Page 4 January 6, 2022 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Small Town Banner Dieema Wheaton from front page
Makes Big Wave
at El Segundo Middle School.
Wheaton met her husband of 18 years on
a blind date. Asked why she accepted the
blind date, Wheaton had a straight-to-thepoint
By Kiersten Vannest
answer. “I like nice young men, and I
If you were one of the El Segundo families
like free food!”
lining Main Street for the 2021 Holiday Parade,
“I have one of the most supportive husbands
you might have heard that the grand marshal
ever,” she said, noting her husband’s
was a special resident named Karrie Carpenter.
Carpenter is a teacher in Redondo, a lifelong
El Segundo resident, and the creator and owner
of a birthday banner that became a source of
joy to many during the ongoing pandemic.
As Covid spread throughout the world, families
steadfast support during her school board
election campaign. She said she could picture
Andrew decked-out in a “cheerleading skirt and
pom-poms, (as) my number one fan. He made
sure that I was able to get to the finish line.”
Wheaton currently works as the chief of staff
for the firm Palm Tree, LLC, a merger and
acquisition company located in El Segundo.
With more than 20 years of professional experience,
has also worked in senior management
in the finance departments of Universal Music
and Sony Pictures Entertainment
Wheaton, who took a decade long break
from the rigors of working outside the home
to raise her kids and be a Mom, had retained
her CPA standing during her hiatus from work,
but, she chuckled, while she was raising her
children, the CPA moniker did not refer to a
certified public accountant position, but rather
the much-more important duty of “Changing
Pampers Only.”
Wheaton has always felt the tug, she said,
of working with and in the community.
Here are just a few of the bona-fides dotting
Wheaton’s volunteer resume: She has served
the ESUSD community in various leadership
roles, including PTA Treasurer at both Center
Street Elementary School and El Segundo
Middle School, as well as being awarded the
El Segundo PTA Honorary Service Award in
2016 for revamping their financial process.
Wheaton said she feels blessed to raise
a family, volunteer, and work in a city like
El Segundo. “El Segundo is amazing, and
not just because of its location next to the
beach. We do have the beauty of a walkable
community,” she said, “but what makes El
Segundo El Segundo are the people.” She
said that she could not move to a community
(the family moved to El Segundo in 2014)
and just “drain the resources without making
an investment back. El Segundo is what it is
because we as a community step-up to ensure
that it stays the great city that it is. I did not
want to miss an opportunity to give back in
all aspects,” she said, whether it was with the
schools, or working with local service clubs
like the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs and other
altruistic entities, noting that she had recently
participated in a card-making project to cheer
the residents of our Park Vista Senior Living
facility.
Wheaton said that she decided to run
for the El Segundo Unified School District
(ESUSD) school board opening when the
pandemic hit America in the Spring of 2020.
A Facebooker, Wheaton, said that, when the
COVID scourge was spreading, she would
peruse online comments and felt that she
could either join in the online trolling or that,
as she phrased it, “roll-up my sleeves and
be part of the solution. This pandemic hit us
all at the same time. There was nowhere to
go to seek solutions.” So, she decided to do
her part in working towards seeking positive
solutions to the problems at hand.
Wheaton said it was an interesting time in
her life, campaigning for the school board slot.
“You have to appeal to people who have never
met you,” she said, realizing that sometimes
when some people vote in elections, that they
make a random selection because they either
do not have the time, or do not take the time,
to do candidate or ballot measure research.
Wheaton related that before her family moved
to El Segundo, her children had attended
ESUSD schools on District permits. “I didn’t
just want to be a day participant; I wanted to
be here,” she said. “I have always been proud
of this town, and extremely thankful,” noting
her upbringing in a different environment and
the security of raising kids in this town. “They
can walk to Cold Stone; they can walk to the
park. I am so grateful for the lifestyle in El
Segundo. so grateful for what this town had
afforded my family and me.”
