.m.N. Mitchell Canyon Rd. A

25-year-old Clayton male wasarrested on a warrant.

Feb. 26, 1:12 a.m.Main St. A 35-year-old

Clayton male was arrested for

vandalism; disorderly conduct:alcohol.

Mar. 4, 8:31 p.m.6100 Clayton Rd. A 37-year-

old Concord male was arrestedon a warrant.

Mar. 5, 1:32 a.m. 5400 Clayton Rd. A 63-year-

old Bay Point male was arrestedfor DUI; driving without alicense.

BURGLARIES/THEFTS:Feb. 23, Stranahan Cr. Bur-

glary – Vehicle. Mar. 2, Roundhill Pl. Bur-

glary – Residential.

VANDALISM:Feb. 26, Main St. Feb. 27, Indian Wells Wy.

Police ActivityReport

Police Activity for two weeks ending Mar. 6, 2014

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The Concord City Councilwill soon be looking at passingan ordinance that will help uscrystallize our budget priorities— including “unfunded liabili-ties” such as pensions for cur-rent and past employees.

We know that we have alegal and ethical obligation tofully fund long-term post-employment benefits for ourcurrent and past employees.Because of that, the PolicyDevelopment & Internal Oper-ations Council Committee,along with city staff, will be

proposing to the city council anordinance that will allow theuse of one-time or surplusfunds to address these needs, aswell as others.

We understand that it is notfiscally prudent to spend one-time money on long term com-mitments, such as increasingsalaries or hiring new staff. Byestablishing this policy into alaw, we are sending a strongmessage of our commitment tomaking our city fiscally stable.We are also proposing that thisordinance require a four-fifths

vote to overturn our stated pri-orities.

The first priority proposedin this new ordinance will be tofund the required annual con-tributions for the City of Con-cord Retirement System(CCRS) and our other retireehealth programs. The CCRS iscurrently 38 percent unfunded,or $24 million. Part of the rea-son this problem developedwas because years ago the citydid not require contributingpayments from our employees,as we do now. The CaliforniaEmployees’ Retirement System(CalPERS) is 24 percentunfunded. The total dollarvalue is $83 million. TheRetiree Medical Benefits pro-gram (OPEB) is 69 percentunfunded, which means wehave a shortfall of $42 million.Our goal has been to fully fund

this program, but we have acurrent annual shortfall of $1.7million.

In addition to these“unfunded liabilities” the coun-cil is striving to maintain a 15percent general fund reserve.Due to the recession and ourdeferred maintenance pro-grams, the city has an infra-structure backlog. Our streetsand parks require much neededrepairs. Plus, other special orone-time priority projects mayalso develop from time to time.

Every year, with this newordinance in our pocket, wewill attempt to apply these sur-plus funds to address ourunfunded priorities — if wehave a mid-year or end-of-the-year budget report that showsa surplus. In addition, if anyone-time money comes ourway, we will also be able to

address our stated priorities.This ordinance certainly is

not a panacea which will end allof our budget issues. We willcontinue to struggle to findmore money for our city’sneeds. However, it will focus uson beginning to address ourcity’s fiscal obligations.

is like being a speed boat ratherthan the Titanic,” Linzey says.

McChesney said that one ofthe major reasons the chartersucceeded, and why the schoolis flourishing, is because of thewidespread community support.“When I’m out and about, Ihear words like ‘our’ high schoolrather than ‘the’ high school,”he says. “People take a lot ofpride and ownership in theschool, and that’s what helps itssuccess.”

Linzey, who has overseenmany other traditional and char-ter schools, says that while everyschool has its “own DNA,”there is one common thread tosuccess. “Every successfulschool integrates as many ‘BestPractices’ as possible. There hasto be a call for change, then ademand for change, and thenaccountability.

“Our kids have to develop aculture of success, not failure,and it’s up to the staff to makethat happen,” he says.

Linzey cites several reasonsCVCHS has been successfulsince transitioning to a charterschool:

1) Intervention: “We identi-fy students early who may behaving a problem in a class, andwe don’t wait for them to fail.”For instance, the school takesdata from incoming ninthgraders and “even before theyset foot on campus, we are help-ing the ones who need it.” Healso says that after-school tutor-ing and Saturday Schools havehelped keep failure rates down.

2) Credit Recovery: Stu-dents who are “off-track” tograduate will be given everyopportunity to improve in sub-jects they’ve failed, and to recov-er lost credits.

3) The Three-R’s: Linzeyhas made a mantra of this newtwist on an old cliché. AtCVCHS, the “Three-Rs” standfor rigor, relevance and relation-ships in the curriculum that isbeing taught. “We help studentsunderstand why what they arelearning is important,” he says.

4) Quarterly BenchmarkExams: Rather than waiting forfinals, the quarterly assessmentsmeasure students’ progress in asubject, and teachers can imme-diately help students where it’sneeded. “This way we’re notwaiting for the end of the yearto fix something,” Linzey says.

5) A Failure-free School:CVCHS does its best to keepstudents from failing, requiringafter-school tutoring, SaturdaySchools, and individual counsel-ing. “The staff has to ‘own’ ourstudents’ success,” Linzey says.In two years, the school’s failurerate has been cut in half.

“Charter schools are nolonger an experiment,” McChes-ney said. “There are more than500,000 students enrolled incharter schools in California.”

“I wish every school coulddo what we’re doing,” Linzeysays. “It’s important for let Con-gress know that it should be eas-ier to make schools charterschools.”

Page 8 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

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Ordinance will help fund pensions

You may be familiar withusing a durable power of attor-ney for incapacity planning aspart of your estate plan. Butwhat if you have a familymember who has an estateplan in place but who isalready starting to lose capaci-ty due to dementia,Alzheimer’s or simply old age?With some basic steps, you cansmoothly transfer managementof financial, personal, andhealthcare decisions withoutgoing through the painfulprocess of declaring someoneincapacitated.

TRANSITIONING MANAGE-MENT OF A TRUST

Generally, a person willserve as trustee of their trustuntil they pass away, or aredeclared incompetent by twoseparate doctors. Only at thattime will the successor trusteetake control and start manag-ing the trust property. Howev-er, management can be more

easily transferred by amendingthe trust and making the firstsuccessor trustee a co-trustee.This way, the original trust cre-ator can still help manage theproperty alongside the co-trustee and eventually leave theco-trustee to do most of themanagement. Another benefitto this is that the original trustcreator never needs to bedeclared incompetent and willremain a co-trustee until theirdeath. This simplifies taxpreparation as well because aseparate tax return must befiled when the creator of thetrust is no longer a trustee orco-trustee.

TRANSITIONING MANAGE-MENT OF DECISIONS

Similarly to the trust man-agement succession above,most Durable Powers ofAttorney and Advance Health-care Directives do not takeeffect until a person is deemedincapacitated by two doctors.However, if a family memberis slowly losing capacity but ispresently still competent, theycan create an immediatedurable power of attorney

and/or advance healthcaredirective to transition this deci-sion-making to another per-son. With an immediatedurable power of attorney, forexample, the creator can stillwrite checks, file their taxes,etc., but their agent can also dothese things on their behalf. Soinstead of management goingfrom only the principal havingauthority to only the agenthaving authority, there is asmooth transition where bothparties have legal authority tomanage the principal’sfinances.

If the deteriorating capaci-ty of a loved one is addressedearly enough, you can transi-tion management smoothlywithout having to resort todeclaring the person incapaci-tated or going through thepainful conservatorshipprocess.

Daniel DuRee is a licensed attor-ney whose practice focuses on estateplanning. He may be reached forquestions or comments atDaniel@DuReeLaw.com or 925-210-1400.

Make plans forincapacity early

DANIEL DUREE

ESTATE PLANNING

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Captain Grammar PantsPRINCIPAL (Latin, “first”) and PRINCIPLE (Latin, “first”) come from the

same root source, but their meanings have diverged over time. Principal meansthe main one, or the most important one (of a school or of an idea). The prin-cipal of the school is your PAL (princi-PAL).

It is also a sum of money, or the lead in a play or an opera; the principalshave arrived, so we need the principal to pay them. The principal (main) idea

here is that unless you know your grammar, you need to work on your writing skills! In con-trast, a principle is a fundamental element or code of conduct.

A prince might never become the principal of a school without a set of princely principles.

Sean Williams is a professor of ethnomusicology at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. Sheis currently working on a Captain Grammar Pants book. Follow her regular postings on Facebook.

The “Divergent” series byVeronica Roth is about to takethe United States by stormwith a Hunger-Games-likeimpact.

With a movie release dateset for March 21, this antici-pated film, based on the firstbook, started to buzz a fewweeks ago and is only gettinglouder with time. The bookseries consists of “Divergent,”“Insurgent,” and “Allegiant.”

In this dystopian-basedseries, Beatrice Prior is forcedto choose a category to devote

the rest of her life to, alongwith every other 16-year-old inthe world. The options are:Erudite (the intelligent), Abne-gation (the selfless), Dauntless(the brave), Amity (the peace-ful), and Candor (the honest).Once they’ve gone throughnumerous physical and mentaltests, they will be forced tomake a decision that if madewrong, will haunt them for therest of their lives.

