Amateur Radio Operators Help at the Sea Otter Classic
The weekend of April 15-17, about 9,000 athletes and over 50,000
spectators converged on the Laguna Seca Speedway for the 21st
Anniversary Sea Otter Classic bicycle event. Behind the scenes were
scores of event organizers and hundreds of volunteers that ran
everything from races to concessions, from medical to parking.
Among the volunteers was a group of 13 dedicated San Benito County
amateur radio operators. Leading the group was Tim Takeuchi,
District Emergency Coordinator for San Benito County. These
”
Hams,
”
which they are affectionately called, provided communications
for the athletes riding the mountain bike trails in the Bureau of
Land Management Fort Ord Public Lands. Twenty-nine hams in all from
four counties coordinated messages from riders to medical personnel
and SAG wagons to help riders when they or their bikes needed a
helping hand.
Amateur Radio Operators Help at the Sea Otter Classic
The weekend of April 15-17, about 9,000 athletes and over 50,000 spectators converged on the Laguna Seca Speedway for the 21st Anniversary Sea Otter Classic bicycle event. Behind the scenes were scores of event organizers and hundreds of volunteers that ran everything from races to concessions, from medical to parking. Among the volunteers was a group of 13 dedicated San Benito County amateur radio operators. Leading the group was Tim Takeuchi, District Emergency Coordinator for San Benito County. These “Hams,” which they are affectionately called, provided communications for the athletes riding the mountain bike trails in the Bureau of Land Management Fort Ord Public Lands. Twenty-nine hams in all from four counties coordinated messages from riders to medical personnel and SAG wagons to help riders when they or their bikes needed a helping hand.
Regarding the efforts of the ham radio operators, Jeffery Frost, the Director of Athlete Services said, “Tim and his team are an invaluable asset to the Sea Otter Classic.”
For more information on how to become an amateur radio operator, please check out the San Benito County Amateur Radio Emergency Service’s website at www.sbcares.com.
Outdoor Club cleans up park
The Outdoor Club, of San Benito High School, helped with an Earth Day clean up event that took place April 16 at Veteran’s Park in Hollister. Jim Ostdick, the club advisor from San Benito High School, gathered up eco-friendly volunteers. They made quite an effort by picking up more than 20 garbage bags of trash for a total weight of about 300 pounds. They were treated to a Round Table lunch after the event was over.
Humanitarian Night provides items for local nonprofits
The Hollister LDS held a Humanitarian activity night, April 14. Volunteers made nearly 50 fleece blankets to donate to CASA of San Benito and Monterey Counties. Another 10 blankets will be finished and given to them for foster children, totaling 60 blankets. Capes, tutus and alphabet coloring books went to the Headstart program in Hollister. At least 150 hygiene kits went to Salt Lake for use around the world for disaster relief efforts.
SBHS students win NRCS contest
The United Stated Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has been helping America’s land for over 75 years. To commemorate the anniversary, high school students were invited to submit an art entry that described what conservation meant to them.
The winning entries of the NRCS 75th Anniversary contest are Nyaz Addison, 10th grade, and Kanilehua Pratt, 11th grade. Both students go to San Benito High School. Nyaz’s entry is a poem that she was motivated to write because she says that she sees people living in a way that is causing the death of many creatures. Kani submitted a pencil drawing with message that is easily said but harder to do, “Protect our California Wildflowers”.
The prizes were donated by the Loma Prieta Resource Conservation District in Santa Clara County.
Below is the poem by Nyaz Addison, and her interpretation of the poem:
Vast areas flocked with
Soldiers of Green.
Great pools caked with
Kings of Blue.
Endless gates accentuated with
Givers of Clear.
Hold your color!
Hold you bearings!
Hold that which created you!
Do not kneel at the feet of
those who use.
Do not submit to the
carers of self.
Do not give into the
ones who take no mind.
Hold you color!
Hold you bearings!
Hold that which created you!
The Disillusioned will fail once, twice
and once again.
Addison wrote, “In my interpretation this poem is directed to nature. The first stanza addresses nature; soldiers of green being grass and trees, kings of blue being water in its many forms, givers of clear being the atmosphere and our air. The poem tells these majestic things to hold their color meaning be strong and keep fighting to exist. The poem personifies the things and gives them a sense of life and greater existence. It warns the things about the kind of creatures it will encounter and that they should not kneel down, submit, or give into them. It reassures the things that the creatures depicted above will continue to fail while the things will flourish. It is a very abstract way of seeing nature but its what I was thinking at them time. It makes me sad that people don’t take as much thought into what nature really is and what we are doing to it as we keep “living” [more so destroying] in this age.”
