McKenna Sucher, 11, makes herself a cup of tea

The ART OF WRITING AND POURING TEA WITH KIDS AT NOSH CAFE
Susan McKenna, owner of Nosh, and her friend, Marisa Guiffre

Casey Mezin, 13, pours tea for his friends

Danica Collins, Kealan Sucher, both, 8, and sister and
brother, Sean ,8, and Shersten,9, Rosenthal try sausage rolls
and other tidbits

Sophia Perez clutches her writing book after a reading

Devyn Collins pours tea for her friends.

Aileen Perez and her 6-year-old daughter
Amelia, theyoungest writer in the class


Gavin Gilham and Diego Van Antwerp finally happy
that dessert is served!
T
Ava Pfannerer pours tea for her mother.

Keliz Mezin,10, and Jackie Gray are all smiles.

WRITERS TEA TIME AT NOSH CAFÉ – CRUMPETS WITH GOLDEN SYRUP, REAL WHIP CREAM, DELICIOUS STRAWBERRIES – OH MY! A GROUP OF WRITING STUDENTS READ THEIR STORIES TO THEIR PARENTS OUT LOUD AT AFTERNOON TEA

UPDATE ON CAR CRASH ON PASEO DEL MAR TRAFFIC ACCIDENT

DON’T FORGET FAMILY KITE FLYING DAY AT 22^nd STREET PARK APRIL 10

LAST OF ALL, A NEW BLOG TO SHARE THE DAYS OF WHINING WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND THOSE WITH OTHER CHRONIC ILLNESSES AT www.themultiplesclerosischronicles.blogspot. com

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TEA TIME AT NOSH CAFE

One can always count on Susan McKenna – owner of downtown San Pedro’s Nosh Café – to put on a classy event with delectable treats – even when the primary customers are kids ages six through twelve.

Susan -- with her help of longtime friend Marisa Guiffre wanted to teach children a bit about afternoon tea English/Aussie style – spoiling them with a triumph of colorful foods – from big, juicy strawberries with real whipped cream to sausage rolls with finger sandwiches -- cucumber, salmon and ham.

While the kids enjoyed their food, it seemed they enjoyed too the actual act of pouring tea out for each other and reading their stories out loud to their parents, who also attended.

The writing group – some of whom have come for two years – meet regularly on Wednesdays at the Corner Store, which Susan and Marisa once owned. The new Corner Store Owner Peggy Lindquist has allowed the students to meet their each week.

The next writing session begins May 5.

For more information about the writing group, email: hartchap@cox.net. For more information about holding events with Nosh, call: 310-514-1121. To reach the corner Store, call: (310) 831-2424.

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DRIVER OF CAR THAT FLIPPED OVER ON SIDE OF PASEO DEL MAR LAST WEDNESDAY CHARGED

The driver of a car, who allegedly drove erratically along Paseo del Mar last Wednesday (March 27), was charged last week with a felony.

Sgt. Jon Aufdemberg, now in charge of the Los Angeles Police’s South Traffic Division’s Community Traffic Safety Unit, said the driver was arrested for a felony of drunken driving or driving under the influence of drugs.

The passenger was taken to the hospital with the complaints of pain and was treated and released, Aufdemberg said.

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DON’T FORGET THE FAMILY KITE FLYING EVENT APRIL 10 AT SAN PEDRO’S 22^nd STREET PARK

Volunteers plan to teach children how to build and fly kites at The “First Annual Kite Fly” in San Pedro – an event hoped to bring families and the community together.

Professional kite flyers will launch their more spectacular kites on Saturday April 10 a.m. to 2 while volunteers spend time teaching children how to build and fly their own kites. The event, at 22^nd Street Park, is free.

About 1,000 instructional kites will be available, said James Weston, who learned the art of kite flying when his mother owned and operated the Up, Up & Away kite store in Seal Beach. The event is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club.

Residents James and Monica Weston both learned kite flying techniques from James mother, Monty, who launched an annual event called the Japan American Annual Kite Festival in Seal Beach, now going into his 15^th year.

Monty died in 2007, but the store remained in the family’s hands when James’s sister-in-law-Kim took it over.

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THE M.S. CHRONICLES
-----Dear Readers:

I’m unveiling a new blog that will provide a place for those of us with chronic illnesses to tell our stories. It's meant to shed light to the health issues we suffer from and help those , friends and family, who endure with us. Writings will be accepted from others who want to share their stories. Here are some glimpses into our lives. Visit http://www.themschroniclesblogspot.com

SECONDS—ALL IT TAKES IS SECONDS TO DESTROY LIVES: THANK GOD IT WASN’T THEIR DAY OR MINE – OR ANYONE ELSE’S TO DIE

By Diana L. Chapman

I was headed home happily, ambling along Paseo del Mar coming from a glorious afternoon tea, my spirits high. Glimpses of the swirling, pearl-silver seas lulled my senses into a smooth calm near Point Fermin Park.

