The Bakersfield Voice

BY RHONDA FRANKHOUSERCommunity contributor

hursday, Nov. 11, marked a his-toric day for all American Veter-ans — but this day also gaveOptimal Hospice Care a chance tothank over 40 patients and care-

givers who have served their country indifferent branches of the military.

“This year each patient who is a Veteranreceived a beautiful Certificate of Appre-ciation signed by their hospice care team,

along with a patriotic, hand-painted doorhanger created by the Youth VolunteerGroup,” shares Jana Maragoni, Adminis-trator. “It is just a small gift, but it is heart-felt. We want them to know that weappreciate what they have done for ourcountry and that we will always remem-ber the sacrifices they made.”

The staff and volunteers at OptimalHospice Care would like to extend theirappreciation to all Veterans and militarypersonnel, past and present. To contactOptimal Hospice Care, please call 1-888-597-6115.

Rhonda Frankhouser is the VolunteerCoordinator for Optimal Hospice Care.

BY ALICIA HAMMONSCommunity contributor

ruitvale Jr. High’s Advanced DramaClass is pleased to announce theThird annual production of CharlesDickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” Theperformance will take place on Fri-

day, Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m. Prices are $4 foradults, $3 for children or FJH students.

Dickens wrote the novel primarily toaddress the poverty of England’s poor. Atthe time, many were trying to make thebakers close their shops on Sundays. Thisinfuriated Dickens because many poorfamilies took their Sunday meals to thebakers to be roasted. Closing the shopswould deprive many of them their onlyhot meal of the week.

Most funerals at this time were for chil-dren under the age of 10. Those that didsurvive, grew up poor, without an educa-tion, and forced to continue the cycle ofpoverty.

Many of Dickens’s characters were basedon his real-life family members, includinghis sister, Fan, and her crippled son.

“A Christmas Carol” tells the story of amean and bitter miser, Ebenezer Scrooge.Scrooge is not sensitive to the plight of thepoor and doesn’t care about anyone buthimself. In the course of one night, he isvisited by his former business partner andthree other spirits who try to urge Scroogeto become a better man — and to care forothers.

In the spirit of this great tale, and toensure that no one in our community goeshungry this holiday season, we are askingeveryone who attends to try to bring onecan of soup for our soup drive. There willbe a $1 discount to each person whobrings in a can of soup the night of the per-formance (limit one discount per person).

Please come and enjoy this terrific pro-duction — we look forward to seeing you.

Have a blessed holiday season!

2 The Bakersfield Voice Sunday, November 21, 2010

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Y O U R S C H O O L S

evelations — I am about to revealsome very privy informationabout some people around town.You may want to seriously thinkabout terminating your ingestion

of this column right now and go mow thelawn (if you have planted winter rye) or getup and go wash those dirty dishes in thesink. Most of you are not going to be fond ofthe reason that I am outing these particularindividuals due to the fact that you reside inBakersfield. You still have the opportunityto abort. Read on at your own risk. Okay,the names come first. Please note that thisis a select list, but there are others out there:Local softball junkie, Mark Tolliver; BPDemployee, Craig Checklenis; fellow BCLight Brigade member, Larry Campbell;local construction icon, Joe Colombo; for-mer farm-labor contracting resident, MikeKreger; KHSD employee, Kenny Cotton;and this scribe as well. The revelation: WEARE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS FANS! Herein the land of the artful Dodgers we exist asunderground amoeba and are basicallytreated as second-class citizens. We tend towear our Giants gear only at night so as not

to be noticed. But not anymore Bako! Weare the WORLD CHAMPS baby and proudof it. Now, for posterity’s sake, please do notthink that we are rubbing it in Dodgers fan.I know that some of you, like KHSDemployee Kent Kauffman, really do revel in

our triumph (yeah,sure!) It’s been a longtime coming for our“Boys By The Bay,”and we are gulping itdown like a sour-dough bread bowl ofhot clam chowderfresh off the pier atFisherman’s Wharf —slowly and tastefully!Because you neverknow when — or if —it will happen again.Now, that wasn’t sopainful was it? Or wasit?

This, That and The Other (local) —Congratulations to neighbor and FrontierHigh School volleyballer, Kelsey Fien, forher verbal commitment to the University of

Nebraska. People from the Midwest havestrong familial values and Kelsey will fitright in as she comesfrom a wonderfulfamily. Garces Highvarsity footballcoach, John Roberts,admittedly ran upthe score on EastHigh, yet had theguts to apologize toeveryone regardinghis misdeed. A lifelesson learned!Here’s hoping that amention of the Bak-ersfield Condors willbring positive karma to the team, coachMarty Raymond and GM Matthew Riley.That class organization deserves somelovin’ and luck during their trying times.The D-I high school football playoffs aregoing to be thrilling! No disrespect hereLiberty Patriots, but a Centennial-BHSrematch in the playoffs sounds delicious.

