On the Job- 50 Years
Can you envision doing the job you’re doing right now for fifty years? Imagine outlasting every supervisor except the one you’re working for right now, and you know there’s a good chance you’ll outlast that one. Can you see yourself watching scores of coworkers come and go? It’s likely you endured some low points, and certainly had many high points.
Steve Newvine and Don Alhart who marks 50 years on the air at WHAM-TV in Rochester, NY. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
What would it be like to find just the right career and staying with your company for fifty years?
I know someone who reaches that milestone in June of this year.
My friend Don Alhart is the six and eleven o’clock news anchor for WHAM-TV in Rochester, New York. He arrived at the station on June 6, 1966.
First as a reporter, and then soon as an anchorman, Don has enjoyed the work and the station’s newscasts have remained popular in the ratings. Seeing no reason to hang it up at a time when many might retire, Don continues to deliver the nightly newscasts on Channel 13.
My memories of working with him center on a globe that at one time occupied a corner of the newsroom at Channel 13. More on that later.
For eight years of Don’s fifty-year tenure, I was part of the station’s news department. I produced the six o’clock news, helped Don create the station’s noon newscast, and produced special projects including election night coverage and documentaries during my time with the station.
My memories of working with Don include the five years he was paired with the late Dick Burt on the six o’clock news. I enjoyed working with both of these broadcasters. There’s no question in my mind that I learned an awful lot from them.
If as the title of the popular book by Robert Fulghum is true, All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, then I can say with some authority that all I ever needed to know about television news I learned from Don Alhart and Dick Burt.
More to the point, I learned how to write more like how people talked. I learned why striving for accuracy was paramount in a business where trust is highly valued. And I learned Don’s constant refrain that we earned audience loyalty one viewer at a time.
Throughout those eight years I worked alongside Don (1983-1991), another constant in our professional lives was our friend, the late Bill Peterson. As the station’s meteorologist, Bill would offer nightly forecasts and an easy target for Don to express his sense of humor.
At times it seemed that Don, with very little effort, could make Bill laugh on the air. The station’s blooper reel is filled with footage of Bill breaking up after Don planted an image of something funny during his introductions to the weather segments.
The two kept that friendship intact as Bill retired to focus on his declining health. Don delivered the eulogy at Bill’s funeral in 2006.
I was no longer living in the area when Bill lost his final battle with cancer, but Don made sure that a DVD of the services and of the WHAM-TV coverage of Bill’s life was sent to my home in California shortly after.
The years working with Don can be summed up with an image of either of us laughing at what the other had to say. I had a habit of getting a cup of coffee from the newsroom drip coffee maker while it was brewing; I’d remove the pot and let the first drops of liquid flow into my mug.
In later weeks, he’d come by my work area and say, “The coffee is ‘Newvine’ ready,” meaning it had not finishing brewing, but it was coming out just the way I liked it.
And then, there’s the globe. There was an old desktop globe on a corner counter of our newsroom.
I would occasionally place the globe on my shoulder and lament to Don with a smile, “Somedays, I feel as though I have the weight of the world on my shoulders.” My tired bit always brought a smile, sometimes a chuckle.
Two years after leaving the station for a better job at a competing station, someone dropped off a box at my desk saying, “Don has this gift for you.” I opened the box and there was that globe.
My time at Channel 13 was good for my family and me. I sorted out what I really wanted to do with my life.
And as nice as it was working alongside Don for those eight years, considering myself one of his friends in the years since I stopped working with him has brought me a real sense of satisfaction and pride.
I remember the day both Don and Bill showed up to see me sworn in as a member of the Avon (NY) Rotary Club. I remember a sympathy card and note at the time of my mother’s passing.
I can count on annual Christmas photographs, too infrequent telephone calls, and funny emails that arrive whenever either of us find something we think the other might enjoy.
The viewers of Rochester, New York television station WHAM-TV have had a wonderful blessing over the past five decades as Don anchored the news. But I’m sure Don sees it as a blessing to him that viewers have remained so loyal all these years.
He often said you build an audience one viewer at a time, and he should know. It took several years after he joined the station for the news to reach the top of the ratings. Holding on to the top spot is always a challenge.
The competition is tough, and I am certain neither Don nor the news teams at all of Rochester’s television stations, would not have it any other way.
I salute my friend Don on his fiftieth anniversary with WHAM-TV.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
Innovation at UC Merced
It may not have been the television show Shark Tank, but for UC Merced students wrapping up the spring semester, the pressure was likely just as intense.