After changing her name toTris, she has an extremely hardtime fitting in and keeping up

with everyone else’s pace ofexcellence. With her confi-dence fading and the competi-tion growing even stronger,Tris starts to feel less worthyand not needed, but sheknows she’s already come toofar to give up. Somehowdespite all the chaos and prob-lems popping up here andthere, Tris finds friends, ene-mies, and a little bit ofromance. With surprises jump-ing out of nowhere, this seriesshows some major individuali-ty, and the movie will mostlikely be just as unique and rareas the novels are.

March 14, 2014 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com Page 9

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You enter downtown Clay-ton, expecting to spend a sunnyday in the park with your fami-ly. You are expecting to let yourkids out and play while you alsoget some time to yourself, toenjoy the park, sit on a bench,and enjoy some calm relax-ation. Nevertheless, you arriveand find the tables are full oftrash with the surroundingground likewise littered.

How does this happen? Toomany people disregard theever-available trash cans arounddowntown Clayton. Too manypeople seem to not be able towalk three steps from a table tothe nearest trashcan. Too manypeople do not care. The city ofClayton has made it so easy forevery person visiting down-

town to throw away their trash,and yet much of it gets left outin the open. Many accuse teensof this crime, and of course thequestion that follows is: why?

The simple answer to this

question could be pure laziness.Indeed, it is easy to throw trashaway, but many people justrefuse to. In certain circum-stances, it could be that oneforgets that the trash is sittingthere, or maybe one is in ahurry and leaves it there forsomeone else to pick up.Another reason may be justthat; some people are just usedto others picking up after theirtrash.

It is easy for one to justleave something sitting therefor others to clean up; the samething happens at Clayton ValleyCharter High School. Onething that has substantiallychanged with the coming ofthe charter has been the cleanli-ness of the campus. Of course,

this has been a product of notonly the students’ willingness tothrow their trash away afterlunch and brunch, but much ofthe administrative team andjanitors take action to pick uptrash and make CVCHS lookgood.

With this in mind, I believethat many of those who do notthrow away their trash do sobecause it is easy, and they areassured that somehow it willget picked up.

Pine Hollow Middle Schoolhad a unique odyssey recently,when four teams from theschool entered the Odyssey ofthe Mind tournament, and oneof them is now headed to thestate competition.

Odyssey of the Mind is acreative problem-solving com-petition for teams of three toseven from cities all over theSan Francisco region. InOdyssey of the Mind, or OM,each team is to choose a prob-lem and then they have to comeup with a way to solve the prob-lem. It takes many months tocomplete and there are manyrequirements and restrictions.

The four teams from PineHollow involved in this after-school program, coordinated by

Kelly Kahl-Hernandez, includedtwo all-eighth grade teams andtwo all-sixth grade teams. Thisyear is the best the school hasever done in the competition.

The oldest team consists ofall-eighth grade girls who havebeen in the Odyssey of theMind competition together forall three years of middle school.Kelsey Turner, Jordan Stein-burg, Emma Ramirez, JennyVonnegut, Kayla Confetti, SarahMirabella, and me, Carlie Bee-son, have done very well each

year we have participated inOM. In our first year ofOdyssey of the Mind, the teamtook second place in our divi-sion and moved on to the sec-ond round, the state competi-tion. The team’s seventh gradeyear, we took fourth place, onlyfour points away from makingto the next level. At this year’scompetition, our team struckagain, finishing second and willbe going to the state competi-tion in our last year of compet-ing in Odyssey of the Mind.

The other eighth grade teamconsisting of Dalton Elzey, SamBuchholz, Alex Roper, KeaneEscueta, T.J. Nguyen and KatieyKingsmore came in sixth place.Coming in third place for theirfirst year was team A, an all-sixth grade team: Nick andChristina Mueller, Alaine Lind-sey, McKenzie Cummings, Tay-lor Keys, Caleigh Olgeirson, andHannah Crooked. The last sixthgrade team, Team B, placed:Chloe Pearson, Alexis Gonzales,Olivia Kreamer, Karla Ruiz,Jared Ralleya, Destiny Tonnochyand Grace Ramirez.

All of Pine Hollow MiddleSchool’s teams did amazing andit was great to see all of ourteams get recognized.

Odyssey of the Mind is avery time consuming extra-cur-ricular activity that really helpsparticipants to be more creative.Pine Hollow Middle School’steams did really great at thecompetition this year and we areall excited to see what happensat state for our girls’ eighthgrade team.

CARLIE BEESON

PINE HOLLOWREPORTER

Carlie Beeson is an 8th grader atPine Hollow Middle School. Sheenjoys reading, playing soccer, andsinging. Questions or comments? Sendher an Email at carlie@clayton-pioneer.com

Emily York is a freshman atCVCHS.

‘Divergent’ series firing up teens

EMILY YORK

TEEN READS

Excuses from litterbugs are garbage

PHMS puts ‘Minds’ to work

The Multi-use Room of Mt.Diablo Elementary School wasfull of impressive scientificprojects last month for theannual Science Fair, held onFeb. 13.

The students and parentsalso enjoyed exciting scientificdemonstrations by MikeMeneghetti, a.k.a “Mr. Science.”

The projects were judged bya panel of nine Clayton ValleyCharter High School students:Nneoma Nwosu, Gonzalo Car-rasco, Spencer Christensen,Madison Curtis, Sam Ritzo,Harrish Sheikh, David Tejada,Ahmed Alhag, Emily Rabbitt;two teachers: John Ouimetfrom the Engineering Academyand Jennifer DeAngelis fromthe social studies department;and parent Tom Borbely.

The elementary school stu-dents were thrilled to have highschool students asking themabout their projects. The judgeswere impressed at how articulateand knowledgeable the students

were in explaining their projects.The panel had a difficult job

selecting six projects from the69 projects on display to go onto represent Mt. Diablo Ele-mentary at the District ScienceFair. Finally, after serious con-sideration, the following proj-ects were selected:

Grade 3: J.T. Parker andLogan Meyer — Smell andTaste; Ryder Bartholomew —Dirt and Soil and Their Abilityto Hold Water

Grade 4: Jake Reeves andCarrick Duggan — Bridges vs.Earthquakes; ScottTomaszewicz — Fit or Fat?Can You Tell?

Grade 5: Keaton Curtis—Make Your Own Lava Lamp;Jack Simpkins, Nolan Degenerand Alec Beach — Taste Test101

Congratulations to all stu-dents who participated in thisimportant annual event. TheDistrict Science Fair was heldon Sat., March 1.

The Mt. Diablo Peace andJustice Center is holding its 17thannual Dennis Thomas Art andWriting Challenge. Middle andhigh school students in ContraCosta County are encouragedand eligible to participate. Fourcategories will be judged: Essay,Creative Writing, Art and Video.

The challenge is for studentsto use their unique artistic voiceto create a visual and/or literary

interpretation of diversity,multiculturalism, community orbrotherhood. Submissions mustbe received by April 11.

Monetary awards are higherthis year. Winners will be recog-nized at an awards dinner onMay 10 in Walnut Creek.

For contest rules and additionalinformation, go to the website:creatingpeacefulschools.weebly.com orcall the center at 933-7850.

Peace and Justice Center tohold art and writing contest

Please Recycle this paper

LILIANA HERNANDEZ

TEEN SPEAK

Liliana Hernandez is a Senior atClayton Valley Charter High School.She loves to read and plans to pursueher interest in writing in the future.Send email to her at liliana@-claytonpioneer.com

Mt. Diablo ElementaryScience Fair sizzles

MDES SCIENCE FAIR WINNERS: Back row (from left) ScottTomaszewicz, Jake Reeves, Jack Simpkins, Keaton Curtis,Carrick Duggan and Nolan Degener.Front row (from left) Logan Meyer, Ryder Bartholomew, J.T.Parker and Alec Beach.

ODYSSEY OF THE MIND program challenges problem solvingskills for four Pine Hollow Teams, sending one team to thestate competition.

It’s not exactly old hat whenDan Della Gym will again be thesite of a Northern CaliforniaCIF girls basketball playoffgame Saturday night for thethird time in four years. TheEagles host Lynbrook of SanJose for a 6 p.m. tipoff in thesecond round of the playoffsafter each team received anopening bye.

Coach Paul Kommer hopeshis fourth-seeded team hasmore success than the Eagles of2011 and 2013, who both lostopening-round NorCal DivisionII home games after finishing

runner-up in the North CoastSection playoffs. This is theposition CVCHS (23-7) occu-pies after absorbing a 100-48thrashing by Carondelet (27-3)in the NCS finale.

Carondelet is seeded secondin the NorCal Open Divisionmoving up after the Cougarswon their 10th NCS DII title in12 years. Carondelet is currentlyranked No. 10 in the MaxPrepsnational high school poll andthey looked every bit of thatlofty place in jumping to a 32-4lead over Clayton Valley in thefirst quarter of the sectionchampionship game at St.Mary’s College last Saturdayevening.

By halftime the score was

55-17 and Carondelet totaled 89points in the first three quartersbefore a running clock limitedscoring in the last period.Seniors Kayla Taylor and SarahWilliams led the Eagles in scor-ing with 16 and 15, respectively.Hailey Pascoe was also in dou-ble figures with 13.

Carondelet featured NatalieRomeo, a Nebraska commit,and Christina Chenault eachover 20 points. The Cougarshave three seniors and fourfreshmen on the roster, so itlooks like coach Margaret Gart-ner’s squad will not be fadinganytime soon.