This, That and The Other (national) —The NBA’s Boston Celtics have already

punked the much-heralded Miami Heattwice in the first 10 games of the season.One could make a case for quantity overquality as the Celts are a much deeperteam. Business as usual: World Series MVPEdgar Renteria was released by the SanFrancisco Giants within days after theclinching game. If Floyd Mayweather Jr.ever agrees to the fight, the guess here isthat his personal travails and inactivity willlead to a Manny Pacquiao victory. May-weather will not be able to pile up enoughpoints with his defensive style of boxing asthe “Pac-Man” will aggressively be in “Pret-ty-Boy’s” face all night long. Wouldn’t it besomething if two BCS-busting college foot-ball teams ended up as the only unbeatensat years end? Would love to see Texas Chris-tian University and Boise State vie for thenational championship! Parity is the wordwhich comes to mind while following profootball this year. Eight games in and every-body has at least two losses. And that isexactly why America’s sports fans embraceit as the number-one sport in our country.

And In Passing — Was very saddened tolearn belatedly of the passing of one of Bak-

ersfield’s baseball men. Chuck Piercepassed away while on a trip to Idaho.Chuck was at one time a scout for severalprofessional baseball teams. He was a jollysort who always had a smile for you. He wasa fixture at BC and Blaze baseball games.Back in the late-70s I wandered out to SamLynn Ballpark and saw a team practicing.Not knowing a single soul I walked up tothis short, heavy-set gentleman whoappeared to be the manager and asked if Icould throw the ball around with them.Soon after, Chuck asked me if I would liketo join their team, the County League’s Bak-ersfield Batting Range. I said that I wouldlove to and that began a lifelong friendshipbetween Chuck and I. In the last few yearsabout the only time I saw Chuck was at theHot Stove dinners and we would alwayschat each other up for a few minutes. Eachtime before saying goodbye, Chuck wouldalways say that he was very proud of all ofhis ballplayers. We were all his boys. Andbefore he would walk away he would shakemy hand with both of his hands and flashhis infectious smile.

Thanks for the memories, Chuck.

Y O U R S P O R T S

R

CALIFORNIAN FILE

Kelsey Fien

Fruitvale Jr. High advanced dramaclass to present ‘A Christmas Carol’

Thanks for the memories, Chuck Pierce

MICHAELELLIOTTSports columnist

Optimal Hospice honorslocal veterans

F

E X T R A ! E X T R A !

F R O M T H E P H O T O G A L L E R Y

Fruitvale’s Ad-vanced Dramastudents: KatieBarksdale,Kennedi Sulli-van, AudreyWeir, SaraWedemeyerand Taylor Ca-marillo practicefor the school’sThird annualproduction ofCharles Dick-ens’s “A Christ-mas Carol.”

COURTESY PHOTOS

Alicia Hammons (top left) and her eighth-grade Advanced Dramaclass.

Hanna Molen and Amy Williams rehearsea scene from “A Christmas Carol.”

Evan Amason andBrooke Crosswhiteduring a dramaticscene in “A Christ-mas Carol.”

TCOURTESY PHOTO

Youth volunteer pre-senting a Veterans Daygift.

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4 The Bakersfield Voice Sunday, November 21, 2010

You probably don’t like thinking about heart attacks, high-risk

pregnancies, accidents and strokes. But they’re part of life.

And it’s our job to deal with them.

In fact, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital provides more services to more

people than any other hospital in Kern County.

Our cardiovascular services rank among the best in America. This year,

we’ll be opening a new Transient Ischemic Attack Clinic with innovative

stroke prevention and treatment facilities at our Certified Primary Stroke

Center. The Children’s Medical Center at Memorial will include the only

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in the Southern San Joaquin Valley.

And our Birthing Center features lovely remodeled Labor & Delivery suites.

(We also hold the record for number of births in our area.)

No matter what’s going on with your body, we can help. We’re a partner in

your good health. This community built our hospital back in the 1950s, and

we’re dedicated to being here for you…every minute, every day.

So even if you don’t want to think about health problems, challenges and

crises, it’s OK. We will.

420 34th Street Bakersfield, CA 93301 | (661) 327- 4647 | www.BakersfieldMemorial.org

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