UC Merced students make their presentations during Innovate to Grow at UC Merced. Photo by Steve Newvine
The students were engineering majors who spent most of this past semester working on ideas that might improve things in such areas as manufacturing or public safety.
The students’ final presentations were made during the fifth annual Innovate to Grow conference held on the campus on the Friday before graduation.
Organizers say the purpose of Innovate to Grow is to celebrate student innovation. Throughout the daylong event, demonstrations of some of the engineering solutions created by student teams were presented to the public.
A panel of judges which included faculty and business representatives questioned the teams at the end of each presentation.
Audience members view a student presentation at Innovate to Grow. Photo by Steve Newvine
Prototypes of the projects were on view in a gymnasium set up as an “Engineering Design Expo” earlier in the day. The presentations began after a lunch break.
Ideas included a new way to load chickens into the correct processing holding areas. In the chicken processing industry, a lot of labor is used to make sure this is done properly.
The students working on the chicken loading prototype believe their device could drastically reduce the amount of labor needed to do this task.
Their job on this particular Friday afternoon at the end of the semester was to convince the panel looking at their presentation to see some potential in the project.
Another idea centered on helping restaurants lower their energy use to save money on their utility bills. Restaurants generally consume a lot of electricity and natural gas. The students working on this engineering project proposed a solar energy generation solution that would help reduce what a local restaurant pays for energy.
Their solution also included energy efficiency. They talked about how the recent installation of LED (light emitting diode) lamps in fixtures throughout the restaurant helped lower energy usage immediately.
The installation of aerators on all faucets in the facility helped reduce water waste. Aerators disperse the flow, creating more pressure while using less water. Water saved not only helps in the dry Central Valley, it also reduces energy use to heat it for hot water needs in a restaurant.
Innovate to Grow was held the day before commencement at UC Merced. Photo by Steve Newvine
Other ideas explained before the judging panels at the conference included a system that handles tomatoes with kid gloves by touching the tomatoes in a gentler way, a new way to remove byproducts of the logging industry to eliminate fire hazards, and a process to remove the hardness of water in food processing.
In each case, the student team worked with either a private company or a public agency to determine needs for their proposed solutions.
For the panel, the students presented power point slides that, in some instances, included animation and video. Each presentation began with a mission statement for the student “company” that was offering a solution to an industry issue.
The audience included proud parents (this was graduation weekend), interested students, and others who registered for the Innovate to Grow event.
The panel asked good questions. And while their personal fortunes were not on the line as the sharks on Shark Tank lead us to believe week after week, the opportunity for students to respond to questions about their projects was in itself a valuable learning experience.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
Hmong Story 40 Exhibit brings History and Heroics to Merced
In recognition of the forty year connection between the Hmong and California, a new exhibit celebrates the living history of an important American ally.
A wall full of individual Hmong community members seen near the beginning of the Hmongstory 40 exhibit at the Merced County Fairgrounds. Photo by Steve Newvine
In recent years, many have sought out their family history in an effort to learn more about past generations. Whether it’s a genealogy search, connecting through social media, or coming across an old letter a family member kept stored away for decades, the search for meaning behind who we are seems universal.
That may explain the hundreds upon hundreds of people with a connection to the Hmong communities in California are seeing the exhibit Hmong Story 40.
The interactive exhibit has been touring select cities in the Central Valley including Merced where it will continue to inform and inspire the community through May 15. The exhibit is being held at the Merced County Fairgrounds daily.
There is no cost to attend.
The title reflects the forty-year history of the Hmong, who were allies of American troops in the Vietnam era. Forced away from their homeland in Laos, many families became refugees and settled in the U.S.; many in California.
Paintings by Hmong artists depicting life in California. Photo by Steve Newvine
When Hmong families began settling in California, Merced welcomed some of these early citizens. The first three Hmong families to settle in California resided in Merced.
Event Director Wa Chong Yang says the exhibition is intended to preserve the relatively short history of the Hmong in the Central Valley. “It’s human nature to question one’s identity,” he said. “We hope this exhibit encourages more people to look to their past.”
A display of clothing worn by the Hmong. Photo by Steve Newvine
The exhibit breaks down the history of the Hmong/U.S. connection into four stages: life in Laos, the Secret War, refugee camps, and life in California.
On the day I attended, a school class from Sacramento participated in a presentation on Hmong life, followed by a guided tour of the exhibit areas.