Last year, Carondelet defeat-ed Clayton Valley 84-56 in theNCS finals. In 2011 the Eagles

lost a section championshipgame heart-breaker to Dougher-ty Valley 46-45 when Carondeletplayed in Division I and lost toBerkeley by two points in thefinale.

Clayton Valley has benefittedfrom a tough schedule this sea-son in preparation of the play-offs. The last 12 non-leagueopponents the Eagles faced allmade it to the section playoffsand Dublin, Miramonte,McClatchy, Santa Rosa and Pre-sentation all advanced to theNorCal championships. All ofthe local team’s seven losses thisyear have been to playoff teams.

Before the Carondelet gameKommer said, “Obviously I amso pleased with my team's effort

and performance. We haveworked hard all year at goingup-tempo and getting to a levelof fitness that can be sustainedfor four quarters. Also, this teamlearned a lot from our losses andnever gave up in trying toimprove each and every week.

“We are playing our best bas-ketball of the season right nowand getting major contributionsfrom several players. We arepassing the ball better than earli-er in the year and really lookingto get the best shot possible oneach possession.”

The first-year head coachadded that the team’s ability tomix up defenses and push theball up court on offense werekeys to the playoff run.

At NCS Clayton Valleydefeated Livermore 57-36, CasaGrande of Petaluma 62-42 andUkiah 62-51 before running intothe Carondelet buzz saw.

Lynbrook (20-8 overall) fin-ished second to Wilcox (a teamin the NorCal Division I tourna-ment) in the DeAnza Leagueand then won the Central CoastSection DII tournament, takingthe finals 40-34 over St. Francisof Mountain View. The winnerof the Clayton Valley-Lynbrookgame is likely to face top seedArchbishop Mitty of San Josenext Tuesday in the semi-finals.The NorCal championshipgame is next Saturday at SleepTrain Arena in Sacramento.

The previous two times Clay-ton Valley Charter has hosted aNorCal game the home-courtadvantage has proved insuffi-cient for the Eagles, who lost toChico in 2011 and Presentationof San Jose last March.

OTHER POST-SEASON RESULTS

Northgate girls won theiropening-round NCS game 40-32 over Montgomery beforecoach Dan Middleton’s teammet a familiar foe, losing toCarondelet 75-41. The Cougarseliminated Northgate from NCSevery year from 2005 through2012, except 2011 whenCVCHS turned the trick.

Clayton Valley boys gave agood account of themselves intheir NCS first-round gameagainst Maria Carrillo beforedropping a 72-64 verdict in atightly-contested game. Carrillowas then eliminated by NewarkMemorial which went on to winthe Division II title and is seed-ed fourth in the Open Divisionat NorCal.

Newark beat Concord 74-70in the NCS championship gamein a wild finish. The Minute-men are second seeds in DII atNorCal, hoping to match themagical run DVAL rival Col-lege Park had last year to thestate championship game.

Diablo FC 99 goalkeeperAmanda Zodikoff is headed toNike World Headquarters nearPortland, Oregon next week to

train in the U.S. Club Soccer id2

program. The Pine Hollow Mid-dle School eighth graderdemonstrates how young play-ers can develop as she’s over-come disappointments toreceive this high honor.

Director of coaching BrianVoltattorni explains, “Amanda isextremely hard working and avery determined young soccerathlete. Just a year ago, she wascut from the NorCal PDP pro-gram for Region 3 & 4 (Eastbayarea). Amanda used that asmotivation to work even harderand less than one year later shepassed almost everyone in theregion and was selected to theNorCal State team and now theprestigious id2 program.”

Zodikoff is coached at Dia-blo FC by former Major LeagueSoccer player Richard Weisz-mann and U.S. Men’s nationalteam goalie coach Henry Foulk.Both Weiszmann and Foulk areformer Cal Bears soccer players.Foulk has coached many DiabloFC goalies to collegiate and pro-fessional success.

The Concord 13-year-oldbegan playing for Diablo FC 99Blue, which is the second teambehind Diablo FC 99 in the agegroup. Among her best friendsand 99 Blue teammate wasJenna Betti, the young girl whowas killed in a recent train acci-dent in Martinez.

The goalie is now on DiabloFC 99 as she demonstratedanother step in her career bymoving to the local club’s pre-mier team.

Established in 2004, US

Club Soccer’s id2 National Iden-tification and DevelopmentProgram provides an opportu-nity for the country’s elite youthsoccer players to be identifiedand developed, and scouted forinclusion in U.S. Soccer’sNational Team programs. Dia-blo FC had two boys in the ini-tial 2004 id2 program, JoseCabeza and Rafael Paredes.Cabeza led the Diablo FC 90team to the 2008 NationalChampionships and helped St.Mary’s College to the 2011NCAA Elite Eight.

The local goalie will be inPortland March 20-23 withapproximately 60 girls at thecamp. Opportunities for playersat id2 Training Camps includetraining with some of thenation’s best coaches, playingwith and against some of thenation’s best players in their agegroup, exposure to U.S. Soccerscouts, and off-the-field guestspeakers and classroom sessions– creating a multi-faceted learn-ing experience.

The current id2 program cycletargets boys born in 2001 and girlsborn in 2000. There are camps inOregon and North Carolina thisspring. For more information aboutthe id2 Program visitusclubsoccer.org/id2.

JAY BEDECARRÉ

Clayton Pioneer

Sports

JAY BEDECARRÉ

Clayton Pioneer

Page 10 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

Eagle girls host NorCal tournament game Saturday

Amanda Zodikoff selected to train withU.S. National soccer team id2 program

Scott Anderson photo

DESPITE A LOPSIDED LOSS IN THE NORTH COAST SECTION CHAMPIONSHIP GAME to crosstown rival Carondelet High School, the Clayton Valley Charter girls basketballteam managed some proud smiles with their runnerup medals. The team includes, front Row from left, Kim Anderson, Katie Osterkamp, Ellie Ralston, MorganGiacobazzi, Annemarie Del Bene, Jordan Karmann, Sarah Williams; back row, assistant coach Gina Pedroni, head coach Paul Kommer, Cassidy Woodworth, KatieKommer, Kayla Taylor, Mikaela Keisel, Ashlyn Bartzi, Hailey Pascoe, Jordan Johnson, freshman coach Emily Wood and JV coach Chris Obrien.

Photo courtesy Diablo FC

GOALKEEPER AMANDA ZODIKOFF OF DIABLO FC 99 is headed toNike World Headquarters next week after being chosen for theUS Club Soccer id2 program. She will be one of 60 girls fromaround the country born in 2000 to take part in this programthat helps players get selected to U.S. National Teams.

Photo courtesy Moita family

Olympic gold medalist and world champion JordanBurroughs (center) is flanked by Clayton’s own collegiatewrestlers, senior Vince Moita (125 pounds) of BrownUniversity and sophomore Joe Moita (133) of Columbia.The Moita brothers followed their successful high schoolcareers at De La Salle by matriculating to the East Coastfor college. Their schools met on the mat late last monthwith Columbia prevailing 33-9. After graduation, VinceMoita plans to return to the West Coast for law school.Their DLS teammate Luke Sheridan (184) has been havingan excellent junior season at Indiana University.

Moita brothers’ collegeteams meet on the mat

Imagine being a kid in acandy store, your pockets full ofmoney, only to find that thereisn’t really any good candy in thestore to buy. This is similar tothe dilemma the OaklandRaiders are currently facing.

The Raiders currently havethe most cap space of any teamin the National Football Leaguewith an estimated $66.5 millionin cap space. There is no short-age of cap room for the Raidersthis offseason, but unfortunate-ly there is a lack of talent in this

year’s free agent market tospend it on.

Free agency is filled withmany middle tier players. Thereare a lot of solid rotation men,back-ups and older veterans, butthere are not many elite, youngplayers.

Another problem for theRaiders this offseason is theirconflicting interests between thegeneral manager and owner.

Mark Davis, owner of theRaiders, has made it publiclyknown that if there aren’timprovements to this year’steam both head coach DennisAllen and general manager Reg-gie McKenzie will lose theirjobs. With McKenzie’s job onthe line, it is questionablewhether he will even go afterdevelopmental players for thefuture in free agency.

If McKenzie wants to keephis job he needs to win now.He might be more prone tosigning stop-gap players whoaren’t in the franchise’s long-

term interest, but might help theRaiders win a couple extragames next season.

Regardless of McKenzie’smindset, the Raiders first movesof free agency should be re-signing Lamarr Houston andJared Veldheer.

Houston is the best defen-sive player on the Raiders and itwould egregious if they did notre-sign him. He has quick burstand immense power. He is bestas a run-stopping defensive endand he is invaluable to a talent-depleted Raiders defense.

Veldheer has played wellenough over the past few yearsto warrant calling him one ofthe better left tackles in theleague. It is a mystery who willbe playing quarterback for theRaiders next season, but regard-less of who it is they will wantVeldheer protecting their leftside.

Once the Raiders have re-signed Veldheer and Houston, itremains unknown what direc-

tion they will head.The team is in dire need of a

quarterback, but with the topquarterback free agents beingJosh McCown, Matt Cassel andMichael Vick, it doesn’t look likethe long-term QB answer is inthis year’s free agent market forthe Raiders. They will most like-ly take a quarterback with theirsecond or third round pick, signa free agent quarterback and letthe two battle for the startingposition.

The Raiders have an innu-merable amount of needs. Theyhave more than enough moneyto sign players to fill their rosterand it will be interesting to seehow McKenzie decides to buildthis team with his job on theline.

