Riverside’s Fallen Heroes Remembered

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In the spirit of a ‘Unified City’, the sixty law officers who have died in the line of duty throughout Riverside County since 1895 were remembered and honored on Monday, May 20, 2013 at an annual ceremony by their families, friends and hundreds of active duty officers and retirees.

Police officers representing officers killed in the line of duty salute the family members of fallen officers attending the Riverside County Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony on Monday, May 20, 2013. Photo by David Bauman; source: PE.com

“We take a day (each year) to say … each and every one of their names. And we do our best to show the surviving family members that we’re thinking about them,” explained 72-year-old Riverside Police Department retiree Ivan Henery in the May 21, 2013 Press-Enterprise.

According to the PE, the remembrance project began 30 years ago after the Riverside Police Department lost two officers – Dennis Doty and Phillip Trust – in one day.

‘“We can’t promise them they will be safe,” Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz told the crowd Monday, May 20. But the solemn pledge to every officer, he emphasized, is that if they die in the line of duty, their colleagues will bring their killer to justice, give the fallen officer a good send-off, take care of their families – and always, always, always honor their memory.’

To watch the video of the Riverside County Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony, click here. To read the full article as published on PE.com, click here.

Inaugural ‘Riverside Startup Weekend’ Hailed as a Great Success

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Riverside’s first ‘Startup Weekend’ proved that the community is indeed a ‘Catalyst for Innovation‘, bringing together nearly 100 participants, advisors and judges to develop 10 new businesses in less than three days.

The winning Fetchit team poses with the judges at Startup Weekend. From left, UCR students Daniel Langridge and Chris Manghane, incoming UCR students Darrell and Daniel Peeden, Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey, Inland Empire Tech Coast Angels President Molly Schmid, and Rajan Kasetty, CEO of Terrafore, Inc. (photo by Conley Read; source: UCR Today)

Startup Weekend is a global program that brings 54-hour events to select cities where “developers, coders, designers marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and create startups.”  Typically half of the event attendees have technical backgrounds while the other half have business backgrounds.

Riverside Startup Weekend organizers Benjamin Mueller, Conley Read and Mike Kennedy put the 54-hour event together with the help of several sponsors and supporters, including the City of Riverside, Cal Baptist University and local startup companies Signature.io and StopTheHacker, as well as many volunteers who donated their time to support the participants. The event was held at the Culver Center at the University of California in Riverside’s ARTSblock, further inspiring creativity amongst the participants.

“The whole weekend is spent on defining a problem, creating a set of solutions (assumptions), validating those assumptions with people through online surveys, or face-to-face discussions, pivoting and iterating on the idea, developing a business model that has a monetary return on investment, as well as discussions on how to properly scale and attract/build your user base,” explained Alan Roy, a user interface designer at C&C who served as an adviser during the weekend. “In the end, these individuals from backgrounds in development, design, marketing, business, and law come together to create an ‘minimum viable product’ to present to the judges on Sunday.” (source: UCR Today)

To read the full recap as published by UCR Today, including highlights of the winning teams and projects, click here.

La Sierra University Alumnus To Be Inducted Into Baseball Hall of Fame

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(As reported by Darla Tucker, La Sierra University Newsroom)

This July, sports medicine legend and La Sierra University alumnus Frank Jobe will receive one of the highest honors a civilian can get from the professional sports world – a special recognition from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. during Hall of Fame Weekend 2013.

Sports medicine great Dr. Frank Jobe receives the La Sierra University Alumnus of the Year award from university President Randal Wisbey on April 19 with Jobe’s sons Meredith Jobe (left) and Chris Jobe standing by. (photo source: http://www.lasierra.edu)

But his first stop was La Sierra University where on Friday, April 19 he received an award as Alumnus of the Year during an Alumni weekend banquet held at the university’s Glory of God’s Grace sculpture plaza.

“Tonight we have the privilege of honoring him first,” said La Sierra University President Randal Wisbey in remarks prior to presenting Jobe with the crystal award.

“Our alumnus of the year’s impact on the game of baseball simply cannot be measured. And he never played an inning in the major leagues,” Wisbey said. In fact, Jobe changed baseball forever on Sept. 25, 1974, when he performed the first ever ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery on the left elbow of a Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Tommy John. The procedure, now known as the “Tommy John” surgery, involved grafting a tendon from John’s forearm into his elbow to replace the ligament. John recovered and took his baseball career to new heights. Before Jobe operated on John, the pitcher had won 124 games in the big leagues. After the surgery, he won 164 games, and was able to play until age 46.

Since that groundbreaking achievement, Jobe has performed more than 1,000 Tommy John surgeries on pitchers of varying level and ability, and the procedure has prolonged or saved the careers of 150 professional baseball players. He later developed another revolutionary procedure, a shoulder reconstruction surgery that was first used to save the career of Dodger great Orel Hershiser.

Jobe graduated from La Sierra in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then studied medicine at Loma Linda’s College of Medical Evangelists, now Loma Linda University School of Medicine. In 1965, along with sports medicine physician Robert Kerlan, he founded the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic which currently operates out of locations in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Anaheim, and Santa Monica.

Jobe spoke briefly to the audience of La Sierra alumni, family members, faculty and staff after they gave him a standing ovation. His son Meredith Jobe, daughter-in-law, Melanie Jobe, wife of Chris Jobe, and Jobe’s grandson, Kevin also all graduated from La Sierra. Jobe attributed his success in life to others, and he cited the life lessons he learned from La Sierra’s faculty during his college tenure.

“Those life lessons are probably more important than any book learning,” said Jobe. “They showed me how to live, how to be nice to people, how to take care of people. La Sierra has such a treasure in its faculty. I hope it’s never lost.”