“We knew this exhibit would be well received in the Hmong community,” Project Director Lar Yang told me. “But it also connects with other communities as the search for identity is universal.”
The Life in Laos portion of the exhibit explains the genesis of the bond between the U.S. military and the Hmong. In the Vietnam War era, Laos was considered by the Geneva Accord to be a neutral country. This meant that by international agreement, the sending of troops was not allowed.
Although the U.S. was supposed to have no official involvement in the affairs of Laos, the CIA served as consultants or advisers for the Hmong soldiers. The U.S. promised it would help the Hmong get to America or to refugee camps if they lost the war. The Hmong lost, but the U.S. was able to get about 5,000 people out.
The Life in California portion of the Hmong Story 40 exhibit. Judge Paul Lo of Merced is pictured in the lower right hand corner. Photo by Steve Newvine
The Life in California portion of the exhibit includes artwork depicting experiences for the first Hmong refugees. There’s also a section on Hmong citizens who have been elected to political office or appointed to judicial posts. In this section, there is a photograph of Judge Paul Lo of Merced, California’s first Judge of Hmong descent.
Perhaps the most touching tribute in the exhibit is an area near the end of the displays honoring Peter Chou Vang of Merced County. Mr. Vang passed away in early May. He was a highly regarded military and community leader. A card introducing the tribute calls Mr. Vang one of several fallen heroes who put their lives on the line for freedom.
Portion of the Hmong Story 40 exhibit honoring the life of Peter Chou Vang of Merced. Photo by Steve Newvine
The Hmong Story 40 exhibit started in Fresno and will head to Sacramento after the Merced stop. Approximately 45,000 people attended in Fresno, and organizers expect attendance in Merced to reach 5,000 to 10,000.
Organizers hope that the exhibit will extend interest in the Hmong story. A website Hmongstory40.org allows a visitor to read about the specific elements of the exhibit, view videos on different aspects of Hmong life, and even upload photographs and videos.
As universal as the desire to learn more about past generations may be, it still requires work to turn that desire into action. Hmong Story 40 hopes to make it a lot easier for anyone interested in making that connection.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
On the 99. The Modesto Manifesto
The year was 1948. The preacher was Billy Graham. Already stirring up enthusiasm for his prayer meetings, this evangelist was on the verge of becoming an internationally known religious figure. Something happened that year in Modesto, California that would set the foundation for his ministry
Site of where the Billy Graham Crusade in Modesto, California was held in 1948. Photo from The Newvine Personal Collection
Billy Graham had a connection to the Central Valley. His right-hand man, Cliff Barrows was from Ceres, Stanislaus County. With the Graham organization staging Crusades in several US cities, it made sense that a similar event take place Central California. Thanks to the community ties of Cliff Barrows, a decision was made to run a Crusade event in Modesto.
I wrote about that 1948 Modesto Crusade in my book 9 from 99-Experiences in California’s Central Valley.
For that book, I spoke with Cliff Barrows by phone from the Graham ministry offices in North Carolina. He told me Modesto was more than just a tune-up for the upcoming Los Angeles Crusade. It was a time when Billy Graham and his closest aides met to write what would become the guiding principles for the organization.
“The book Elmer Gantry was popular at the time, so there was a lot of skepticism over traveling preachers,” Cliff Barrows told me in 2010. “Billy asked the three of us to think about the pitfalls that other evangelists had encountered.”
Over several days at the Rock Motel on Highway 99 north of McHenry Avenue in Modesto, the four discussed barriers to the success of any ministry. Their goal was to create a set of guidelines for the ministry to adopt in an effort to help them overcome the barriers.
While the Modesto Crusade was underway nightly, Graham and Barrows, along with associates George Beverly Shea and Grady Wilson met during the day to work out the ministry’s new rules of conduct.
They produced a document that featured four points, and how the new organization would conduct itself in these four areas. Billy Graham credits Cliff Barrows with naming the document the Modesto Manifesto.
The Manifesto’s four pillars are as follows:
- Integrity. Honesty to one another and to the people served.
- Accountability. To each other, to themselves, to the organization, and to its’ finances.
- Purity. In life and in heart. In relationships with members of the opposite sex. This led to the promise that no member of the Graham organization would be in a room alone with a person of the opposite sex other than their spouse.
- Humility. A promise to honor each other, to engage the local faith community as the crusades moved throughout the nation and throughout the world. This tenant also includes the promise that the organization would not seek excess publicity for what they were doing.
