The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 110, No. 50 - December 16, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................13
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................5
Holiday Parade.............. 2,16
Legals............................10-12
Pets......................................14
Real Estate.......................7-9
Sports.............................. 3,10
Travel............................... 3,15
Weekend
Forecast
The El Segundo Holiday Parade
Brings Festive Joy to the City
The 57th Annual Parade traveled down Main Street, starting at Imperial Avenue, proceeding south towards El Segundo Blvd, and featured festive floats, merry marching bands and so much holiday fun.
For more Holiday Parade photos see pages 2 and 16. Photo by Gregg McMullin.
Santa’s Sleigh Ride Goes Off
Magically in El Segundo
By Kiersten Vannest
If you’ve ever spent a holiday season here
in El Segundo, you know that cheer abounds
with Candy Cane Lane, the Christmas Parade,
and the tree lighting ceremony. Those with
children know that Santa likes to frequent
our seaside community, and he gets a little
help from the El Segundo Police Department.
Each year, the El Segundo Kiwanis Club
and the Police Officers Association (POA)
proudly host Santa’s Sleigh and aid him
in making his way down every residential
street in the city, welcoming children to sit
on board with him and discuss their wish
list. Barry Gribbon, a board member for the
local Kiwanis chapter, happily participates in
the production of the event.
“Santa rides after dark, so a lot of the kids
are in their pajamas,” says Gribbon. Children
all over town wait for Santa’s route to include
Emily Lavelle: Restoring
Cars, Demolishing Buildings
By Duane Plank
El Segundo’s Emily Lavelle may not
be the only young woman in town who
likes to restore vintage cars and demolish
and rebuild structures, but I think that she
might be at the top of that probably brief
list of local, young lady DIYers.
The 20-year-old Lavelle, who rose
through the El Segundo Unified School
District, went from being a Richmond
Street School Blue Butterfly to graduating
from El Segundo High School in
June 2020 as an Eagle. During her years
attending ESHS, Lavelle landed on the
prestigious honor roll during three years
of her schooling and amassed a 4.2 GPA
her senior year while completing the
AVID program’s four-year Engineering
Pathway offerings.
Lavelle said she has always been a
“hands-on person,” learning from her
family members who were “builders.” She
said that when she went to high school,
she was intrigued by the engineering
program. “They had a shop there,” she
said, “so I got to build radios,” and veered
into tackling electrical and aerospace
challenges. “That was the best part of
high school,” she said. “We got to build
spaceships (beam me up Scotty!), rovers,
and we built a lot of cars. For my senior
project, we were going to build an electric
wheelchair,” but that project had to be
their street, and they know his arrival
by police sirens. As the event requires lots
of foot traffic in the street (Santa does draw
quite a bit of attention), The ESPD Police
Officers Association assists in clearing streets
and making the event as safe as possible for
all to enjoy, including announcing the arrival
of Santa with their sirens.
Established in 1949, the POA represents
sworn officers of ESPD. With fifty-five
members, the group works to help local
organizations, charities and schools. In this
case, they help to bring the spirit of Christmas
to the kids of El Segundo.
While the police handle the safety of the
event, the Kiwanis Club handles the magic. “A
whole team works for two days to construct
the sleigh and decorations,” Gribbon describes,
saying that the project essentially starts with
nothing but a flatbed truck and a handful of
volunteers over Thanksgiving weekend. The
Kiwanis volunteers then set up the sleigh,
the lights, the decor, the sound system, and
finally, they invite Santa to ride through town.
From there, Santa maps his route every
night of his ride. By the end of his tour, he
will have visited every residential street in
El Segundo, so the Kiwanis Club and the
POA created a tracker to help residents find
Santa along his route. Updates from the sleigh
are broadcast as the journey progresses, and
families are encouraged to participate in the
process online and in person.
This year, Santa began his tour from December
6th through the 9th and finished on
the thirteenth and fourteenth. Every night, the
Kiwanis Club posted a map of their route,
which often had to be adjusted by volume
of Santa visits per neighborhood. When they
ride through high-density areas, like those
with apartment complexes.
Gribbon says it’s not unusual to alter the
route and cover lost ground on the next night.
As he puts it, the group starts with three
thousand candy canes, and by the end of the
tour, they’re usually out of candy canes. He
has been involved with the Kiwanis Club for
about four years now, and the event he typically
oversees is the Richmond Street Fair.
He was recruited to join for his knowledge
of live event planning, and he stayed because
of his love for community and helping kids.
The Kiwanis Club works to support and
fundraise for local events, nonprofits, school
See Santa’s Sleigh, page 15
See Emily Lavelle, page 6
Friday
Sunny
65˚/42˚
Saturday
Sunny
61˚/42˚
Sunday
Sunny
62˚/44˚