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Lawndale 09.13.12

AND lAwNDAle News The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - September 13, 2012 Inside Library System’s 100th AnniversaryCommunity Celebrates L.A. County This Issue Student’s Perspective.......3 Calendar...............................4 Classifieds ...........................4 Faith.......................................2 by Cristian Vasquez. Community Briefs...............4 Days provide a low-cost way to give fishing a try. For more information on Free Fishing Days, please visit www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/fishing/freefishdays.html. Alondra Park Lake in Lawndale. Photo when fishing licenses are not required. All other fishing regulations, such as bag and size limits, gear restrictions, report card requirements, fishing hours and stream closures remain in effect. Free Fishing Food ......................................7 100The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) encourages anglers to go fishing with a friend or neighbor who doesn’t have a license this Saturday, the second of two days in 2012 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Los Angeles County Library System Turns Legals.............................8-11 Looking Up.........................12 Police Reports....................2 of the Los Angeles County Library system. Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Lawndale Library as a branch of the County Library. Photo by Paul Bennett.Lawndale residents, members of the city council, and library staff all gathered together on the library lawn last Saturday into the shape of the number 100 in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary Sports...................................5 School Board Member Pens Children’s Book The Wheel Deal..................6 By Noraly Hernandez struggle. Both us lost not just some abilities personal struggles and Senior....................................2 For Shirley Bennett being member of the but whatever life was before. She had to share a bond that can Lawndale School Board has provided her an start brand new.” be further cemented opportunity to directly influence the lives of For the past 20 years Bennett has relied with Missy-A Tail- students and parents in unique ways. Writing on a wheelchair and just like Missy suffered Wagging Good Life. a children’s book was simply another avenue an initial change in her life that was more “We both have the for her to achieve that goal. than physical. However, it wasn’t enough to drive and ability to “I had been very active in the PTA locally deter the committed educator from giving up. figure out how to have and I had been president of the council PTA, “She was in a hospital for six months then a happy life the way which is all of the schools in the city and she was in foster care before we adopted we are. That is really I saw that the school board in Lawndale her. For me, I unfortunately had friends who the big message in the was on top of things, well-read and worked did not want to cope with the changes that book,” Bennett said. well,” Bennett said.“A friend of mine who were physically a part of me and lost touch. “The difference Lawndale School Board member was on the school board asked me because There was some loss that we both shared between other dogs Shirley Bennett, seen here with there was going to be an empty seat where too,” Bennett said. and Missy and other Missy, tells the story of her Weekend part of something that worked well and to one with the same goal the author had before great lives together. she lives with. Photo courtesy ofrescued dog who finds a newhome where she is happy andloved despite the disabilitiespeople and me arenot barriers; we haveThe encounter between Missy and Bennettwas the beginning of a new phase in life buta member was retiring for the school board.I decided to run because I wanted to be a Forecast school board has completed a master of Writing’s been something that I’ve wanted things that are important and the things weShirley Bennett.We have great livesseparately and we figure out how to do the“Missy is such an inspiration to me.her book was published.learn more about how the workings of theschool district at that level ran. All of the governance course so we know how to do our to do and be published since I was in high need to do to help other people. We help job which isn’t always the truth in politics. school and so everything came together at kids to read and she brings joy to everyone I am very happy.” once. I was motivated by the children that she meets.” Friday Bennett is a retired elementary school Missy helps to learn to read and her strength Persons interested, may learn more at Sunny children who have difficulty reading and to tell,” Bennett said. book may also be purchased directly with theMissy’s website: www.missysbook.com. Theand courage herself and it was a great storyteacher who now volunteers and works with 85˚/69˚ believes strongly in advocating for education. Missy and Bennett have both overcome publisher at http://www.authorhouse.com/. • For her book, Missy-A Tail-Wagging Good Life, Bennett drew inspiration from her poodle named Missy who was found on the side of the highway after she was tossed out of a car. Saturday Bennett met the poodle five years ago when she was looking for a dog with special needs Sunny because she too has special needs. 86˚/68˚ “First thing we have in common is that we started out our life just like everybody else and then we both had an event that caused us to have special needs and disabilities. For me this happened when I was in my Sunday forties and for her it happened when she Sunny case somebody had abused her and threw Lawndale’s Legacywas five years old,” Bennett said. “In her 81˚/65˚ her spine so her back legs don’t work. For Members of the Keystone Sunday School Albert Ruegg (home on furlough after Worldher from the freeway, causing her to break me, I developed multiple sclerosis so I need class of the Lawndale Congregational War I), Ora Ray, Joseph Ray, Helen Buss, a wheel chair and there are things I have Church gather for a photograph on May Dorothy Cleveland, L.M.Cleveland, and to figure out how to do differently. It’s a 12, 1918. Left to right are: Catherine Allen, Lorena Hutchinson.


Lawndale 09.13.12
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