Coast2Coast

Eco-Friendly Weddings, Golf Fundraiser & More

NEW YORK:  Those interested in Eco-Friendly weddings should seek out Mireya Navarro’s book, Green Wedding: Planning your Eco-Friendly Celebration in which the New York Times environmental writer says you can green your wedding at any budget, and can in fact help save you money. 

“Green weddings by definition stand against waste and excess,” Navarro says. “They call for avoiding over-consumption.  They favor re-using as much as possible by borrowing, renting or buying second-hand.  Another must is to buy seasonal and local. All these principles translate into savings.”
 
When couples plan their wedding with the environment in mind, Navarro explains, they are trying to minimize the event’s carbon footprint, which means to reduce all those global warming-causing greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere through human activities such as the use of electricity use and transportation. Avoiding unnecessary things, such as the useless party favor, is one way to save both on the resources that went into making the favors and on the wedding’s price tag. Other examples of green savings:
 
Buying a vintage or second-hand wedding gown, or borrowing it, follows the green principle of re-using. The New York Times’ Sunday Styles section recently confirmed this trend with brides “looking to save money and be eco-friendly by renting or buying used dresses and other items for their wedding.”
 
If you go local and seasonal for elements like the menu and flowers, you not only save on transportation-related carbon emissions but on that mark-up for anything traveling from afar.  
 
You may still send out those paper invitations and thank-you notes – on recycled paper, of course! - since etiquette experts frown on emails for such personal communication. But green couples opt to have a wedding website for all other communication with guests (RSVPs, the registry, directions to the venue,) which is much more economical than all those cards and envelopes within envelopes often sent out to guests.  
  

Green Wedding (Stewart, Tabori & Chang / ISBN 978-1-58479-712-8 / January 2009 / $35.00) features these and other cost-savings ideas as well as stories of couples who have “greened-up” their dream weddings and in so doing are inspiring others to follow their example. This authoritative guide explains how couples can minimize the environmental impact of their wedding by using alternative products and services that can reduce planetary harm while still ensuring a joyous and elegant celebration.

Green Wedding includes gorgeous photographs that provide endless ideas for decoration, design, and style. It presents ideas on everything from planning the ceremony and reception, to offsetting the global-warming impact of guests’ travel, to designing a menu with seasonal and local foods. And because environmental responsibility is not just a one-day affair, Green Wedding also includes chapters on ecotourism honeymoons and on sustainable living throughout married life.

 Mireya Navarro is the environmental writer for the New York Times, covering New York and the region. She shared in the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for the Times series “How Race is Lived in America.” In 2007, as the Times’ Sunday Styles correspondent in Los Angeles, Navarro wrote an article entitled “How Green Was My Wedding,” chronicling the emerging trend of couples deciding to have earth-friendly weddings. The overwhelming response to the story—it was one of the most frequently emailed Times articles that year—inspired Navarro to expand her ideas and explore the subject in depth. The result is this brilliant new book. Visit her at www.mireyanavarro.com <http://www.mireyanavarro.com/>

LOS ANGELES: The Mexican Mother of the Year Association is now accepting nominations for its 2009 Mexican Mother of the Year, whose coronation will be celebrated this May.

The Mexican Mother of the Year Association, formerly known as the Franciscan Guild, is sponsor of the Mexican Mother of the Year celebration, which was established in 1951 by Mrs. Consuelo De Bonzo, founder of La Golondrina Restaurant on historic Olvera Street in Los Angeles, and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters.

Each year, during the month of May, the Association selects a deserving woman of Mexican descent to be honored as Mother of the Year with the celebration of a solemn Mass followed by a luncheon for family and friends.  Initially celebrated at Our Lady Queen of Angels La Placita Church for more than 50 years, this unbroken tradition currently continues at historic St. Mary’s Church in Boyle Heights.

The purpose of this tradition is to recognize a mother’s contribution of time, talent and commitment to family, church and community, thereby promoting positive role models and calling attention to Catholic ideals, cultural pride and traditional family values.

The Association sponsors other fundraising events during the year and donates the proceeds to the Church which serves as a spiritual center to a diverse population while providing many social services to the community.  Among the Association’s most recent projects were the landscaping of the grounds surrounding La Placita, one of Los Angeles’ most important historic and cultural sites, and the donation of chairs for the school auditorium at St. Mary’s parish.