In a few seconds, all that blew up in my face.

Headed west, a red sports car pulled alongside me in the same direction – buffeting back and forth in the strong gusts and then uncontrollably swerved, nearly sideswiping my vehicle. The car then peeled off, weaved back and forth across the road ahead, and roared off at a furious speed -- leaving me in bits of floating dust.

I had no idea I knew all three women in the car – not just yet.

Irritated, I tried to spot the license plate but the car had gunned ahead; it was fruitless to try and catch up. To do so, the accelerator would have had to fly up to 60 mph. I couldn’t do it – not on Paseo del Mar where there were scores of walkers, joggers, dogs, bicyclist and kids playing still long before the sun closed down her day around 6 p.m. Wednesday.

All I could do was pray no one would get killed as the erratic driver sped off.

In a few more seconds rounding the bend that hedges Angel’s Gate Park, witnesses said the car hurled across the sidewalk, sliced through a neatly manicured city park lawn and landed in a grassland area across the street from the residences near Roxbury Street -- where just moments earlier a mother said her two two little boys had been playing.

The car eerily missed two towering palms by a few feet.

The smoking vehicle, when I saw it, sat upright on its side, bringing out crowds who raced to save those inside. Jumping out of my car, I looked at the passengers and the driver who were all alive, standing and bleeding.

I guess it wasn’t their day to die – and thank God, it wasn’t mine or anyone else’s. I was overcome with fury, however, when it dawned on me how reckless the driver was. As I approached, one of the passengers threw her arms around me as I yelled: “What were you guys thinking?” You almost hit me.”

“I’m so sooooooooorry, Diana,” the passenger cried, hugging me and crying with remorse, while she bled on her arms and down my shirt. She hugged me tightly and wouldn’t let go. “I’m so sorry. Are you OK? Are you OK?”

“I’m OK,” I said when she suddenly began to hyperventilate and folded in my arms, collapsing. Fortunately, a kind neighbor helped, holding her hand and talking to her soothingly; a lifeguard administered oxygen. Firefighters and police hadn’t arrived yet and then came the next irritant.

The driver hung over us, chiding the passenger that she “was fine,” and “there’s nothing wrong with you.”

“She’s not fine,” I shot back at the driver. “Just back off.”

The driver then basically told me to “f” off which made me broil. “You know you almost hit me,” I shouted. The kind man intervened asking the driver to leave. She sulked off and plunked down on the grass next to the other passenger. The two contended everything was fine and that the driver was not speeding or drunk.

What was even more horrific was that the young woman I was holding passed out and was carted off to the hospital. I still do not know the extent of her injuries, but I was shocked that the driver and friend didn’t seem to take much notice of their friend’s departure.

One complained: “My clothes are in that car.”

In some ways, I’m a tolerant person – as I’ve made so many mistakes in my own life – that it’s hard to make judgments on others in this regard. But there is not one time I can remember being such a fool to drive down any location peppered with people – especially as a woman in her late 20s or early 30s.

There appeared to be no regard for human or animal life.

Had I caused this wreck, I would have been horrified that I could have killed --- or maimed someone especially one of the tots who had been hopping around there a few minutes earlier – instead of trying to cover up the speed issue.

This morning, I was still steaming. This afternoon, I’m still angry as l write this with this near-miss etched in my head. I still wonder if the young woman who went to the hospital is alright. When the cops arrived twenty minutes later, they didn’t have time to talk to me so I handed them my card and added: “Call me if you need me.”

You’d think it might be a lesson. But on that day, I left with a bad, gut feeling that for this driver, it wasn’t going to leave a blip on her morality chart or anywhere else. And I can’t help but feel: just how sad is that?

SOME KIDS STORIES GIVE US A WHOLE NEW VOICE WITH THEIR WRITING; TRY THIS ONE ON FOR SIZE

Dear Readers: In this exercise, students were given stickers to write about and in Keli Mezin’s case, she picked a butterfly sticker. It’s interesting what unfolds when kids are allowed the shot at creativity. Diana

MY BUTTERFLY

By Keli Mezin,

My butterfly is orange, black and white. It is a girl. She loves to fly everywhere, everyday. She lives in a big pine tree on a cliff. She smells the ocean and some days, she flies down to the ocean to meet other butterflies.