As a ‘Location of Choice’ known for developing world-class athletes, it is a celebration for Riverside and a testament to the quality of education at La Sierra University, to honor an alumnus that has had such an incredible impact on the game of baseball and the field of sports medicine.

To read the full article as published by La Sierra University, click here.

University Neighborhood Recognized for Its Love of ‘Place’

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On April 23, 2013, Riverside Neighborhood Partnership (RNP) member, Gurumantra Khalsa, recognized the University Neighborhood Association (UNA) before the Riverside City Council for “Its deep love of ‘place‘”.

As one of Riverside’s twenty six defined neighborhoods, the University Neighborhood is the University of California, Riverside’s eastern connection with Riverside.  The University Neighborhood witnessed the birth of the UCR and was the neighborhood of choice for many of the pioneering faculty and staff.

The “after” photo of UNA’s Median Makeover (2012; source: UNA Facebook page).

Today, the University Neighborhood is home to a diverse collection of neighbors with a long history of coming together to connect, contribute and collaborate on issues or projects that make their neighborhood and Riverside a better community for all. Recent initiatives that have been led by the UNA include median makeovers, National Night Out events, literacy programs and advocating for neighborhood and sustainability policies.

Khalsa prided the UNA for being proactive leaders and collaborators when they identify ways – simple or complex – that can have a positive impact on the area.

For more information, visit the University Neighborhood Association’s Facebook page. To watch the April 23, 2013 City Council presentation, click here (Item #16).

Riverside Recognized for Prioritizing Play for Children

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With research proving play is critical to the overall well-being of children, Riverside earned recognition from national non-profit KaBOOM! as a 2013 ‘Playful City USA’ community for our efforts to give children the childhood they deserve by providing ample opportunities for play, proving this city to be a ‘Location of Choice‘ for recreation, youth and community wellness. This year, 217 cities and towns were recognized.

Sponsored by the Humana Foundation, Playful City USA is a national program from KaBOOM! that celebrates and promotes local policies that increase play opportunities for children and is a key platform in combating the lack of play among children.

“Active living is the Riverside Way” said Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey.  “This community understands the important role of connecting with others – and that begins with ‘Play’ during childhood.  We are a Fit Fresh & Fun city and we are proud to be recognized by KaBOOM as a Playful City USA.”

For more information on the recognition, KaBOOM, Humana Foundation, or to read the full press release, click here.

Riverside AQuettes Successful at National Team Trials

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Representing Riverside as a world-class location for sports training programs, members of the Riverside AQuettes synchronized swimming team traveled to Walnut Creek for the USA Synchronized Swimming national team trials the weekend of May 4-5, 2013.

Riverside AquettesElizabeth Davidson successfully qualified for the Senior National Team and will compete at the US OPEN in Texas in July.  Catalina Nedulcu was named as the youngest member of the Junior National team and also qualified handily for the 13-15 year old Age Group National team.  At the recommendation of her coaches, Catalina is choosing to compete with the 13-15 team and will be traveling to Puerto Rico in early August for the UANA (Union Americana de Natacion) championships.

Both the Junior and 13-15 National teams will be training in Riverside this summer.

For more information on the Riverside AQuettes program, please contact Sue Nesbitt at 951-750-3744 or visit the Aquettes website at www.raqsynchro.org.

Students Explain “Why College Completion Counts” in Scholarship Contest

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Completion Counts video scholarships are being awarded to 13 creative high school seniors from Alvord and Riverside high schools for producing imaginative videos to promote “why college completion counts.”

Completion Counts is Riverside’s collaborative endeavor to increase Riverside’s ability to be a Center for ‘Lifelong Learning for All‘ and to raise college graduation rates in the community. The partners are the City of Riverside, Riverside City College, the Alvord and Riverside unified school districts, Riverside County Office of Education, the University of California, Riverside, and the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. The work of Completion Counts began in 2010 with a $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree” (contributed photo)

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree” (contributed photo)

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree,” given against a background promoting the Completion Counts www.College311.org website.

Other individual videomakers who are receiving $500 scholarships for promoting messages including the economic benefits of completing college, some using sports, arts, and career analogies to make their points, are Jedon Carter of North High School, Tanya Reyes of La Sierra High School, Katy Gutierrez of Norte Vista High School and Daisy Garcia of Norte Vista High School.

In the Group Video category, in which a cast and crew of up to three students could also compete for scholarships, the Grand Prize of $1,500 will go to Sara Emami and Emilie Abraham of La Sierra High School (who will each receive $750), with their video, “We Got This!”

Runners up in the Group Video category were a Ramona High School team of Fernando Banales-Mejia, Maria Rivera and Karen Figueroa; and a Poly High School team of Luis Torres, Rodrigo Lucatero and Matthew Beasley. Each of the group runners-up will receive a $250 scholarship award.

“We had some terrific qualifying submissions,” said Al Cardoza, Completion Counts’ Video Scholarship project manager. “Congratulations to the creative winners for finding fun new ways to promote the ‘college completion counts’ message!”

Winning videos will be uploaded the Completion Counts website and made available to the City of Riverside GTV  Channel 3.

“This scholarship is designed to start getting students thinking and talking about college. There are no essays, or a ‘straight-A’ average required – we’re simply looking for the best and most creative video perspective,” said Completion Counts Director Cindy Taylor at the contest launch in March.

The contest also invited participation in the www.careercruising.com free career assessment resource, which students can access with their student ID number, to get a better idea of courses of study for careers.

Career Cruising is one of many free education resources and links available to students and families through the www.college311.org website.