Membership is open to all who wish to carry on the tradition of the Association.  Dues are only $20 per year and meetings are held once a month at St. Mary’s Church Hall.

Membership applications and nomination forms for Mexican Mother of the Year are available by contacting Association President Mrs. Hortensia Tamayo at (323) 268-5124 or Association Secretary Mrs. Carmen Sandoval -- who at 89 relentlessly continues to keep the Mexican Mother of the Year tradition alive – at (323) 722-4275.

WHITTIER: Coming up March 5 is The Salesian Boys & Girls Club of Los Angeles’ 22^nd Annual Celebrity Golf Classic that will be held at the California Country Club in Whittier, California. The fun begins at 9:30 a.m., culminating with an awards dinner at 4:30 p.m.  Interested sponsors and participants should call (323) 263-7519.

NEXT POST:  Coming soon.  Stay tuned.

HER FATHER'S DAUGHTER & MORE

MIAMI – Inspired by her accidental discovery that her beloved father had once been a Catholic priest, Maria Elena Salinas has made her family’s secret public with the publication of her memoir, I Am My Father’s Daughter – Living a Life Without Secrets (HarperCollins Publishers). One of the most respected and admired broadcast journalist of our times, Salinas’s debut of her book on April 11 coincided a with a reception hosted in her honor by Univision in recognition of her 25th anniversary with the network.

The Emmy Award-winning news anchor tells the story of her discovery in a straightforward manner, yet with mixed emotions about having revealed a family secret that a part of her felt might better be left buried with the past. However, as she explained in a television interview, she felt it was important to bring this secret to light even though she would never know her father’s reasons for keeping it from his family, and because as a daughter, sister, wife, and mother, she is determined to live a life without secrets.

Written with Liz Balmaseda, Salinas takes the reader on a fascinating journey that describes how she broke into the business, the people who helped her along the way, her struggles as an adolescent growing up in South Central L.A. and her role as a wife and mother.

As co-anchor of Noticiero Univision since 1987, she reminisces about some of the most important news stories she has covered during her illustrious career. As her assignments have taken her around the world, she has interviewed scores of world leaders, covered natural disasters, the death of a princess, the funeral of a pope and faced danger covering wars, such as the war in Iraq where a rooftop sniper forced her to duck behind her car.

She also describes how she almost crossed over to the English-language media, but feels fortunate to have remained at Univision. The first Spanish-language television network launched in the U.S. in 1961, the Univision Television Network is part of Univision Communications, Inc., the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States. Univision Communications is headquartered in Los Angeles with television network operations in Miami and television and radio stations and sales offices in major cities throughout the United States.

A must read for everyone, I Am My Father’s Daughter is also available in Spanish, and can be purchased at Barnes & Noble or at Amazon.com.

LOS ANGELES: Great news, but not surprising that the Lozano family, founders of the Los Angeles based Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion, have been named recipients of the Premio Ortega y Gasset award from Spain’s distinguished El Pais newspaper. Representing excellence in journalism, this award is the highest-ranking and most influential recognition in Spanish-language journalism.

The Jose Ortega y Gasset award was created to acknowledge outstanding individuals for their journalistic contributions and influential professional careers. La Opinion is being honored for its pioneering trajectory over 80 years creating and maintaining an unprecedented media outlet for the growing Hispanic population in the U.S.

La Opinion was founded in 1926 to provide daily news and information to a Hispanic population that has grown to become the nation’s largest. A renowned worldwide publication, La Opinion's circulation of almost 125,000, that reaches some 495,000 readers daily, makes it the largest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States.

In 2000, La Opinión Digital was launched, creating not only an online publication of the newspaper, but a premier Spanish-language website as well.

La Opinión is owned and operated by ImpreMedia LLC, the leading publisher of Spanish language newspapers in the U.S. The new generation of Lozanos, now running the paper, are Monica Lozano and her brother Jose Ignacio Lozano.