After the Modesto Crusade in 1948, the Graham team focused on Los Angeles where in 1949 where they would take the evangelist’s message to a bigger audience.
The Los Angeles Crusade is considered to be the turning point for the Billy Graham ministry as it became a nationwide, soon-to-be worldwide evangelical organization.
An estimated 26,000 people attended the Modesto Crusade over ten nights in 1948.
The work by Billy and his three close associates helped create the guiding principles of Graham ministry. You won’t find a historical sign in Modesto marking either the creation of the Manifesto or the location of the 1948 Central Valley Crusade.
The Rock Motel where the Manifesto was drafted no longer exists. You can drive to the intersection of Burney Avenue and La Loma Avenue and find the approximate location of the 1948 Modesto Crusade.
But you can take some comfort in knowing that the Modesto Gospel Mission, started with a portion of the donations raised at the 1948 Crusade, continues to serve hundreds of families and others through a variety of programs that have developed over the years.
The mission serves 150,000 meals every year, provides 4,600 overnight accommodations annually, and now operates with a yearly budget of over two-million dollars. An investment of five-thousand dollars made nearly sixty years ago has paid dividends to thousands of people in need.
That’s a pretty respectable legacy from the Billy Graham Crusade of 1948. And the Modesto Manifesto continues to guide the organization well into the new century. Billy will turn 98 in November 2016.
In 2018, the faith communities of Modesto will mark the seventieth anniversary of the Central Valley Billy Graham Crusade, and the seventieth anniversary of the Modesto Manifesto.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced. He wrote about Modesto and several other Central Valley communities in the book 9 from 99-Experiences in California’s Central Valley
Energy and Enthusiasm, in the Early Years of Work
Learning about the untimely passing of a colleague from three decades ago brought back memories from working in local television news with some very special people.
Covering the news in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo from the Newvine Personal Collection
An email arrived recently informing me that a former colleague from my television reporting days had passed away.
After experiencing the shock from learning of Helen's death and having thoughts for her two grown children, I spent a few moments to grieve over the passing of my former co-worker. All three emotions: shock, concern, and grief were experienced in the course of an afternoon.
The first fifteen years of my professional life were spent as a television journalist working in a total of five local stations in different parts of the country. I cherish the memories from those years, and consider myself fortunate that I have stayed in contact with at least a handful of colleagues.
But there is a special place in my heart for the two years I worked in Huntsville, Alabama.
This column is not about how those good old days were so much better than it must be for electronic journalists working in the media today. It was a different time. Electronic news gathering in the 1980s was the only true high tech medium for the time. Journalists now have the internet, vest cameras, surveillance footage, cell phones, and webcams in their electronic toolboxes.
The rules were much different three decades ago with editors reviewing news copy, ethics guiding most decisions about appropriateness, and gut instincts playing an important role over decisions about fairness.
This is not about the differences from my time in the media to now. This is about the similarities; or at least what many of us hope endures over time: good memories.
Those years created many smiles.
While live on-the-scene reports were common on local television stations in the early 1980s, moving the entire news anchor team on location was a relatively new trend. Pictured are WAAY weather man Bob Baron, anchor Jim Marsh and the late Helen Howard in a newscast dedicated to summer recreation. Photo from the Newvine Personal Collection.
In those formative early years in northern Alabama, my coworkers and I learned a lot about the exciting world of local television news. The station had a remote van that allowed us to report from just about any place in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee.
I did my first live report from the local Republican Party celebration on election night when Ronald Reagan was elected President.
Our station experimented with lots of ideas that were new for the early eighties but seemingly normal in local news today. Some nights, we would take the whole anchor team including the weather and sports casters, on location and do the entire broadcast from the field.
From time to time, we would interrupt network programming to broadcast bulletins to our audience. This practice usually generated calls from viewers who missed something in the sitcom we were interrupting. My news director would dismiss the complaints with explanations to the staff along the lines of “they may hate us for interrupting, but they’ll remember us.”
I remember getting home one afternoon after pulling an early morning shift when the phone rang. The news department’s assignment editor dispatched me to the airport where a big fire had broken out. I had already worked about ten hours and was looking forward to a relaxing evening. But the story needed to be reported, and I got my instructions to meet the live truck at the airport. I arrived on the scene moments before the six o’clock newscast began, reported what few details I knew at the beginning of the newscast, promised the viewers more later, and returned with another live report before the newscast ended.