Three teams from Mt. Dia-blo Soccer Association claimedtitles at the President’s Cup inSan Jose last month as theAYSO tournament seasonkicked into gear.

The under 10 girls MDSAVortex, U10 Arsenal boys andU12 MDSA Strikers FC boys allwon titles in the busy weekendthat required teams to play upto six games over two days.

MDSA Vortex won twogames but lost to Palo Alto NetRipper 1-0 on the opening day.They then took a lopsided 6-0verdict in the quarterfinals overCupertino Green Dragons. Inthe semi-finals against DavisHurricanes the winning goalcame in the waning minutes byKelly Adams for a 1-0 victory.

In the championship gamethe Net Rippers were the oppo-nents again. Olivia Yoshiiscored in the last five minutesfor a 1-0 Vortex win thatreversed the previous day’sresult and scoreline.

Sister team MDSA Phoenixwon its bracket but was elimi-nated on Sunday.

The U12 Strikers FC wonfive games in two days to reachthe championship game. Thesemi-final game found theStrikers against MDSA Unitedwith the Strikers prevailing 3-2.In the finals against Mountain

View Hammers the Strikerstook charge with 2-0 lead athalftime, but the Hammerscame out strong in the secondhalf and tied the game in thefourth quarter. The teams wentstraight to penalty kicks at theend of a 2-2 regulation game.The Strikers won it on the sixthPK round.

United rebounded from itssemi-finals loss to blank DavisElite 3-0 for third place.

The U10 boys MDSA Arse-nal had five shutouts in sixgames en route to a President’sCup title with a 32-1 scoringmargin. Both the semi-finalsand finals were 3-0 wins overSan Jose Barcelona and Moun-tain View Tigers, respectively.

The MDSA Diablos beatBarcelona 2-1 to take third inthe U10 boys bracket in thehighest scoring among sixgames they played. Diablosonly gave up three goals on theweekend.

In the U14 boys bracketMDSA Legends United FC tiedfor the best group play recordbut lost in the quarterfinals 1-0to Pacifica Electrolytes.

In the U14 girls flightMDSA Fury got all the way tothe finals before dropping a 2-0decision to Mountain ViewRevolution, which beat thelocal team twice on the week-end.

The U12 girls MDSA Leg-ends FC won its red division

bracket but then was upended3-2 by Intensity in the quarter-finals.

In the U12 girls white divi-sion MDSA Heat took third bydefeating Black Storm 2-0 in itsfinal match after losing to Bel-

mont in the semis. Belmontended up winning thechampionship.

The tournament seasoncontinues with the 20thanniversary Concord Cup heldlocally on May 17-18.

JAY BEDECARRÉ

Clayton Pioneer

SportsMDSA teams shine in San Jose

March 14, 2014 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com Page 11

Tyler Lehman is a sophomore atDiablo Valley College and a 2012CVHS graduate. He plans to majorin journalism and wants to be a sportswriter. Email your comments or ques-tions to Tyler@claytonpioneer.com.

TYLER LEHMAN

SPORTS TALK

Free Agency: Boon or Bust for Raiders?

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AFTER LOSING A 2-0 LEAD IN THE FINALS, MDSA STRIKERS FC WON A PENALTY KICK SHOOTOUT and took home the championship forU12 boys at the President’s Cup in San Jose. The team includes, front row from left, Matthew Loui, Felipe Ognian, AbdullahSaleh, Zachary Kaleal, Thomas Cordova, Aidan Cook and “lucky charm” Javier Cordova”; back row, coach Anthony Kaleal, JohnGlenn, Mateo Cordova, Nicolas Campos, Joseph Ferrell, Tyler Loui, Ryan Chand and coach Jorge Cordova. Not pictured, coachJim Hawk and Joseph Hawk.

Photos courtesy MDSA

A LATE GOAL IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH gave MDSA Vortex a 1-0 victory and the title at the President’s Cup in San Jose.The team includes, front row from left, Alyssa Birder, KellyAdams, Emma Williams, Ainsley Townlin; middle row, CarlyUrteaga, Milla Anum, Lauren Gherlone, Olivia Yoshii, JuliaStranko, Bailey Kessinger; back row, assistant coach KC Anum,assistant youth coach Devanne Zalewksi, assistant youth coachNikki Apana and head coach Kim Apana.

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DANA HILLS SWIM TEAM REGISTRATION ON LINEDana Hills Swim Team is accepting online registrations

for the 2014 recreation season. New members are giventhe option to sign up for the team on a free, one-week“trial” basis. Dana Hills has won 21 of the past 22 Con-cord Swim Championships. For additional info and to reg-ister, visit danahillsotters.com.

CONCORD CUP XXI SOCCERRETURNS MAY 17-18

The 20th anniversary edition of Concord Cup youthsoccer program which began in 1994 returns to manylocal fields on May 17-18. Applications are now beingaccepted for boys and girls teams from U10-U19. Con-cord Cup is a rare tournament that includes both AYSOand club teams. Diablo FC, MDSA and Concord AYSOare the host leagues. For information visitconcordcup.com.

CVCHS TRACK OFF TO FLYING STARTIN PLEASANTON

The Clayton Valley Charter High School girls 4x100relay team of Brianne Newell, Jessica Forrester, Diwa Eskoand Sarah Holt won the recent Dan Gabor Invitational atAmador Valley High against a very deep field in a time of51.71, which is amongst the top 25 times in the state.Xavier Crawford, who stumbled coming out of the blocks,ran a blazing 11.21 to win the men’s 100 meters. MeganCoppa ran the 400M in 62.09. Other good early-seasonmarks were posted by Casey Mitchell (girls pole vault),Lindsay Mondloch (girls 800M), Anthony Fuentes (800M)and Danny Condon (1600M) for coach Darren Newell’sEagles.

DOMENIC MAZZA BEATS NATIONAL CHAMPION UCLAClayton Valley Charter grad Domenic Mazza picked up

the win for UC Santa Barbara recently over defendingnational champion UCLA in a non-league game. Thesophomore lefthander pitched 5.2 innings while surren-dering two runs on four hits to notch his first win of theyoung season.

SPRING PROGRAM REGISTRATIONENDING SOON AT CLAYTON GYM

Signup deadlines are fast approaching for All OutSports League programs at Clayton Gym. Adult Sundaysoftball league begins this weekend. Open gym for volley-ball players 18 and over is on Wednesdays from 7:30-10p.m. through Mar. 25. Adult volleyball league on Wednes-days runs from Apr. 2-May 28 with a Mar. 20 registrationdeadline. For complete information on all the programs,visit alloutsportsleague.com.

DIABLO FC SOCCER TRYOUTS CONTINUE IN APRILTryouts for U15-U19 players with Diablo FC will be

held in April. Younger players in the U9-U14 age groupswho missed formal tryouts can contact the club for an indi-vidual evaluation and possible placement on a competi-tive team for the 2014 season. Visit diablofc.org to regis-ter for free tryouts in all age groups.

WALNUT COUNTRY OFFERING SPRING CLINICFOR RECREATION SWIMMERS

Head coach Adrian Lohse is offering a spring clinic toteach the foundation of proper stroke technique. The clin-ic is designed to get boys and girls ready for the WalnutCountry recreational swim team season. Swimmers fromthe six and under age group to 15-18 ages are eligible toattend. The clinic runs weekdays through Apr. 11. For infoon the clinic and Walnut Country Swim Team contactLohse by email at coachadrianswim@gmail.com

20TH CVCHS ATHLETIC BOOSTERSCRAB FEED & AUCTION SATURDAY

Clayton Valley Charter High School Athletic Boosterswill hold their 20th annual Crab Feed and Auction thisSaturday at Centre Concord. Tickets are sold on a firstcome, first served basis and the popular event always sellsout. You must be 21 or older to attend. For more infoemail cvabcrabfeed@gmail.com or go tocvhsboosters.org to order tickets for a night of food, drink,dancing, exciting auctions and outstanding raffle prizes.Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with dinner served at 7 p.m.

OAKHURST ORCAS SIGNUPS FORUPCOMING SEASON APRIL 11

Final Oakhurst Orcas summer recreation swim teamregistration date is Apr. 11 from 6:30-8 p.m. at OakhurstCountry Club. Information is available atoakhurstorcas.com.

CLAYTON PIONEER WANTS TOHEAR YOUR SPORTS STORY

We get plenty of information from local high schools,sports leagues and clubs. What we don’t hear about sooften are from our neighbors who are competing belowthat radar screen. There are Claytonians who are partici-pating in sports and recreational endeavors that we don’tnormally hear about but we’d like to tell their stories too.If you know of someone — or even if you are that some-one — let us know what you’re doing and perhaps we’llfind it something our readers would love to read about!

If you’re running, jumping, hiking, biking, swimming,skydiving, bowling, golfing or participating in any ofdozens of other sports and recreational activities let usknow. Give us a brief rundown and your contact informa-tion and we might be in touch with you. It’s as simple assending an email to sports@claytonpioneer.com.

Sports Shorts

Page 12 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

Sports

St. Bonaventure CYO basketball had a pair of league champions in sixth grade boys competition this season. The sixth grade St. Bonnies American team (left) won its thirdconsecutive league title and then advanced to the semi-finals of the Oakland Diocese Tournament. The team includes, bottom row from left, Eric Zimmer, Seth Gwynn, LukeWestermeyer, Tyler Darr, Connor Lawson; back row, coach Dave Gwynn, Clayton Seastrand, Tristen Daley, coach Kevin Daley, Mikey Mann, Jayson Downs, coach Kevin Zim-mer and Derek Luedtke.