Currently the publisher and CEO, Monica Lozano has been with the paper for 19 years where she has served in various capacities. In January of 2004, she became La Opinion’s publisher and CEO, and senior vice president of ImpreMedia. She is a nationally recognized leader on Hispanic issues and serves on corporate and nonprofit boards including the Walt Disney Company, the University of Southern California, and the National Council of La Raza.

Jose Lozano, vice chairman and executive vice president, served as CEO and publisher of La Opinion from 1986 until 2004. He was instrumental in the formation of ImpreMedia, which merged the Los Angeles-based La Opinion with New York’s El Diario/La Prensa and brought the two largest Spanish-language newspapers under one umbrella. Under his direction, La Opinion achieved growth rates that far exceeded other newspapers and made it among the fastest growing daily newspapers in the U.S. Lozano is active in the industry and community, serving on several boards including the Public Broadcasting System and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications.

Next Post: What's up with the Alma Awards, and what youth group just got a big boost for their capital campaign?

AMERICAN TRAILBLAZERS & MORE

MANHATTAN: Al and Tipper Gore's eldest daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff, has written a book about nine outstanding American women, who while some are not as famous as others, can all be defined as trailblazers of the 20th century. Published by Miramax Books, Schiff’s book, “Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America” was released last month (February 2006). A journalist and lawyer, and now author, Schiff tells the story of nine brave, courageous, and influential women who through their endeavors took on the establishment, fought against inequities, and advocated change.

Among these extraordinary women of various social, ethnic, and racial backgrounds profiled in Schiff’s book is the champion of farm workers, Dolores Huerta, who joined forces with Cesar Chavez to establish what would become the United Farm Workers Union in California. Although diminutive in size, Huerta is a giant whose passion for justice and equal opportunity has made her one of the nation’s most powerful and respected labor movement leaders. Just as Huerta inherited her passion for justice from her mother, she has passed on that same sense of civic duty to her own children, all 11 of them whom she also inspired to succeed in their varied professions of doctor, lawyer, massage therapist, teacher, public health specialists, filmmaker and poet.

Huerta continues to inspire others through the formation of The Dolores Huerta Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build active communities working for fair and equal access to healthcare, housing, education, jobs, civic participation and economic resources for disadvantaged communities with an emphasis on women and youth. The Dolores Huerta Foundation is based in Bakersfield, California. For more information, call (661) 322-3033 or visit her official Website: www.doloreshuerta.org.

Other influential women profiled in the book include Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931), who was born a slave and as an African-American journalist fought against lynching;

Mother Jones (1837-1930), an Irish immigrant advocate for coal miners who campaigned against child labor;

Alice Hamilton (1869-1970), a physician who pushed for regulation of industrial toxins;

Frances Perkins (1882-1965), the first woman Cabinet member (Secretary of Labor), appointed by FDR, who established the social security program;

Virginia Durr (1903-1999), a Southern belle who fought the poll tax and segregation;

Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987), a child of a former slave and teacher who helped to register black voters;

Gretchen Buchenholz, one of the nation’s leading child advocates and founder of the Association to Benefit Children; and

Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias (1929-2001), an activist for reproductive rights who became the first Latina to be elected president of the American Public Health Association. Rodriguez-Trias died of complications from cancer in 2001, the same year she received a Presidential Citizen’s Medal for her work on behalf of women, children, people with HIV and AIDS, and the poor.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD: Folks in the L. A. area are invited to attend "Raise the Woof," a Shaggy Dog Family Pet Fair that will be held on March 11 at Whitnall Dog Park in North Hollywood. The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and L.A. Animal Services, event sponsors, have enlisted the assistance of a Disney canine (The Shaggy Dog) for this family event that is designed to educate the community on such pet-related issues as spay/neuter and vaccination services, licensing, micro-chipping, proper pet care, relevant city ordinances (leash, bites, tethering, etc.).

Informational handouts will be available in English and Spanish by representatives from various agencies and organizations who will be on hand to answer questions. Pet adoptions will also be available.

Entertainment for pets as well as their owners will be provided by DogCatRadio.com. Youngsters can enjoy face painting and balloons by a balloon animal artist. Special “Shaggy Dog” prizes will be awarded to pet owners showing proof of spay/neutering as well as for best pet tricks, pet/owner look-alikes and best pet costumes. Guests include L.A.’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilmember Tom LaBonge.