I’ll never forget the night before Thanksgiving in 1981 when I was sent to a remote part of the viewing area where a distraught man was holding his wife and young child hostage. My photographer and I, along with our competitors from other news media, stayed with the story until it ended in the early hours of Thanksgiving morning. Upon returning to the station, I worked on my script, recorded my narration, headed home, and took my wife out for Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. It was the most sleep-deprived holiday I ever endured.
And there were little things about working with a group of good humored folks.
I remember calling the general manager's secretary by her name "Mrs. Higgins" using my impression of Tim Conway's old man Tudball's character from the Carol Brunett Show. I can only hope the real Mrs. Higgins appreciated the reference.
Even Helen, the person whose passing is now bringing up so many memories, got the best of me one night when I asked her to pick up a sandwich for me on the way back from a reporting assignment. I asked for a Whopper with no onions.
She had the sandwich made with triple onions. I was so hungry that I didn't notice the extra onions until about the third bite.
A very young Steve Newvine (bottom left) with co-workers in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo from the Newvine Personal Collection
The men in this photograph were the young Turks of the WAAY-TV newsroom in Huntsville, Alabama in the early 1980s. Shown here at a colleague’s farewell party, we were full of energy, enthusiasm, and optimism.
We would repeat a farewell party every few months as someone in the newsroom accepted a new job in another city. My colleagues were dispersed over the years to such places as Atlanta, New Orleans, Tampa, and in my case Rockford, Illinois where I became one of the youngest television news directors in the country in 1982.
None of us seemed interested in making Huntsville, Alabama our permanent home. The so-called Southern hospitality was wonderful. It was a beautiful city, but many of us were climbing up the career ladder.
My wife and I came to Huntsville as newlyweds. If we were looking for an adventure to start our married life, we found it there. We left about two years later shortly after the birth of our first child. There were high and low points for me professionally during that time, but as with anything meaningful in life, the good times outweighed the bad.
We were ambitious and excited about the work we performed daily at WAAY-TV. Most of us moved on, with only occasional phone calls and a Christmas card to keep us connected for a few years. Eventually, new work brought about new acquaintances. With time, only the memories survived.
So I remember the passing of our colleague Helen. I smile as I recall the time when our hopeful dreams carried each day, and we had no idea how life would end up for all of us.
They were the good old days.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced. He shared some memories of his work covering the US Space program while working in Huntsville in his book Microphones, Moon Rocks, and Memories.
Springtime is Stampede Time in Chowchilla
The opening lyrics to the theme song from the television western series Rawhide say all that needs to be said: “Rollin, rollin, rollin.
59th Annual Chowchilla Western Stampede cattle drive. Picture by Steve Newvine
The herd was rolling. It was rolling down Robertson Boulevard in Chowchilla, California.
The herd of cattle was the highlight for day one of the annual Chowchilla Western Stampede. About one-hundred young steer were led down the city’s main thoroughfare in the heavy rain on the traditional second Friday in March.
The cattle drive is the kick-off to a weekend of rodeo-related roping activities and a tip of the western hat to the cattle raising heritage of this northern Madera County city of about nineteen thousand people.
The Stampede cattle drive brings out the area’s most dedicated cattle people. Picture by Steve Newvine
Rodeos and related roping events are nothing new to the Central Valley, and certainly not new to Chowchilla. 2016 marked the fifty-ninth annual event.
The cattle drive kicks off the weekend as the animals are led from the Chowchilla Fairgrounds, turning east on Robertson Drive, moving down the street until turning right at the intersection just before Highway 99, and then completing their drive right back to the Fairgrounds.
Led by area horsemen and women, alongside cattlemen and young people on horses, with local law enforcement providing the parade security, the drive passes by in a matter of minutes.
It is tradition that keeps the cattle drive going year after year. After all, there is no practical reason why the cattle need to be moved in what amounts to a giant circle in the town’s original business section. It’s done for the community and those who want to get some idea of what a western cattle drive looks like up close.
It’s one of the few opportunities many people will get to see an actual herd of cattle moving down a paved roadway.
Chowchilla Western Stampede. Photo by Steve Newvine
The Chowchilla Western Stampede gets an early start in January with an annual fundraising dinner. Money raised from that dinner is used to award scholarships for agriculture-based education at Chowchilla High, Mariposa High and Yosemite High schools.
The highlight of the dinner is the naming of the Stampede Grand Marshall. This year, local cattleman, former rodeo star, and area business owner Bob Ragsdale was named Grand Marshall.