The sixth grade National team (right) won league for the first time. They then entered the playoffs as the No. 4 seed and rolled past top-seed Good Shepherd and HolyRosary, a team that beat them by 17 points in the regular season, for the title. They concluded their season as quarterfinals in the Heritage Tournament of Champions. Thenational team includes, front row from left, Mitch Hansen, Jack Gwynn, Shane Duckworth, Ryan Rickard, Carson Newman; back row, coach Dave Gwynn, Kalani Uu, coachPeter Shadek, Cole Shadek, Kolbie Kowalski, Donald Bass, Jesse Reyes and coach Mike Duckworth.

Stanford junior KristianIpsen recently defended hisPacific-12 Conference one-meter diving championship inWashington but fell short of athird straight crown in the three-meter by 2.65 points. The Clay-ton native is in ColoradoSprings this week for the NCAAZone E diving meet leading upto the NCAA Championships inAustin, Texas Mar. 27-29.

Ipsen set a new Pac-12 scor-ing record with 481.65 points inthe 1M but he was upset byCanadian Riley McCormick inthe 3M. The Stanford diver wasthird off the platform.

Ipsen skipped the Pac-12meet in 2012 prepping for theLondon Olympics as a fresh-man but has three NCAA titlesto his name in his first two sea-sons as well as a pair of runner-up National meet placings.

Ipsen takes1st, 2nd, 3rdat Pacific-12diving meet

St. Bonaventure 6th grade boys wrap up two league titles

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Zack Torrey, of the hugely successful Torrey Team

with J. Rockcliff Realtors, has moved to Clayton!

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Everything will be coming uproses this spring at the ClaytonLibrary thanks to the ClaytonValley Garden Club. Memberspruned and thinned out the 39rose bushes at the library onMarch 2. Joan Thisius, clubmember, rosarian and directorof the Contra Costa Rose Soci-

ety, gave instructions aboutpruning roses andproblems/solutions to issueslike black spot and cane borerpests.

The Clayton Business andCommunity Association made acommitment to the health andfitness of the community at itslast meeting, reviewing track andfield needs, getting bocce courtupdates and finding out wherethe CBCA-funded defibrillatorshave been installed.

At the Feb. 27 meeting at theOakhurst Country Club, ClaytonValley High School

track and field coaches DarrenNewell and Todd Enemarkpitched a proposal to fund an“Acceleration Hill,” a man-made40-meter slope with a 30 percentgrade designed to improve ath-letes’ strength and technical skills.The association will vote on grant-ing funds at the March meeting.

Meanwhile, the advent ofbocce in Clayton continues togain support. Keith Haydonreported on the progress of thedowntown courts and had

detailed plans in hand. Namingrights for courts, tables andbenches are available for pur-chase, he said. Two court spon-sors have stepped forward, at$25,000 each, and a Clayton fam-ily will be purchasing namingrights to a table. Table sponsor-ships cost $4,000 each; benchsponsorships are $2,500 perbench, Haydon said.

The health and safety of thecommunity was also discussed asClayton Chief of Police ChrisThorsen reported that two newAutomatic External Defibrillatorsare now in place in the communi-ty: One at Ed’s Mudville Grill andthe other at Skipolini’s. TheseAEDs were funded by CBCA.

“Use the Acceleration Hillnow, avoid the defibrillator later,”one member advised.

OTHER CBCA NEWS

The Art & Wine Festival, setfor May 3 and 4, is ahead ofschedule in attracting sponsors,according to festival chairpersonLou Gernhart. As always, volun-

teers are needed from both CBCAand the general community.

Clayton Garden Club presi-dent Steve Lane announced thatplans for improvements to theClayton Museum’s gardens arebeing developed for city approval.Engraved bricks for the hardscapecan be purchased at one of threelevels. Interested donors may con-tact Lane at claytonvalleygarden-club.org.

Lane also announced that theClayton Historical Society’s 22ndannual Clayton Gardens Tour willbe Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27, rain or shine.

Association members votedapproval of a donation forCVCHS seniors who need finan-cial assistance to be able to attendGrad Night, the school-sponsoredsafe, sane and healthy graduationnight event.

CBCA exists to benefit the entireClayton community through fundraisingactivities and other events. To joinCBCA or to volunteer for an event, visitwww.claytoncbca.org or call (925)672-2272.

Mi Amor… this is what youwill say when you meet this little4-year old lady. She is an activegirl who also loves to snugglewith you. Mi Amor is lookingfor a new guardian(s) who cantake her for walks around theblock to meet the neighbors. MiAmor would benefit from BasicManners Classes to promote thebond with her guardian. It isunknown whether Mi Amor hasprevious experience with chil-dren. She currently weighs 27pounds.

The adoption fee for adultdogs is $225 and includes 60

percent off one 7-week dogtraining session.

Two-year-old Keira is asweetie who is looking forsomeone to sit close to for lotsof pets! It is unknown whetherKeira has previous experiencewith children. She is suitable fora first time cat guardian

The adoption fee for adultcats is $50.

Meet your forever friend atTony La Russa’s Animal RescueFoundation, 2890 MitchellDrive, Walnut Creek, duringadoption hours: Noon to 5 pm.Wednesday, 3 to 7 pm. Thursday

and Friday, Noon to 5 pm. Sat-urday and Sunday. The primarycaretaker must be present toadopt. ARF also encourageskids 16 and younger and caninefamily members (dog adoptionsonly) to be present during theadoption process.

Would you like to be part of theheroic team that saves the lives of res-cued dogs and cats? Can you shareyour talents to connect people and ani-mals? ARF volunteers are making adifference! For more information seeour website, www.arf.net, or call925.256.1ARF.

March 14, 2014 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com Page 13

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Saint Bonaventure CatholicCommunity Church celebratedScout Sunday on Feb. 22. BoyScouts of America celebrate thebirthday of scouting in Febru-ary. Scouts across America cele-brate the occasion at their localplaces of worship on Scout Sun-day.

Saint Bonaventure is thechartering organization for Pack444, Troop 444 and Crew 444.Both Catholic and ProtestantScouts, young men and women,from these groups were recog-nized on Scout Sunday at SaintBonaventure for earning thereligious emblems of their faith.

Father Richard Mangini, pas-tor, was honored with the St.George Emblem for significantand outstanding contributionsto the spiritual development ofCatholic youth in scouting.Crew 444 associate advisor,Courtney Mizutani, was recog-nized for her volunteer serviceto ministry and the Boy Scoutsof America.

GARY CARR

Special to the Pioneer

Fitness a priority for CBCA

Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Venture Scouts celebrated Scout Sunday at SaintBonaventure Catholic Community Church in February.

Club News

Boy Scouts Troop 444 celebrates Scouting birthday

Clayton Valley Garden Club organizes rose pruning work party

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Back row: Steve Lane, Linda Cruz, Chris Callaghan, RobbKingsbury, Debbie Eistetter, Seated: Joan Thisius, CarinKaplan, Marcia Hart, Ingela Nielsen formed a rose pruningwork party at the Clayton Library.

IN CLAYTONMMaarr.. 1188HHaappppyy BBiirrtthhddaayy,, CCllaayyttoonnCelebrate Clayton’s 50th birthday as an incorporated city by visit-ing a new exhibit at the Clayton Museum and having cake at thecity council meeting at Endeavor Hall to commemorate the firstcity council meeting. Exhibit opens at 4:30 p.m., 6101 Main St.City council meeting at 7 p.m., 6008 Center St., Clayton.

MMaarr.. 2211 –– 2233CCrreeeekkssiiddee AArrttssArts, entertainment, environmental education. This year’s theme,“Mount Diablo…Rising from the Ashes,” highlights the MorganFire and regeneration. Fri. 6 – 8 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sun.12 – 5 p.m. Clayton Library, 6125 Clayton Rd. Free. claytonli-brary.org.

AApprr.. 33OOaakkhhuurrsstt BBuussiinneessss NNeettwwoorrkkMeets quarterly for social hour. Hosted hors d’oeuvres, cash bar.6 – 7:30 p.m. Oakhurst Country Club, 1001 Peacock CreekDrive, Clayton. oakhurstcc.com.

AApprr.. 44 –– 1122““NNiigghhtt ooff JJaannuuaarryy 1166tthh””A tense and humorous courtroom drama depicting a murdertrial. Jury picked from the audience. Is she guilty of murder ornot? Clayton Theatre Company, Endeavor Hall, 6008 Center St.,Clayton. $12-$18. claytontheatrecompany.com. 222-9106.

IN CONCORDTTuueessddaayyss FFaarrmmeerrss’’ MMaarrkkeettTuesdays year round, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Todos Santos Plaza,downtown Concord. cityofconcord.org.

MMaarr.. 1166TTaanngglleedd UUpp iinn BBlluueeFamily event with folk band featuring guitar, banjo, mandolin andfiddle. 3:30 p.m. 2nd Chance Boutique, 4305 Clayton Road,Concord. Free. 2ndchanceboutique.com.