The event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on March 11, follows the March 10 release of the Walt Disney Pictures film, “The Shaggy Dog,” starring Tim Allen. For more information, call (310) 385-4412.

"BABY" FOR SALE & MORE

HOLLYWOOD: Celebrated actress, stand-up comic, TV host, jewelry designer, political-community activist and author Jackie Guerra has given birth to a spanking new “baby,” which is now up for sale! That’s ‘cause Guerra’s “baby,” which weighed in at one pound, two ounces and measures six inches by 8 ½ inches, is her funny and inspirational 272 page, hardcover memoir published by Penguin/NAL. Entitled: “Under Construction; How I Gained and Lost Millions of Dollars and Hundreds of Pounds,” her “baby” chronicles the trials and tribulations of image issues, eating disorders, a dysfunctional family, the politics of the entertainment industry, racism, financial setbacks, and everything in between, all told with her special and unique brand of humor.

The first Latina performer to star in her own television series (First Time Out), Guerra has led a multi-faceted life – a former union organizer, she marched with Cesar Chavez, and toured the country as a successful stand-up comic and motivational speaker. She has logged in more than 200 hours of network television including a co-starring role on the PBS series, American Family, starred opposite Woody Allen in Picking Up the Pieces, and was director Gregory Nava’s personal choice to portray Jennifer Lopez’s sister in his hit biopic Selena.

You can now buy Guerra’s “baby” on www.amazon.com, and as an added bonus, you’ll receive a $25 certificate to her unique line of jewelry (check it out at www.jackiegjewelry.com). To get your certificate, forward a copy of your order confirmation to UnderConstruction@Jackie Guerra.com.

LOS ANGELES: More than 300 Southern California high schools will be participating in KTLA/WB’s 8th Annual Stan Chambers Journalism Awards Competition that invites high school seniors to submit essays on the theme “What Matters Most,” based on experiences and opinions about life. Five winners will each receive a $1,000 scholarship and an opportunity to work in the KTLA/WB newsroom. The competition is sponsored by Wendy’s and supported by the Los Angeles Times and Hoy.

The Stan Chambers Journalism Awards program is designed to help high school seniors interested in the communications, journalism, and other professions, develop their skills. Winning students will have the opportunity to experience what it’s like to work in a major market television newsroom by producing video essays of their entries with the guidance from Chambers and the station’s news writers and producers for possible airing on the station’s Prime News in June or July.

Entries are judged on originality, creativity, and writing ability by a panel of KTLA/WB news journalists and management. Winners will be announced after the March 23 deadline.

Chambers, who has been with the same station for 58 years, began his career in 1947, shortly after KTLA/WB had signed on as the first commercially licensed television station west of the Mississippi. Respected and admired in the community, Chambers has reported on over 22,000 stories including the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, the Hillside Strangler, the Malibu and Bel-Air Fires and the Northridge Earthquake. He also interviewed Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul II. Today, Stan continues to be an inspiration to his fellow news reporters and anchors as he continues to report on the stories and issues impacting Southern Californians.

KTLA/WB is a Tribune Broadcasting station. Additional information can be found at www.ktla.com.

BAKERSFIELD, CA: Art lovers can now experience one of the largest Latin American art show to ever be exhibited in Bakersfield. The “Legacy of Mexican and Latin American Art Past and Present” exhibit, which opened in January at the Bakersfield Museum of Art, includes works by famous painters Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, and Alfredo Ramos Martinez. A total of 63 pieces, valued at over $1 million, are included in this exclusive exhibit from the private collection of the family of Dr. Richard Zapanta and are on loan to the Museum until March 22, 2006.

An orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Zapanta, and his wife Rebecca were honored this month (Feb.) with Positive Image Awards by the Hispanic Outreach Taskforce. The couple, well known for their philanthropic work in their community and the arts, often host world famous artists at their palatial home in Whittier, CA.

The Positive Image Awards honor outstanding persons in the community who are positive role models in the areas of education, business, community affairs, and humanities. Since its inception in 1989, the Hispanic Outreach Task Force (based in Whittier) has been working to improve the quality of life of Hispanics and the community. Besides the awards gala, the organization also sponsors a scholarship program and other events throughout the year such as health fairs, and parent education conferences.

#######