The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 110, No. 49 - December 9, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................15
Classifieds............................4
Coloring Contest.........12-13
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................3
Legals.......................10-11,14
Pets......................................16
Real Estate.......................7-9
Sports.................................3,6
Travel............................... 2,15
Weekend
Forecast
First Female Fire Chief Honored
The Promotional Badge Pinning Ceremony for Fire Chief Deena Lee was held Tuesday afternoon at Fire Station 1. The milestone event hosted by city manager Scott Mitnick and attended by
El Segundo city officials, city council, department heads, civic leaders, community members, and many other fire departments from the South Bay area all turned out to honor the incoming Chief. A forty-year
veteran of the fire department, Chief Lee is the first female fire chief in the city’s history and currently the only female fire chief in Los Angeles, Venture and Orange counties. On the left, husband James Lee
pins the badge on Chief Lee’s lapel, followed by a joyful fist bump between the two. On the right, City Clerk Tracy Weaver proceeds to lead Chief Lee in the oath of office. For more photos, please go to page 16.
Sally Young Returns to Town to
Mine the Magic of El Segundo
By Duane Plank
When Emmy Award-winning producer Sally
Young made the commencement speech to
her alma mater’s graduating class a few years
ago, she touched on many of the beliefs and
tenets that have made her an entertainment
industry success.
Young was born and raised in the Detroit
area and said that her goal was to work in the
entertainment industry. Once she graduated
from Eastern Michigan University (EMU),
she gave herself six months to break into the
entertainment industry; if that did not happen,
her fallback plan was to pursue a master’s
degree in social work and become a guidance
counselor.
Young told the assembled students at her alma
mater her story, a story that led the El Segundo
resident to receive a prestigious Emmy Award
for her producer work on the long-running,
immensely popular sitcom, “Modern Family.”
She related some of her college experiences,
noting how when she lived in the dorms, that
“I think I managed to break every rule in the
dorms, except keeping a pet. I am normally
not a rule-breaker, but I do challenge the
status quo if I don’t think the rules serve a
good purpose.”
When Young attended EMU, there was a
drama department, but no courses leading to a
pathway to a job in the entertainment industry.
So, she focused on more esoteric courses in
psychology, sociology, and counseling to have
that possible fallback career. Little did she
know, she related during her commencement
speech, that her background in the field of
social science would provide her with valuable
tools to be utilized in her career in Hollywood,
“resolving conflicts, negotiating, creating winwins,
Local Backyard Grower Shares
Produce with Neighbors
By Kiersten Vannest
“We basically live in an agricultural
wonderland, and most of that food is just
ignored and spoiled.” Here in El Segundo,
yards across the city are adorned with
fruit trees, berry bushes, and produceproducing
wildlife. Much of that produce
often goes to waste, as neighbors continue
to buy shipped items from a chain store.
Ryan Xavier Miller wants to change that.
After taking a hard hit to his successful
travel and tourism business during
the pandemic, Miller looked inward and
upward for a new idea. In a time when
the world was squirreled away, and some
were experiencing food insecurity, Miller
saw an opportunity to help. With his idea
in mind and his heart in the project, Miller
dreamed up his current project, Galora.
Galora is an app, a website, and a community.
Users can list their local items, such
as fruit, vegetables, eggs, freshly baked
bread, even sometimes waste products for
fertilizers (for which there are endearing
terms like “bunny honey,” which means
rabbit poop). Then, another user can see a
general area near them where their desired
product might be. From there, exchanges
are entirely user-based. Two parties often
exchange trades for goods or payment in
the absence of a trade.
It’s this user part that Miller is most
excited about. “The beauty of it is that
and figuring out what makes people tick.”
Post-graduation from EMU, Young landed
a job at a Southfield, Michigan advertising
agency, typing scripts and booking time for the
producers to make commercials. It was at this
point that she crossed paths with soon-to-be
entertainment big-wig Lawrence Kasdan, who
at the time was a copywriter, with aspirations
of conquering Tinseltown.
Young said she was tasked to type up the
first draft of a Kasdan script, which evolved
into the phenomenally successful 1983 film,
“The “Big Chill.” At that time, Young was
eyeing a new television set and could use some
extra dough, so she came to the office on the
weekends to type and give her thoughts to
See Sally Young, page 14 Producer Sally Young. Photos Courtesy of Sally Young.
See Ryan Miller, page 5
Friday
Mostly
Sunny
63˚/46˚
Saturday
Sunny
62˚/47˚
Sunday
Mostly
Sunny
59˚/50˚