MMaarr.. 2233SSuummmmeerr PPrrooggrraammss EExxppooGet info and meet instructors from summer camps/programsoffered through the city of Concord. Activities, demos and prizes.Save 10% at camps when register at expo. 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.Centre Concord, 5298 Clayton Rd, Concord. Free. cityofcon-cord.org/recreation.

AApprr.. 11 –– MMaayy 1133DDiissaasstteerr PPrreeppaarreeddnneessss TTrraaiinniinnggLearn how to protect yourself, your family and your neighbors ina disaster with no emergency services available. Sponsored bythe Concord Emergency Response Team. Fire Training Center,2945 Treat Blvd., Concord. Free. concordcert.org. 603-5933.

AApprr.. 55 –– 66QQuuiilltt SShhoowwQuilts, demos, boutique, youth activities, opportunity quilt.Sponsored by the Guild of Quilters of Contra Costa County. Sat.10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Centre Concord, 5298Clayton Rd, Concord. $8 adult; $4 youth; under 6 free. contra-costaquiltguild.org.

ON THE MOUNTAINMount Diablo Interpretive Association programs listed are freewith the exception of park entrance fee. Go to mdia.org and clickon Events Calendar for more information.

MMaarr.. 1166BBllaacckk PPooiinntt HHiikkeeHike to the summit of Black Point before returning to trailhead.10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Meet at Mitchell Canyon trailhead.

MMaarr.. 2222BBuutttteerrffllyy WWaallkkWalk up Mitchell Canyon Road to Red Road looking for flowersand butterflies. Ten to 15 different butterflies possible. Bringbinoculars. 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Meet at Mitchell Canyon trail-head. Registration required.

Save Mount Diablo programs listed are free unless otherwisenoted. Go to savemountdiablo.org and click on Activities/GuidedHikes for more information. 947-3535.

MMaarr.. 2299FFaammiillyy HHiikkeeEasy hike around Mount Diablo’s Summit. Walk on the MaryBowerman Trail through a portion of the area damaged by theMorgan Fire. Look for wildflowers and new growth. 10:30a.m. – 12 p.m. Meet at Lower Summit Parking Lot. Responserequired to smdinfo@savemountdiablo.org.

AApprr.. 3300SSttuuddeenntt PPhhoottoo CCoonntteessttContest for students kindergarten through grade 12 ofAlameda and Contra Costa Counties. Submit photo of one ofeligible Diablo parks that shows why the student enjoys theland and thinks it should be protected. Due Apr. 30. save-mountdiablocontest.com.

EVENTS & ENTERTAINMENTTThhrruu MMaarr.. 1166““SSlleeeeppiinngg BBeeaauuttyy””Fantasy Forum Actors Ensemble performs this family-friendly

musical that encourages audience participation. Lesher Center forthe Arts, 1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek. $14. fantasyforum.org.

TThhrruu MMaarr.. 1166““SSoouutthh PPaacciiffiicc””Enchanting tale of romance set on a tropical island during WWII.California Theatre, 351 Railroad Ave., Pittsburg. $10-$20. pitts-burgcommunitytheatre.org. 427-1611.

MMaarr.. 1144 –– 1155““XXxxttrreemmeess””Performed by Smuin Ballet. Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 CivicDr., Walnut Creek. $70. lesherartscenter.org. 943-7469.

MMaarr.. 1144 –– 2233““WWoonnddeerrllaanndd!!””A musical based on “Through the Looking Glass.” Presented byCenter Stage Theatre and Contra Costa Christian Theatre. LesherCenter for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek. $14. lesher-artscenter.org. 943-7469.

MMaarr.. 1155AAllmmoosstt EEllttoonn JJoohhnnOne of the best Elton John tribute acts. 8 p.m. El CampanilTheatre, 602 W. Second St., Antioch. $25-$27. elcampanilthe-atre.com.

MMaarr.. 1166CCoommmmaannddeerrss JJaazzzz EEnnsseemmbblleeAn ensemble from the United States Air Force. 3 p.m. ElCampanil Theatre, 602 W. Second St., Antioch. Free. elcam-paniltheatre.com.

SSttaarrttiinngg MMaarr.. 2200HHaamm RRaaddiioo LLiicceennssiinngg CCoouurrsseeLearn everything you need to upgrade your Amateur RadioLicense to General Class. Sponsored by The Salvation Army andMt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club. 8 weeks. 7 – 9 p.m. TheSalvation Army, 3950 Clayton Road, Concord. Materials and text-book fees. Registration required. hamradioclass@gmail.com.465-9554.

MMaarr.. 2211HH..MM..SS.. PPiinnaaffoorree SSiinnggaalloonnggPerformed by Lamplighters Music Theatre. 8 p.m. Lesher Centerfor the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek. $20-$36. lamp-lighters.org.

MMaarr.. 2211 –– AApprr.. 55““WWeeeekkeenndd CCoommeeddyy””Funny, home-spun tale about two couples who accidentally rentthe same vacation cabin for the weekend. Presented by OnstageTheatre at the Campbell Theatre, 636 Ward St., Martinez. $12-$18. onstagethhm@aol.com. 518-3277.

MMaarr.. 2211 –– AApprr.. 2200““LLeess MMiisseerraabblleess””Treasured tale about the survival of the human spirit. Performedby the Contra Costa Musical Theatre. Lesher Center for the Arts,1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek. $44-$57. ccmt.org.

MMaarr.. 2222SSiinncceerriittyy GGiirrllss EEnnsseemmbbllee –– SSoommeetthhiinngg NNeewwPresented by Music Repertoire. 7:30 p.m. Lesher Center for theArts, 1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek. $10. lesherartscenter.org.943-7469.

MMaarr.. 2222TToopp SShheellffTribute to Motown. 8 p.m. El Campanil Theatre, 602 W. SecondSt., Antioch. $25-$27. elcampaniltheatre.com.

MMaarr.. 2233BBrraahhmmss 11Diablo Symphony Orchestra. 2 p.m. Lesher Center for the Arts,1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek. $12-$28. diablosymphony.org.

MMaarr.. 2244IInn tthhee MMooooddMusical revue of the 1940s performed by ArtBeat. 2 and 7:30p.m. Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek.$58-$62. lesherartscenter.org. 943-7469.

MMaarr.. 2288JJuussttiinn HHaarrrriissoonnComedy. Presented by the Laff Gang. 8:45 p.m. Lesher Centerfor the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr., W.C.. $20. lesherartscenter.org. 943-7469.

MMaarr.. 2288 –– AApprr.. 2266““SSlleeuutthh””One of the best stage thrillers of all time. Performed by CenterREP. Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek.$33-$54. centerrep.org.

MMaarr.. 2299JJoohhnnnnyy SStteeeelleeComedy. Presented by the Laff Gang. 8:45 p.m. Lesher Centerfor the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek. $20. lesherartscen-ter.org. 943-7469.

MMaarr.. 2299JJuunniiuuss CCoouurrttnneeyy BBiigg BBaannddLace up your dancing shoes and get ready to swing. 8 p.m.California Theatre, 351 Railroad Ave., Pittsburg. $15. pitts-burgcommunitytheatre.org. 427-1611.

MMaarr.. 2299 –– 3300““SSoocciiaall SSeeccuurriittyy””Aging mothers have never been funnier, unless they’re your agingmother. El Campanil Theatre, 602 W. Second St., Antioch. $12-$15. elcampaniltheatre.com.

MMaarr.. 3300HHeerrssttoorryyA Women’s History Month Celebration performed by the ContraCosta Chamber Orchestra. 7:30 p.m. Lesher Center for the Arts,1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek. $10-$30. cccorch.org.

CHURCHES AND RELIGIONMMaarr.. 2288 –– 2299MMaadd AAbboouutt MMaarrrriiaaggeeWeekend seminar on communication, problem solving and more.Couples and singles welcome. Concord International AdventistChurch, 1655 West St., Concord. Free. Register at madaboutmar-riage.com.

FUNDRAISERSMMaarr.. 2200TThhee EEaaggllee AArrttss EExxppooFabulous showcase of student artwork from Clayton ValleyCharter High School, Pine Hollow and Diablo View on displayduring Open House. Jazz Band, raffle prizes and awards. Benefitsthe Arts at CVCHS. Donations for raffle items appreciated. 6 p.m.CVCHS Multi-Use Room, 1101 Alberta Way, Concord. ContactMrs. Nolan at 682-7474, ext 2683.

MMaarr.. 2222AAuuccttiioonnWalk on the Wild Side auction benefiting the Mt. DiabloElementary School. Raffle, live and silent auctions, food, dancingand gaming tables. 5:30 – 11 p.m. Crowne Plaza Hotel, 45 JohnGlenn Drive, Concord. $45 before Mar. 17; $50 after. Adultsonly. mdes-mdusd-ca.schoolloop.com.

MMaarr.. 2299TThhee CCaalliiffoorrnniiaa PPhhiillhhaarrmmoonniicc YYoouutthh OOrrcchheessttrraaPerformance benefiting Imagine No Malaria. Coordinated by theConcord United Methodist Church. 3 – 5 p.m. California Theater,345 S. First St., San Jose. $30. Contact Betsy Mcleod at 212-7459 or the church at 685-5260.

AT THE LIBRARYThe Clayton Library is at 6125 Clayton Road. Programs are freeunless otherwise noted. claytonlibrary.org or 673-0659.

TTuueessddaayyss MMaarr.. 2255 –– MMaayy 1133PPaattttyy CCaakkeessStory time for babies to 3-year-olds. Child attends with care-giver. 11 a.m.