Her name is Leila. She is a very graceful butterfly, indeed. And so is her name. Every male butterfly she sees wants her. But she never takes. She is happy how she is living in a tree on a cliff where she happily practices her daily flying routines.

Even though Leila was sweetly beautiful, she had a nastier side.

She was snippy and if someone started a fight, Leila liked to make it worse.

But one day, she met a lonely deer picking at the tree that Leila lived in. “I’m trying to get some sleep,” Leila snapped. “Sorry," the deer grunted, but he didn’t stop.

“Why do you keep hitting and picking at my trees?,” Leila moaned.

“Why don’t you come out here and live?” asked the deer “and see what it’s like to be without a home.”

“I bet I could stay out there for a whole week!” Leila said.

“OK, you start NOW!” the Deer exclaimed.

“OK, I’ll get my furniture,” Leila said with a grating voice.

“NO furniture!”the Deer yelped.

“Oh, fine,” Leila yelled. Leila stayed out in the wild for a night, and soon she was hitting on trees. She hit on the trees a lot because she missed her tree.

One day the Deer walked out of a tree he now was living in. Leila was hitting it. “What are you doing?” he asked grumpily.

Leila said with an attitude, “You hit on a tree when you were frustrated, not having a home.”

“Now you know how I felt,” the Deer said. “It was a good lesson for you, Leila.”

“I guess,” she said, and fluttered away.

Brandon Currey, 14, and Alec Launtanen, 15 build pirate kite

Tiffany, a junior paints trash cans, while other students help make kites

Flying kites next to impossible due to little breeze

A Starbucks family joins in the clean-up effort


Juliet, 2, helps weed

Principals daughter's, Teel, 7, left and Taylor,9

Wyland Kelly, 14, rakes

A COMMUNITY DAY OF SERVICE AT SAN PEDRO HIGH SCHOOL BRINGS OUT STUDENTS, STARBUCKS EMPLOYEES, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS AND KITES – EVEN THOUGH THE DUD WINDS FAILED TO GET THE KITES UP IN THE AIR, CHILDREN SEEMED TO ENJOY BUILDING THEM ANYWAY

By Diana L. Chapman

With a day of warm Santa Ana winds and a bit of haze Saturday, San Pedro High students along with community members – including more than a half dozen Starbucks employees – came to weed, clean up trash and paint trash cans to beautify the school.

With a nearly 32 percent dropout rate and a campus with three-quarters of its students on some type of lunch subsidy, the beautification plan was expected to attract scores more residents after school official, Sandy Alvarenga, sent out notices to every single, local elementary school and sent out hundreds of fliers.

Despite that disappointment of low attendance or little winds , the 35 students who attended, along with the principal Jeanette Stevens, Los Angeles mayoral staff, Starbucks employees and Kiwanis Club members still seemed to enjoy the 9 a.m. to noon event.

Even with perkless winds – and few kites taking to air – several San Pedro High students not only helped little ones make kites – they tried to fly them as well.

“If only the wind would have cooperated, we would have seen more kites in the air,” the principal said. “Regardless, kids were thrilled to run around the field with their home made kites trying extremely hard to get them to stay up in the air! It was a great day for family, community engagement, and fun!”

Starbucks employee, Kelly Soto, who works at the Peninsula Center, said she was thrilled to be back at her alma mater where she graduated ninth in her 1997 class. She was saddened, she said, because of the large dropout rate and hopes to do future work with the students.

“I love it,” said Soto, as she raked up weeds and plunked them into bag. She holds a degree in marine biology. “It’s wonderful and I feel I really connected to the kids. I’ve enjoyed coming and chatting with the teachers and the kids aren’t used to having adults around them. We are happy to help out.”

“It’s so wonderful to give back to our school,” said Isaiah Gutierrez, who manages the Golden Cove Starbucks and hopes to do more community service at the campus where he too graduated. “I hear things aren’t going so well, so we want to help.”

All the students who attended worked hard weeding, repainting tired trash cans and picking up trash. Even Wyland Kelly, 14, in 9^th grade, said he came “because I needed community service hours, but it’s not that bad.”

Two high school students came all the way from Manhattan Beach’s Mira Costa High School to receive community service hours.

“It’s not a bad way to get community services hours,” said a seemingly happy 15-year-old Alec Lautanen after he and his friend Brandon Currey, 14, finished building a pirate kite.

Community member James Weston, along with the Kiwanis Club, provided kites and brought professional fliers to the event. But even with the poor winds, Weston said: “See all the kids playing out there and being outside even if they can’t get their kites up.

“That’s what it’s all about.”