Around Town: Stop Polluting Our Newport annual meeting Saturday

Stop Polluting Our Newport, a nonprofit activist group, will hold its 41st annual meeting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Environmental Nature Center, 1601 16th St., Newport Beach.

Guest speaker Terry Watt will give a presentation titled “Sustainability: What Does That Mean for Newport ... and You?”

The group will review its major accomplishments from 2014 along with issues and projects that it plans to monitor in the coming year.

The organization was formed in 1974 to “protect and preserve the residential and environmental qualities of Newport Beach.”

For more information, email Info@SPON¿NewportBeach.org or call (949) 864-6616.

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Pulitzer-winning author to speak in Costa Mesa

The Olive Tree Initiative, an organization that promotes conflict analysis and resolution, will host Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright at its fourth annual gala from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Sunday at the Center Club in Costa Mesa.

Wright, who also is a screenwriter, playwright and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, is best known for his examination of religious extremism in his books “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” “Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David” and, most recently, “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief.”

The event also will feature a presentation by students who have studied conflicts in Israel and the West Bank and Turkey and Armenia through the Olive Tree Initiative’s educational program.

Tickets are $150. The Center Club is at 650 Town Center Drive.

For more information, visit https://www.olivetreeinitiative.org/gala_2015https://www.olivetreeinitiative.org/gala_2015.

* Charity golf tournament raises $58,000

Community Service Programs’ Swing for Kids Charity Golf Tournament brought together 133 participants at Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine on May 14, raising more than $58,000 for the nonprofit’s youth shelters and family counseling programs.

The event also included entertainment and a silent auction.

“We are deeply grateful to the continuous support of the Orange County community for once again coming together to take a swing for a great cause,” Margot Carlson, executive director of Community Service Programs, said in a statement. “Proceeds from our 32nd annual golf tournament will help make a tremendous impact in the lives of at-risk Orange County youth and their families.”

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Rescue of the Year Award presented

The Los Angeles Northern Section Lifeguards awarded Ben Carlson the organization’s “Rescue of the Year” award for 2014 at a ceremony last week.

Carlson, a longtime Newport Beach lifeguard, died in large surf while rescuing a distressed swimmer on July 6.

A plaque honoring Carlson will be on display at the Benjamin M. Carlson Lifeguard Headquarters in Newport Beach.