The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 110, No. 15 - April 15, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Business Briefs...................2
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................11
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................2
Legals.............................. 9,10
Pets......................................11
Police Reports.....................3
Real Estate.......................5-7
Sports.................................3,8
Weekend
Forecast
Finding Joy on Richmond Street
Marisa Scarda and Mario Sandoval show off examples of their unique and custom creations in their flower shop, Natural Simplicity. See Marisa and Mario’s story in the yellow box below.
El Segundo’s Malcolm Au Continues
to be a Valuable Asset to the City
By Duane Plank
When an El Segundo Herald writer tracked
down Malcolm Au for a phone interview that
led to this profile, Au was nowhere to be
found in the confines of our little community.
No, the 2020 UCLA graduate was traveling
Marisa Scarda and Mario Sandoval
Bring Smiles with Natural Simplicity
By Kiersten Vannest
Flowers have a language. Their colors
symbolize sentiments like love, friendship,
and mourning. Their leaves can signify a
season or a feeling. Their presence can
speak to our relationships, and change
our mood.
No one speaks this language better than
Marisa Scarda and her business partner
Mario Sandoval, who own and operate
a flower shop here in El Segundo called
Natural Simplicity. Natural Simplicity is
celebrating its thirteenth year in business
this year. Their flowers have made it to
massive conferences, corporate events,
social events, weddings, and even funerals.
While Mario designs the bouquets and
handles the creative side of things, Marisa
holds the fort down on the business and
administrative side. Born in Argentina and
raised in Hawthorne, Marisa began as a
mortgage loan processor. In 2007, after
fifteen years in the field, she took time
off for maternity leave and came back
to the market crash of 2008. It was time
for a change.
At that point, a good friend of hers
(Mario), who she’d known since high
school, was operating a flower business
out of his garage. She loved his work,
and they decided to partner and open an
official shop. Her husband, who worked
in computers at the time, told her that
in a car more than 2,000 miles away,
traversing the roads of the great state of
Indiana, heading towards Lucas Oil Stadium
in Indianapolis, where the underdog Bruins
men’s basketball team would later that evening
edge a favored No. 1 regional seed Michigan
Wolverine team, 51-49, to advance to the
NCAA tournament’s final four.
Au had a solid reason to travel to Indianapolis
to watch his alma mater play in
person instead of watching from the comfortable
confines of a couch in El Segundo. In
his initial tenure at the Westwood campus,
during his freshman year, Au had served
time as the men’s basketball team manager
before his world took a quick U-turn. He was
compelled to “drop everything” and return to
his native Singapore to fulfill a mandatory
two-year military stint that is expected of
all male citizens.
Au ironically noted that his two-year
military career was a tad bit longer than
his prior residency in Singapore, which he
estimated was “a place that I had never lived
for more than six months.” Au has also lived
in Korea, the United Kingdom, India, and
Australia, and for a short time, in nearby
Westchester. World traveler---except for the
Westchester stay.
Au dutifully fulfilled his military requirements,
recalling the return to Singapore and
military service time as “a complete culture
shock.” He said that he “did my absolute best,”
rising to the rank of platoon commander,
where he led and counseled a platoon of
40 men through 250 hours of “high-stress
field operations to shape them into a welldisciplined,
respectful, and mission-focused
soldiers.”
Au was hopeful that his military commitments
could be delayed until he graduated
from UCLA, but that was not an option, so
he dove right into his duties, honing not only
his physical attributes, but also his leadership
skills. “I would not trade that experience
for anything,” Au said while noting that his
military stint helped him develop into the
person he is today.
Upon completing his military service in
August of 2017, Au returned to the Los
Angeles area and resumed his studies at
UCLA and manager duties supporting the
Bruin basketball team while diving into
See Malcolm Au, page 10 ESHS Grad Malcolm Au.
See Natural Simplicity, page 6
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
65˚/53˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
65˚/55˚
Sunday
Sunny
78˚/59˚