WWeeddnneessddaayyssBBooookk BBuuddddiieessA volunteer will read stories for children 3 and older. 2 - 3p.m. Call in advance.

TThhuurrssddaayyss MMaarr.. 2277 –– MMaayy 88PPiiccttuurree BBooookk TTiimmeeStory time for 3- to 5-year-olds. Child may attend withoutcaregiver. 11 a.m.

MMaarr.. 1188,, 2255PPaawwss ttoo RReeaaddLearn to read by reading aloud to a dog. Grades 1 – 5.Registration required. 4 or 4:35 p.m.

MMaarr.. 2266““PPllaayy AAwwaayy PPlleeaassee””Author talk with John Peter Hagen sharing his life and love ofgolf. 7 p.m.

The Concord Library is at 2900 Salvio St. ccclib.org or 646-5455.

FFrriiddaayy aanndd SSaattuurrddaayyss tthhrruu AApprr.. 1144Free income tax assistance from AARP to low and middle-income people. Appointment required.

MMaarr.. 2299CCoommppuutteerrss aanndd TTeecchhnnoollooggyyIf you need help with your mouse, come to our house. Drop-inassistance to learn how to use computers, smart phones andtablets. 12 - 2 p.m. Additional dates and times offered. Checklibrary calendar.

MMaarr.. 3311MMoovviieeCome watch a G or PG rated movie. Ages 5 – 11. 7 – 8:30 p.m.

GOVERNMENT11sstt aanndd 33rrdd TTuueessddaayyssCCllaayyttoonn CCiittyy CCoouunncciill7 p.m. Hoyer Hall, Clayton Library, 6125 Clayton Road. 673-7304 or ci.clayton.ca.us.

22nndd aanndd 44tthh TTuueessddaayyssCCllaayyttoonn PPllaannnniinngg CCoommmmiissssiioonn7 p.m., Hoyer Hall, Clayton Library, 6125 Clayton Road. 673-7304 or ci.clayton.ca.us.

11sstt,, 22nndd aanndd 44tthh TTuueessddaayyssCCoonnccoorrdd CCiittyy CCoouunncciill6:30 p.m., Council Chamber, Concord Civic Center, 1950Parkside Dr. cityofconcord.org.

Community CalendarPLEASE SUBMIT YOUR CLAYTON COMMUNITY CALENDAR EVENTS BY 5 P.M. MAR. 19 FOR THE MAR. 28 ISSUE. ITEMS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY EMAIL TO calendar@claytonpioneer.com

Page 14 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

Meeting dates and times for local clubs andorganizations are listed atclaytonpioneer.com. Click on ‘Links’

The Contra Costa ChamberOrchestra will wrap up March withHERstory, A Women’s HistoryMonth Celebration featuringwomen composers and artists.

Michelle Caimotto, worldrenowned and prolific, Bay Areaflute super star joins CCCO withthe iconic Chaminade Concerto.The world premiere of Estefania

Webster’s Tren del fin del mundo,will take you to the end of theworld, with an exciting and myste-rious rendition of the Argentinianlandscape.

Lili Boulanger’s d’un matin duprintemps brings a romanticmoment, juxtaposed with a stir-ring invocation from StacyGarrop’s Thunderwalker. Alsoon the program are women mas-ter composers Jennifer Higdonwith Fanfare Ritmico, LibbyLarsen’s Overture for the End ofa Century, and Emma LouDiemer’s Festival Overture.

Long-time educator and con-ductor Timothy Smith will intro-duce each piece with insights intothe composers’ lives and work.

Performances are March 29, 7:30p.m. at Los Medanos College RecitalHall in Pittsburg. Tickets are $5-$10at the door; and March 30, 7:30 p.m.at the Lesher Center for the Arts,Walnut Creek, Tickets are $10-$30 atthe door, or order by phone (925-943-SHOW) or online atwww.LesherArtsCenter.org.

Swan Lake, one of thegreatest and most revered,

fairytale ballets of all time iscoming to the Lesher Center in

Walnut Creek May 2 and 3.Highlighting the dancers ofthe Contra Costa BalletCompany, dressed in all white,the opulent “Swan Lake” castsa haunting innocence on thepassion of undying love.

This archetypal story ofgood versus evil features theenduring choreography ofPetipa/Ivanov and is set toTchaikovsky’s magnificent,timeless score. Filled withbeauty and enchantment,Contra Costa Ballet’s SwanLake will captivate audiencesof all ages.

The Contra Costa BalletCompany is a regional, pre-professional youth company ofunusual stature. Under thedirection of Richard Cammackand Zola Dishong, and spon-sored by the non-profitContra Costa BalletFoundation, Contra CostaBallet produces two high-qual-ity productions annually at theLesher Center: Spring Repand Story of the Nutcracker.

For ticket information and per-formance times, call (925) 943-SHOW (7469) or go towww.lesherartscenter.org .

Please let our advertisers know you saw themin the Clayton Pioneer 925-672-0500

Center REPertoryCompany’s production of“Sleuth” — called one of thebest stage thrillers of all time —runs at the Lesher Center forthe Arts March 28 to April 26.

“Sleuth” has been wowingaudiences with its breathtakingsurprises and revelations fordecades. Successful British mys-tery writer Andrew Wyke inviteshis wife’s lover to his mansionand proposes an intricatescheme in which they can bothcome out winners. So begins the

twisty, high-stakes game ofbrinksmanship that The NewYork Times called “clever as awagonload of monkeys solvingthe crossword puzzle — intri-cate as the Hampton Courtmaze — good, clean bloodyfun!”

For info go to CenterREP.org orcall 925.943.SHOW (7469) or goto the Lesher Center Ticket Office at1601 Civic Drive or the ticket officeOutlets at Barnes & Noble inWalnut Creek and the DowntownWalnut Creek Library.

CC Chamber to honor womenartists in HERstory, a wrap-upof Womens History Month

Contra Costa Ballet to present ‘Swan Lake’

Clever ‘Sleuth’ dazzleson Lesher stage

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Did you ever want to be on ajury, but not deal with the hassleof jury duty?

Theater-goers will have thatchance in the new play presentedby the Clayton Theatre Company,“Night of January 16,” whichruns April 4 through 12.

Clayton’s own theater com-pany’s second play takes place

entirely in a courtroom during amurder trial. As a twist, mem-bers of the audience will beselected to play members of thejury — and ultimately determinethe ending of the performance:guilty or not-guilty.

The play’s author, Ayn Rand,intended it to dramatize a conflictbetween individualism and con-

formity, with the jury’s verdictrevealing which viewpoint theypreferred.

Audience members whowould like to be considered toserve on the jury should arrive 20minutes before curtain to fill outthe juror paperwork.

The play is directed byLaTonya Watts, with help from

assistant director Roxanne Pardi.The company is also seeking

volunteers for the performances,as well as donations to the com-pany itself.

Purchase tickets online by followinga link on the company’s website,www.claytontheatrecompany.com.

Alessandra Mello

THOMAS GORREBEECK AND KIT WILDER star in Center REP’s pro-duction of Sleuth, opening March 28 at the Lesher Center.

CTC’s spring play wants audience as part of the action

KRISTIN LINDSAY performs the technically challenging dual rolesof Odette/Odile, and Aaron Orza makes his CC Ballet debutas her eternally-devoted Prince Siegfried in “Swan Lake” at theLesher Center, May 2 and 3.

MICHELLE CAIMOTTOFLAUTIST

Please tell our advertisers that you saw them in the Clayton Pioneer

Page 16 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

Plants go in and out ofstyle as fashion does. RedFountain Grass, TapienVerbena, and Carpet Rosesare just a handful of plants

for which cus-tomers onceswarmed thenursery. Thenfor one reasonor another theirp o p u l a r i t ybegan to fade,and suddenlythe urgency toinstall theseplants faded.

This too wasthe case with theshrub commonlycalled Rockrose.Rockrose was the “it”shrub 20 years ago. Itspopularity soared as theOakhurst Development wasbeing landscaped. Now,Rockrose is back by populardemand. This is a perfectshrub for our Clayton Valleyclimate and growing condi-tions.

Cistus is the botanicalname for Rockrose. Thisevergreen isn’t picky aboutsoil. Rockrose can handle oursticky clay, as well as rockyhills. Cistus is drought-toler-ant once established, needingonly small amounts of sum-mer water to survive. There isno need to fertilize Rockrose.Depending on the variety,Rockrose can have flowers inlight or dark pink, white orblotched. Rockrose has thetypical early spring flower dis-play that can last four to sixweeks depending on theweather. Growers can alsoexpect a repeat of flowers inautumn.

Cistus ladnifer is a varietyof Rockrose with a darkgreen leaf and contrasting redstem. In March and April, a

whiteflower with a crimson blotchcovers this evergreen shrub.Flowers can be two- to two-and-a-half-inch round. Theflower of a Rockrose is sim-ple-shaped, having only fiveor six petals surrounding acenter. Cistus ladnifer cangrow four-feet tall and six-feet wide. Consider themature growth when planting.You want Rockrose to growand thrive. You don’t want tohave to control its size. You’lltake away from the shrub’snatural shape.

Orchard pink flowers witha maroon blotch covers theRockrose called Cistus pur-pureus in early spring. Thisselection of Rockrose has abold color scheme and com-pliments red foliaged grasseswell. Purpureus can reachheights of four feet and cangrow eight-feet wide.

