Rotary Club of Long Beach celebrates 107th anniversary – Press Release

Cameo photo, from left: Sherry Hom, Susan Blackwell, Nathan Warren, Jayla Calhoun, Kenny Roman Nunez, Marlene Hernandez, Angel Cervantes Quinonez, Alexis Rivera, Drake Smith, Alexus Fears, Osiris Beltran, Alejandra Salcedo, Samuel Ramos and Jennifer Jeffries. (Photo by Shirley Wild, The Press-Telegram/SCNG)

The Rotary Club of Long Beach, the city’s oldest service club, celebrated its 107th anniversary on June 19 at the Queen Mary.

The club’s members include 250 business leaders, and they were particularly excited to return to the Queen Mary, their home for more than 25 years, after the ship ceased operations due to the pandemic and other issues.

Steve Hockett and Michele Dobson were honored at the event. The latter was thanked and congratulated for her outstanding year of service and will now take over as director of the Rotary Club of Long Beach’s Charitable Foundation.

Steve is the former interim general manager of the Long Beach Yacht Club and helped the club navigate the pandemic. He has an illustrious four-decade career as a club manager for some of the country’s most prestigious golf courses. The president-elect is Kelly Ruggirello, president of the Long Beach Symphony, who will take the helm after Steve. This year, the Rotary Club of Long Beach donated six-figure scholarships to CSULB and LBCC. The club continued its commitment to the cleanup of Rotary Centennial Park and the Bikes for Kids and Reading by 9 programs.

Henry Meyer, former owner of Hamburger Henry’s, generously donated a trip for 50 LBUSD high school students to Camp Oaks for the Rotary Club’s Camp Enterprise business incubator as a gift from Rotary.

Crime scene at the crime scene: Dawn McIntosh, Dr. Mike Walter and Arline Walter, Steve and Priscilla Hockett, Kelly Ruggirello, Greg Gill, Judge Patrick Madden, Frank and Margie Newell, Michele Dobson, Jean Bixby Smith, Gail Schwandner, Cam Killingsworth, Freda Otto, Brian and Anna Russell, Sumer Temple, Marcelle Epley, Matt and Laura Kinley, Mollie and Larry Beck, Dennis Smith, Wayne Slavitt, Theresa Cornwell, Steve Keesal, Dana Buchanan.

Cameo graduates celebrate success

On June 9, Cameo, the professional service organization of the Assistance League of Long Beach, welcomed 11 graduates of the mentoring program and their families and friends during a celebratory luncheon at The Grand Long Beach.

Cameo’s mentoring program prepares students for college and helps them succeed. Cameo President Sharon Chavez spoke at the luncheon and congratulated the graduates.

“My message for Cameo this year is ‘Sailing together to a better future,'” said Chavez. “We hope to stay in touch with our graduates and accompany them on the next step of their journey.”

Cameo also announced that all of this year’s graduates are going to college. Two students are from LBCC: Alexis Rivera and Alexus Fears. Alejandra Salcedo will graduate from McBride High School; from Cabrillo High School come valedictorian Nathan Warren and Angel Cervantes Quinonez.

Six graduated from Jordan High School: Marlene Hernandez, Osiris Beltran, Kenny Roman Nunez, Samuel Ramos, Drake Smith and Jayla Calhoun. Hernandez was valedictorian and will attend UC Berkeley. Beltran, Nunez and Smith will attend CSULB; Ramos and Calhoun are enrolled at LBCC.

Cameo alumna Dr. Norma Salcedo spoke at lunch about how she has benefited from the program.

“Cameo helped my parents learn about my career options,” she said, “and eased their financial worries when they wondered how I would pay for everything I needed for college.”

She graduated from Cal State San Bernardino and received her master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of Kansas. After working at various universities, she decided to pursue a doctorate in educational management. Today, she is the director of the Dream Success Center at CSULB, where she supports undocumented and immigrant families.

Cameo’s mentoring program is designed to support underserved high school and community college students in the greater Long Beach area through a personalized mentoring program to help them identify and achieve their college and career goals. In addition to mentoring, students participate in monthly professional development workshops and cultural activities. Students also complete paid summer internships in partnership with Pacific Gateway and receive annual funds to purchase books and academic materials. To ensure our mentees are successful in college, each graduate also receives a computer and an academic scholarship.

This year, Cameo awarded graduates over $57,000 in scholarships and over $16,500 in technology.

Scholarship donors this year included the Long Beach Running Club (Sandy Nevarez and Gus Esparza presented four students with $2,000 scholarships), former Cameo Chair Deborah Mather, the Kiwanis Club, Rosi Pedersen and the Kovacs family (presented two students with $5,000 scholarships). Pat Paris, Kiwanis Board member and Cameo member, presented three students with $1,000 Kiwanis scholarships.

Seen at the crime scene: Julie Wilson, Colleen Bragalone, Karen Sprague, Cynthia Terry, Olga Reyes, Naomi Blackmore, Maria Harris, Diane DeWalsche and Jennifer Jeffries.

Pride Night 2024 at the Aquarium of the Pacific

June 21 was a very colorful and festive evening at the Aquarium of the Pacific. More than 1,200 people attended Pride Night 2024, a celebration of the LGBTQ+ communities hosted by the Aquarium in partnership with the LGBTQ Center Long Beach.

The all-ages event featured a rainbow-themed program, including Drag Queen Storytelling (a family-friendly activity in which a drag queen reads a children’s book story to inspire and celebrate inclusivity) by Pickle the Drag Queen, a performance by Mariachi Arcoiris (the world’s first LGBTQ+ mariachi), and DJs playing at the Honda Blue Cavern and Shark Lagoon.

Attendees also had the opportunity to learn more about the center and other local organizations that support the LGBTQ+ community in Long Beach. At Pride Night, the Aquarium honored Jessie Santiago and Cal Bigari, co-founders of Salon Benders – now known as Benders Collective – recognizing their efforts to create spaces where people of all identities can express themselves. The ceremony took place at the Honda Pacific Visions Theater.

Aquarium mascots dressed in rainbow colors greeted guests in the Great Hall. Aquarium staff engaged guests in their “Seaweed Exploration” activity to show them that seaweed comes in all the colors of the rainbow. During the evening, the Pacific Pals (aquarium characters) also performed in the aquarium’s Ocean Science Center, and guests were able to explore the aquarium during the event. Pride Night is a celebration of local communities.

“The Aquarium welcomes everyone and hopes this event will bring together people who value one another and work together to protect our ocean planet,” said Marilyn Padilla, public relations director for the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Seen at the crime scene: Jessie Santiago, Cal Bigari, Ezra Bowen, Sean Devereaux, Pickle the Drag Queen, Sam Ny, David White, Elsie Heredia-Lara, Estella Camarena and Norma Roman, Bridgett Khoury, Ramona Patrick, Alyssa Pacaut, Logan Bolitho, bearded Martha Stewart, Mikey Turner-Holmes, Rod Surreal Beaute (current reigning Emperor of the Long Beach Imperial Court), Ashlie Brady, Diego Allen, JJ Allen, Barbara Koshi-Katan, Harmony Lynn Rockafeller, Richard Brown and Katherine Keesal.

Messages about social events with charitable purposes can be sent to Shirley Wild at [email protected] or by fax to 562-594-9468. Please include a contact phone number. Send high-resolution JPEG photos as attachments to [email protected] and include the group name and identification of the people from left. Call Shirley at 562-594-9468 for more information.