The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 110, No. 39 - September 30, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................12
Classifieds............................6
Coloring Contest.........13-14
Crossword/Sudoku.............6
Ed!toberfest................... 2,16
Entertainment......................5
Legals............................ 10,11
Pets......................................15
Real Estate.......................7-9
Sports.............................. 3,12
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Sunny
79˚/61˚
Saturday
Sunny
77˚/64˚
Sunday
Mostly
Sunny
79˚/65˚
Center Street School’s Back to
School Picnic Was a Big Success
Thank you to all who came out for the In-N-Out Back 2 School Picnic. Not only did Center Street School make history with selling out - 500 tickets - but they also brought out their Cougar for the first time
ever. Hope you got a photo with the Cougar. A huge thank you to Sarah Gayer for putting this together with the PTA team. Photo courtesy El Segundo Unified School District.
John Garland Personifies the
Motto ‘Character Counts’
By Duane Plank
El Segundo’s John Garland has spent most
of his adult life in the service to others.
Many times, the “others” were homeless, or
destitute, or pinballing in-and-out of alcohol
and drug rehabilitation centers.
“I have always had a heart for the homeless,
Dr. Allison Shultz Encourages
Bird Watching in South Bay
By Kiersten Vannest
Los Angeles County is lovingly called
the “birdiest” county in the United States
by experts in the field. With over five
hundred species of bird calling LA home,
researchers like El Segundo resident
Allison Shultz have their work cut out
for them.
Shultz is the Curator of Ornithology at
the Natural History Museum. A curator
manages collections, and ornithology is
the study of birds. So, in short, Allison
is in charge of all things avian happening
at the museum. What does that look
like, exactly?
“In my job, research is my number one
thing,” says Shultz, “which means that
I think about… questions in the natural
world that we don’t have answers to, and
then I try and collect data and figure out
those answers.” Using the museum’s library
of over one hundred thousand specimens
collected over decades, as well as data
gathered by bird watchers and her own
work in the field, Shultz works to solve
the unsolvable.
Her current specialties are bird colors,
bird diseases, and avian interaction with
urban developments. “Birds don’t see
color the way that we do,” she says. In
fact, birds can see more colors than the
human eye, as they can also see ultraviolet
colors. So as she studies color variations,
and those beaten down,” said Garland, a
realtor by trade, “especially if they are kids.
For kids, I will go to war.” Garland credits
his father with instilling in him the passion
to care and help others. A life-lesson, “that
stuck,” he said.
Garland, who moved to El Segundo more
than three decades ago after viewing the wonders
of the Rec Park experience, recounted the
story of Dennis McCarthy, one such sole who
was tormented by his demons, and ended-up
couch surfing at the Garland home one day
in 1994 and off-an-on for seven years as
he battled his addictions. A self-proclaimed
“skid row drunk,” McCarthy and Garland
crossed paths on a street in Pasadena after
attending a boxing lesson.
Garland called McCarthy “a miracle.”
“This man is known as Uncle Dennis to our
family,” Garland said. “Two attempts were
made on his life during that time. He had
two or three jail spells, and (spent) multiple
times in rehab. One effort on his life was by
police and another by gangbangers. He has
been clean and sober for 20-years, owns a
successful general contracting business, is
a homeowner, husband, and father. And a
sought-after speaker for AA.”
“Though only 6-years apart in age, he calls
me every Father’s Day,” continued Garland,
“and on that day calls me Dad. But it was
God who brought him into our lives and…
who transformed him. We just participated
and had a front row seat to witness the
transformation. It was epic. Today he still is
Uncle Dennis to my two sons….and to my
daughter Lizzy who relocated to Heaven at
the age of twenty-three over eight years ago.”
Garland’s daughter Lizzie was a standout
softball player at El Segundo High School
who tragically passed away after a fierce,
four-year battle with a brain tumor.
McCarthy calls Garland “my angel. “When
I met him, I was washing windshields at a
gas station,” he said. McCarthy said Garland
discerned that McCarthy was not in a good
See John Garland, page 4 Lizzy Garland. Photo courtesy of John Garland.
See Dr. Allison Shultz, page 5