Helpers of Disabled Given Awards

Crystal Apple awards recognizing individuals and groups in Orange County for their contributions toward helping people with disabilities were presented by the Anaheim-based Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled at a banquet in the Irvine Marriott Hotel.

Award winners were Golden State Bassmasters of Huntington Beach; Council for Exceptional Children, Chapter 188, in Westminster; Julie Kearns of Santa Ana; Rogers Severson of Newport Beach; James Colbert of Anaheim, and R.J. Cooper of Dana Point.

The award ceremony was a kickoff to promote independence for the disabled during October, which has been named Independent Living Month by Orange County and by many cities in the county.

Irvine resident Peter Louis, a University High School graduate, was presented his Boy Scout Eagle Rank at a court of honor at the Irvine Marriott.

Peter, the son of Nydia and Eugene Louis of Irvine, installed a sprinkler system at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church as his community service project.

Fairmont Private Schools in Anaheim and Lakeside Middle School in Irvine were presented Blue Ribbon School of Excellence awards at a White House ceremony that featured speeches by President Bush and U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander.

Said Alexander: “In these schools we find well-trained staffs providing creative instruction in communities that care about education.”

Fairmont is the first private school in Orange County to receive the Department of Education’s highest award and Lakeside was the only public school in Orange County to be recognized.

Fairmont founders Helen and Kenneth Holt and David Jackson, Fairmont’s executive director, accepted the award in Washington. Fairmont has three schools and a total of 900 preschool through eighth-grade students.

Principal Don Erger, Lois Lytle, curriculum coordinator, and Joann Mercer, a language arts/social science teacher, accepted the award for Lakeside.

Teri Chavez, La Habra police community service officer, was named the department’s Vehicle Theft Officer of the Year by the Auto Theft Advisory Committee. She also received a commendation from the Board of Supervisors.

Chavez is creditted with recovering 72 of the 336 vehicles stolen in the city in 1990 as well as helping recover 100 vehicles stolen outside the city.

Newport Beach dentist Richard Seberg will be inducted into the American Academy of Implant Dentistry in an Oct. 15 ceremony in Chicago and will join 350 other members worldwide.

Members are required to pass stringent tests to be accepted as a member of the organization, which was formed in 1951.

Seberg, who has been practicing in Orange County for 15 years, has attended advanced graduate studies in implant dentistry at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla.

Fullerton Police Sgt. Doug Cave and Officer Bob Booth were presented Awards of Valor from the California State Firemen’s Assn. for their roles in rescuing a woman who had been tied up and left in a burning apartment.

The pair forced open the apartment door and crawled on the floor in the smoke-filled apartment to find the woman and carry her to safety.

UC Irvine professor of civil engineering Alfredo H-S. Ang has been elected to the grade of Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers for his research in structural safety and earthquake-resistant design.

Carol Kanode, a registered nurse at Huntington Beach High School, has been selected to represent the Southern Section of the California School Nurse Organization in competition for California School Nurse of the Year, which will announced in January. A Huntington Beach resident, she is a member of the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees and is a member of the Orange County School Nurse Organization.

Public safety awards were presented to 10 Huntington Beach citizens and city workers and a police dog at a luncheon sponsored by the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce.

The honorees are Joanne Fischer, Michael Hehn, Howard Johnson, Marcus Donmingo, Guy Dove, Michael Taylor, Jay Kleinheinz, Corby Bright, Diane Maley, Janel McInnis and K-9 Kim. Submit items to Three Cheers, The Times, c/o Herbert J. Vida, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626