Rockrose is a perfect com-panion to summer blooming

crape myrtleshrubs or trees, or multi-trunk smoke trees. Whiteblooming Manzanita CarmelSur or the blue flowers ofYankee Point ceanothuswould both make fine, hardyground covers to plant alonga Rockrose.

Consider plantingRockrose along fence lines,hillsides and side yards. Whenplanting, take care to dig awide enough hole. Waterplant before installing, andmix soil conditioner in withthe native soil. Water thor-oughly after planting.

Cistus shrubs are hand-some foundation plants withpretty spring flower. They aretough to kill in our ClaytonValley landscapes.

NICOLE HACKETT

GARDEN GIRL

Nicole is the Garden Girl at R&MPool, Patio, Gifts and Garden. Contacther with questions or comments atGardengirl@claytonpioneer.com

Hardy Rockrose shrub is back

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If you’re looking for place to go for a delicious Easter Sunday Brunch, come celebrate the holiday with your friends and family at Oakhurst Country Club. Ring in springtime with a delectable selection of food, drink, and beautiful surroundings.

There will also be a Petting Zoo, an Easter Egg hunt, and pictures with the Easter Bunny for the kids.

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One of the time-tested storiesthat holds broad appeal is theimmigrant tale. Not only is thetraveler’s story one of hope andbelonging, it can provide thebackdrop to any number of plottwists. Take for instance, “TheGolem & the Jinni,” HeleneWecker’s debut novel (HarperPerennial; Reprint edition,December 2013).

It is New York in 1899, andtwo strange immigrants havefound one another. One is a Jinni,trapped in physical form by anevil wizard in ancient Syria andlocked in a bottle for a thousand

years. The Jinni is released by ahapless tinsmith as he attempts torepair the bottle in the slums ofNew York. The Golem is a made-to-order bride, a woman createdof clay and sparked to life with anincantation known only by hercreator and by the husband who,minutes after bringing her to lifein the hold of the ship bound forNew York from Danzig, dies of aburst appendix.

Now we have two super-humans, lost and made vulnerableby their “otherness.” We also havetwo strangers longing for connec-tion to something not-human,

and yet forced by circumstance torely on humans and their strangecustoms. Finally, we have twobeings, perhaps the last of theirkind, who want more than any-thing, to live.

The tinsmith names his JinniAhmad, because people after all,have names. Ahmad’s essentialnature is fire. And though he’strapped in the body of a human,he still has special powers. He can,for instance, shape metal with hisbare hands, creating ornate andbeautiful works of art. Hebecomes restless however, andbegins to prowl the streets of

New York at night. As a Jinni, hehas no need of sleep, and roam-ing the city when the rest of theworld slumbers brings Ahmad asmall measure of comfort.

When she arrives in NewYork and jumps ship to avoidimmigration, the Golem discov-ers herself in the Jewish ghetto,where she is adopted by a kindlyrabbi. He takes her in to protecther, because she is technically justa few days old, and names herChava. The rabbi teaches Chavahow to behave around humans,how to mask her differentnesswith normal behaviors. She learnsto cook, and takes a job. But likethe Jinni, a Golem has no needfor sleep so she too, begins towander the streets of New Yorkat night, seeking something she

can’t name.One night, inevitably, Chava

and Ahmad meet. They immedi-ately recognize each other assomeone different, and form atentative pact. They are lonely in away they can’t explain to peopleand shape a kind of solace in eachother’s company. Though theirnatures are complete opposites –Ahmad craves freedom and openspace, Chava craves close rela-tions and belonging – a bondforms.

But this is not an easy fable,there is evil in the city, and evenlife for super-humans is compli-cated. The Golem and the Jinniare separated, both fearing theirown natures and not entirelytrusting the humans with whomthey must co-exist.

“The Golem and the Jinni”makes for great winter reading –it’s a fabulous tale of magic andlove, something we can all use alittle more of.

March 14, 2014 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com Page 17

Book Review

For moreinformation

please contact

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Spring is coming and with itcomes a variety of pods, likespring peas, beans, fava beansand edamame. Edamame is thename of a special variety of soy-beans harvested in the greenstage. They are also known asvegetable soybean, green veg-etable soybean and sweet bean.Edamame is super nutritious,easy to cook, and very tasty.

Called edamame in Japanese(“branched bean”) and mao douin Chinese (“hairy bean”), thesesoybeans originated in Chinamore than 2,000 years ago.Edamame is the same species asgrain (or field) soybeans, but ithas larger seed, sweeter flavor,smoother texture and betterdigestibility. They look like largelima beans.

This nutritious bean is greattasting and good for you.Edamame contains about 38percent protein, and a one-halfcup serving contributes 11grams of protein towards the

average adult requirement of46-63 grams per day. Edamameis also rich in calcium, vitamin Aand phytoestrogens.

Your farmers’ market offersedamame in the pod. Pick up abag and try them for a tasty andhealthy addition to your meals.

Select pods that are brightlycolored, plump, smooth andfirm. Edamame will last a weekin a loosely sealed plastic bag inthe refrigerator. Before eating,wash in cold water.

CRISPY EDAMAME SNACKS

Fresh edamame beans, shelledOlive oilGranulated garlicSaltPepperParmesan cheese, grated

(optional)Preheat the oven to 400

degrees. Pat dry the edamame.Place the edamame into a bowl,drizzle with olive oil, then tossto coat. Sprinkle desired amountof granulated garlic, salt andpepper and, if desired, gratedParmesan cheese. Toss to evenlycoat the edamame.

Spread the edamame beansevenly on a baking sheet, in asingle layer. Bake for 10 to 12minutes, then remove fromoven and stir to ensure evencooking. Place back in the ovenfor 10 to 12 more minutes. Totalamount of cooking time shouldbe about 20 -24 minutes. (Keepan eye on the cooking process toprevent burning.)

Remove from oven. Eatwarm or allow to cool for a nicecrispy, crunchy snack. Do notstore too long as they tend toget too chewy.

Tasty edamame makes a super snackDEBRA J. MORRIS

Pacific Coast Farmers Market

CYNTHIA GREGORY

FOR THE BOOKS

Cynthia Gregory writes bookreviews, award-winning short storiesand a blog. Visit her blog at PersephonesStepSisters.Wordpress.comor send email to her at cgregory111@gmail.com

‘Jinni’: A magical fable of love, hope and belonging

Picture this: Two mid-centu-ry lamps, with bases constructedof stacked brass balls, sittingcasually on either end of an18th Century, ivory-coloredFrench chest of drawers, withdecorative bronze accents.Modern Lucite nesting tables sitquietly beside a traditional tuft-ed chaise lounge, while a unique,rattan wrapped floor lamp,peaks over the back of thechaise. A vintage writing deskwith a cast iron, industrialinspired base, paired with aRegency styled desk chair in ablack finish, face the one picturewindow in the petite homeoffice. Anchoring the furniture,is an Art Deco area rug from the1920s, with two-toned zigzagdesign. And, hovering above allof these wonderful treasures isanother treasure, a good-sizedItalian Sputnik chandelier, dat-ing back to the 1970s, withfrosted glass and brass globes.

Does this feel like furniturechaos to you? Maybe a few toomany things going on? A colli-sion of design eras and buildingmaterials? Can a living spacemake sense aesthetically if thefurnishings are so varied?

By all means, yes. While many of us may not

have a house full of rareantiques, the point here is moreabout coordinating furnitureand accessories that take you outof your comfort zone. I can’tthink of one single design book,magazine, or online blog wherethere is a written rule that states

“all furnishings in a living spaceshould be the same: the samecolor, the same style, the samefabric.” Can you imagine howdrab and unexciting that wouldbe? Let’s put your inner design-er to work and think outside ofthe box for a moment with acouple of design suggestions.

FIND SOME

COMMON GROUND

Right off, a homeworkassignment for your innerdesigner: why does this group-ing of furniture work? Thisgrouping works because the fur-nishings are well proportioned,not one single piece steals thespotlight, and all of the finishescoordinate well. These are veryloose guidelines, but importantguidelines to keep handy whenout and about shopping, or sort-ing through the furnishings youcurrently own. Find subtle con-nections between your furnish-ings and a custom look willresult. The ultimate goal is to cre-ate a living space that suits yourlifestyle and the lifestyle of yourfamily, while the furnishings qui-etly scream casual elegance, func-

tional design, and a very fluidand unforced appearance.

MAGAZINE VS. DESIGN WORK

It’s so easy, so enticing, topurchase everything you see ona spread in your favorite retailhome store catalogue. How canyou not love the expertly coor-dinated colors or the style andscale of the furniture and acces-sories? Instead of “selectingall,” use those pages as yourinspiration. If you must havethe lounge chair that is dis-played, purchase the loungechair, but search alternate ven-ues for the accessory items, alsoshown. Acknowledge the obvi-ous choice for coordinated fur-nishings, but then implementpieces that are unexpected.Consider visiting antique fairs,local home décor boutiques, oronline marketplaces to find one-of-a-kind treasures.

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Page 18 Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com March 14, 2014

Jennifer Leischer is the owner ofJ. Designs Interior Design based inClayton. Contact her with questions,comments and suggestions atjenna@j-designs.com.

JENNIFER LEISCHER

DESIGN & DÉCOR

Mix up designs for aone-of-a-kind lookMix up designs for aone-of-a-kind look