‘Wonder Dog’: Start early, have a back-up plan

NEWPORT BEACH — Addressing nearly 100 ninth- to 12th-graders at the Beach City Service League’s monthly meeting Sunday, former Angels announcer Rex Hudler encouraged them to figure out what they want early in life, then go for it.

“The clock is ticking. Find your compass in life,” Hudler, a major league baseball player for 10 years, told the crowd at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. “I was blessed. I loved recess, and I loved PE classes. Little did I realize that that was going to turn into a professional career for me, but it did.”

Founded three years ago, the Beach City Service League is the only organization in the Newport-Mesa area that connects mothers with their sons. The mission is to teach the students how to volunteer more in the community and learn more about how to succeed in life and become upstanding citizens.

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Former Angels announcer to speak at church

(Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times)

NEWPORT BEACH — Rex Hudler, the former commentator for the Angels, plans to speak to nearly 100 high school boys at a church in Newport Beach this weekend.

The ninth- to 12th-graders are part of the three-year-old Newport Beach/Costa Mesa Beach City Services League.

The mission is to promote community service and teach real-life skills to help those in need, said Annie Quinn, whose son, Conner, 16, is part of the group.

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Fairgrounds buyer to rehire full-time employees

COSTA MESA — Save for the chief executive, all full-time Orange County Fairgrounds employees set to be laid off by the state would be rehired by the private company seeking to acquire the 150-acre property, a spokesman for the buyer said Thursday.

Not long after learning they would be laid off if the proposed sale of the fairgrounds goes through, employees were told they would be rehired by Facilities Management West, the Newport Beach investment company seeking the purchase the O.C. Fair & Event Center for $100 million.

Eighty-one full-time employees would be rehired, said FMW spokesman Guy Lemmon said.

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Four Costa Mesa students win library essay contest

Four Costa Mesa students’ ideas will help influence the interior conceptual drawing of a new central library in Costa Mesa, according to a news release.

Out of more than 150 entries for a Costa Mesa Library Foundation sponsored essay contest, which focused on “What I Would Like to See as Part of a New Library” and “Why Libraries Are Important,” Madeline Baldikoski, of Kaiser Elementary School, took first and Oliver Ressler, also of Kaiser Elementary, took second in the fourth-to-sixth-grade category while Sylvia Catania, of Costa Mesa Middle School, took first and Christopher Hutchinson, also of Costa Mesa Middle School, took second in the seventh-to-eight-grade category.

Madeline and Sylvia received $100 each, while Oliver and Christopher received $50.

Their essays, along with six others, will be handed over to an Orange Coast College architectural class, which is in the midst of drafting a design of the library and plans to incorporate some of the students’ ideas.

“It was difficult to narrow down the four winners,” foundation Vice President Barbara Steck said in the release. “They are all to be congratulated!”

The four winners’ English teachers will each receive a $75 Staples gift card.

Carl’s Jr. could replace McDonalds at JWA

McDonald’s might be on the way out and Carl’s Jr./Green Burrito might be on the way in for wayward travelers looking for a bite to eat at John Wayne Airport.

For two decades, McDonald’s has filled passengers’ stomachs at Terminals A and B, but five commissioners at an Airport Commission meeting tonight will be asked to choose Carl’s Jr./Green Burrito for a 10-year lease, Jenny Wedge, spokeswoman for the airport, said Wednesday afternoon.

The recommendation is being made on behalf of an evaluation committee, made up of four airport managers and one person from the public, Wedge said, adding that various factors were taken into account, including the experience of the fast-food franchise, the quality of food and the enhancements it would bring to the site.

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Waldorf students plant trees for prosperity

Lars Bloch, 12, 6th grader at the Waldorf School of Orange County, works on planting a Coyote Bush with Dorthy Kimmel with the Orange County Parks at the Talbert Nature Preserve in Costa Mesa. (SCOTT SMELTZER, Daily Pilot / November 28, 2010)

COSTA MESA — Students from the Waldorf School of Orange County on Monday planted more than a dozen California sycamore trees in the Talbert Nature Preserve below Fairview Park.

It’s all part of an environmental program to return native vegetation to the Santa Ana River Valley that was once home to Native Americans and Spanish settlers and, as late as the 1940s, cattle ranchers.

Orange County Parks special resource officer Sue Stoffel told the group of kindergartners to high school seniors that they’d be able to visit the preserve and see the dramatic change in the landscape as a result of their hard work. … Continue Reading

From Irvine to Oxford

A UC Irvine alumna has become the first Rhodes Scholar in university history.

Megan Braun, 23, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history in 2009, said she plans to attend Oxford University in the fall for two years, where she plans to work toward a master’s degree in international relations.

“Eventually, I hope to go to law school and become an attorney, either for the State Department or the United Nations,” Braun said in a telephone interview from her Coronado home.

…Continue reading From Irvine to Oxford

OCC to show comical Latino play

COSTA MESA — Orange Coast College’s theater department will present “Latins Anonymous,” a comical look at what it’s like sometimes to be Latino in Orange County.

The play will be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, inside the OCC Drama Lab Theatre, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door.

Ticket prices for students and seniors are $5 in advance, $7 at the door.

OCC staff and faculty will be admitted free of charge.

“Latins Anonymous” is the first full-length play directed by student Linda Viramontes, who has helped behind the scenes as stage manager and as assistant director in many OCC Repertory Theatre productions.

The director, who lives in Santa Ana, aimed to create a play that helps Latinos laugh at themselves, while also being “proud of who we are and where we come from,” according to a news release.

She also was one of the founding members of the Deep Blue Sea Repertory.

Four years on board honored

Michael Collier, an outgoing school board member with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, will receive special recognition Tuesday night for his four years of service.

Collier, 55, was defeated by Katrina Foley for the Trustee Area 2 seat, a district that encompasses the region surrounding Costa Mesa High School and Orange Coast College.

He was an avid advocate of Westside schools and was always looking for better ways to boost student achievement and test scores.

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Mariners, Newport Harbor schools ‘tagged,’ spokeswoman says