She was, she said, incredibly honored that
the El Segundo voters had selected her to a
seat on the school board. She feels honored
to represent her neighbors as she deals with
the issues that confront the school board in a
time of the pandemic. “These are my friends,
the people who believed in me,” she said.
Wheaton was elected to the Board in Nov.
of 2020 and is now the vice-president. As
a scribe who covered the ESUSD school
board meetings in-person for a decade or so
before the COVID scourge, I can attest that
the meetings mainly were mundane affairs,
with minimal input from busy residents. But,
in the era of COVID, Wheaton said the attention
focused on what school districts are
doing was intensified. “The world stopped,”
Wheaton said. “Parents were home with their
kids,” who were now mandated to participate
in online homeschooling.
ESUSD school board president Tracey
Miller-Zarnecke feels that Wheaton has been
a welcome addition to the Board. “Having
worked with Dieema in a number of PTA
officer capacities during our time together as
parents at CSS,” Miller-Zarnecke emailed. “I
knew she would hit the ground running once
she got elected to serve on our Board. She is
always well-prepared and ready to get down
to business—she is the true embodiment of
focused and engaged dedication.”
Long-time ESUSD school board member
Emilee Layne adds her thoughts about serving
with Wheaton. “I have known Dieema since
our kids were at Center Street School,” Layne
said. “She is great. She comes from a human
resources background, which is always helpful.
A school board is a business,” Layne said,
with moving pieces. “She is so organized,
humble, and smart. She and her family are
the first to volunteer, help, and serve. Quiet
volunteers.”
Said Teri Shober, who has known Wheaton
for nearly a decade and worked on her school
board election campaign: “Our children met in
second grade. She talked me into (joining) the
PTA and becoming part of the Center Street
School financial board. She loves this town
so much; she is the busiest person I know,
but she will help whenever she can for this
town. Just a great all-around person.”
When not being a wife, a mother, a volunteer,
or a worker bee, Wheaton says she
“likes her girlfriend time” and has become
“obsessed” with diamond painting, which
seems to involve a process utilizing resin
beads and painting by numbers. “I am going
to sound like a little old lady,” she said. “It is
mindless,” she says, “but it keeps me busy.”
As we all yearn for a return to the social
time prior to the COVID shutdowns, Wheaton
said she “just wants to be with my friends.
Friends and relationships have always been
important to me.”
Dieema Wheaton continues to balance the
books and her life. •
SB Swatik & Brandlin LLP
LAW
AT T O R N E Y S AT L AW
Lifetime El Segundo Resident
Living Trusts, Wills, Estate Planning
Probate and Trust Administration
310-540-6000
www.sbtrustlaw.com
*AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization
adapted and innovated, finding new ways
to celebrate that would minimize the risk of
infection. After one of her daughters’ friends
pivoted their party to be a drive-through town
instead of an at-home gathering, Carpenter
was left to think of how to celebrate her own
daughter’s upcoming birthday.
It was then that the Pre-K teacher took her
classroom crafting experience and applied it
at home. “I told my principal, you know what
was going on… she said ‘oh yeah, take a
poster,’ and then the next thing I know it just
became this huge banner,” Carpenter laughs.
She created a large white banner with “Happy
Birthday” written across the top, left a big open
space beneath to write her daughter’s name.
The birthday went well. So well that Carpenter
received a message on Facebook shortly
after asking if she would put up the name of
another child whose birthday was coming up.
She happily accommodated, then decided to
leave it up for her other daughter’s birthday soon
after. From there, the birthday events spiraled.
“Names kept coming in, and the banner just
kept getting bigger and stayed up,” she says.
People contacted her online, left notes in her
mailbox, knocked on her door. She used it
in person and for her classroom birthdays on
Zoom. Kids, adults, even a dog got their name
See Banner, page 9
Karrie Carpenter’s banner celebrated every major event during two years of the ongoing pandemic.