Thumbs down to Hanford residents who aren’t heeding the mandate to save water during the drought. Hanford fell a whopping 18 percentage points short of reaching its 28% savings goal set by the state. “We’re doing the best we can. I’m not sure what else we can do,” says Hanford Public Works Director Lou Camara. The city will deploy a water officer at night beginning next week. Perhaps his presence will will prompt more residents to heed Hanford’s twice weekly watering limit.
Thumbs up to Oakhurst’s Claire Tuggle, 11, for making swimming news nationwide by breaking five national age group records in the 10-and-under divison since April. Her coach is Tammy Kudela of the Yosemite Marlins Swim Club, who has been coaching for over 30 years. “I’ve never seen anything like it — ever,” she told Bee reporter Nick Giannandrea.
Thumbs up to Silvia and Andri Wahyudi, owners of Kikku Japanese Fast Food in downtown Fresno for winning the restaurant makeover contest sponsored by the Downtown Fresno Partnership. They are jumping right into a prize that includes consultations, design expertise, branding, public relations, marketing. They have been huddling with the Downtown Fresno Partnership, CORE Business, Connecting the DOTS Network, Luxe Creative Strategies and Collins Communications, among others. They are planning to have better signage outdoors, new chairs, menu displays inside and a new website. They are open during the transformation weekdays 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., 2336 Tulare St., 233-8890. Not to worry, their signature dish, spicy crispy chicken, won’t change.
Thumbs up to Sue Sampson-Dalena and her Dance Studio of Fresno dynamos for winning dance studio of the year, a national award. The studio performers toe-danced right over the heads of more than 175 other studios at The Dance Awards in Las Vegas. Since opening 33 years ago with 40 students, she has grown the business to more than 1,000 students. Ta-da!
Thumbs up to the bikers in the third annual Ride’n for the Valley motorcycle trip and backpack drive. The group of more than 100 riders donated 275 backpacks with school supplies and snacks to students in need in the Dinuba Unified School District. Participants started at Jimmy’s Sports World, then took off for Dinuba High School for the distribution. “We just wanted to make sure every kid had a backpack before school started,” Sports World owner Jimmy Bosquez told The Bee’s Rory Appleton. “Children deserve everything we can give them.”
Thumbs up to Ofelia Gamez, director of Fresno State’s College Assistance Migrant Program for being named national president of the CAMP Association at its annual directors meeting in Washington, D.C. The federally funded program supports students who are migratory or seasonal farm workers, or the children of such workers, during their first year of undergraduate studies. There are 60 CAMP students enrolled at Fresno State for the fall. Gamez was a CAMP student in 1990 and has directed Fresno State CAMP since 1999.
Thumbs up to the World Changers, a Christian organization, for helping Jim Gonzales of Fresno and 12 other homeowners with property improvements. About 160 students of more than 12,000 students have volunteered to improve homes and lives of people in 75 cities in North America this year. The homes they chose in southeast Fresno were selected through referrals from Every Neighborhood Partnership and from Fresno City Council Member Sal Quintero, who represents the area. Thirteen homes were refurbished.
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