I tried unsuccessfully to reach Bob to talk about his Grand Marshall honor as well as his rodeo career. But outgoing chairman of the Stampede, Tom Martin told the Merced Sun Star that Bob was the ideal candidate to be Grand Marshall, “He’s a superstar of the rodeo arena, but more importantly, he’s a superstar of a man.”
More than six-hundred people attended the fundraising dinner when Bob was named Grand Marshall.
Bob Ragsdale was born in Montana and began taking part in rodeos while in high school. He qualified for the National Finals Rodeo every year from 1961 to 1975 for calf roping, steer wrestling and team roping.
He was inducted into the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oregon, named to the Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and was recently honored by the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall.
Steer from this year’s cattle drive make the turn to head back from where they started at the Chowchilla Fairgrounds. Photo by Steve Newvine
The three-day Stampede event is usually held on the second weekend in March.
It features such events as team roping barrel racing. Top finishers are awarded cash and western oriented prizes.
The cattle drive has been one of those things I’ve been meaning to do over the past few years. Living in nearby Merced, it seemed like there was no reason to put it off any longer.
So I made my way south to Chowchilla to take it all in. I’m glad I did.
So rodeo season is off and galloping in the Central Valley.
While the Chowchilla Western Stampede may not be the biggest event among the many communities who stage activities to celebrate their cattle raising heritage, it has a lot of heart with fifty-nine years of success.
In 2017 when the event reaches its’ sixtieth anniversary, we’ll once again hear the hooves clacking down Robertson Boulevard.
Rollin, rollin, rollin.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
To read and hear the Merced Sun Star’s report on the Stampede dinner, http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/community/article54038230.html#storylink=cpy
Golden Valley Alumnus Serves State Future Farmers of America
There were two things that stood out for Danielle Diele in her senior year at Golden Valley High School in 2013-14: her busy schedule and the joy she got from her involvement with the Future Farmers of America (FFA).
Danielle Diele, California FFA Leadership State Board-Reporter moments after her name was called for the election results at the 87th State FFA Leadership Conference, Selland Arena, Fresno. Picture courtesy of Danielle Diele
In high school, Danielle enjoyed swimming and water polo, her AP (advanced placement) classes, and a competitive atmosphere.
“I always felt challenged by a rather busy schedule,” she said. “And that kept me striving for more.”
In spite of a hectic calendar, there was always time for FFA in high school. She served as an officer in her chapter for three years.
In her senior year, she served as Miss Merced County. She and some school friends started Cinderella’s Closet providing over two-hundred prom dresses for other young ladies in the community. The Closet was handed down to younger classmates and is now in a third year of operation.
Upon graduation from Golden Valley in 2014, Danielle headed to college at California Polytechnic Institute in San Luis Obispo. She joined the local FFA chapter there.
Over 81,000 Californians are members of FFA, making it the largest concentration of future farmers anywhere in the United States. We know them by those distinctive dark blue jackets they wear. FFA is a big part of County fairs all over the state including the Merced County Fair. Having raised a market hog for three years at the Fair, Danielle knows this well.
In April 2015, she was elected to the post of State Reporter for the California Association, FFA. The post involves more than three-hundred days of travel annually. She has taken one year off from her studies at Cal Poly to devote herself fully to the FFA post.
California FFA Leadership Team members- Picture courtesy: Danielle Diele
“We finish our spring semesters, and then move into the FFA Center in June,” she said. “From there, we go on countless industry tours and meet with industry leaders, represent FFA and Career Technical Education as we meet with many legislators, as well as the California Secretary of Agriculture, Karen Ross, and the United States Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary, Krysta Hardin.”
Another big part of Danielle’s official duties center around Chapter visits throughout the state. “We meet with an FFA Chapter and stay one night with a Chapter Member,” she says. “The next morning, we go to school with the member, and teach three leadership workshops.” Chapter visits generally run from September through January, averaging about four schools per week.
Danielle at MCOE, Caption: Future Farmers of America State Reporter Danielle Diele speaks before three-hundred guests at the Merced County Office of Education Annual Education Report luncheon in Merced. Photo by Steve Newvine
Danielle’s official role as State Reporter brought her back to Merced where she spoke before the annual Merced County Office of Education Report Luncheon held February 25th(a second luncheon for western Merced County was held a day later in Los Banos). In Merced, Danielle spoke before a group of three hundred educators, legislative staff, elected officials, and business leaders. Her message before the group attending at Yosemite Church in Merced focused on Career Technical Education (CTE).
“Career Technical Education values critical thinking, problem-solving, and a Learn-By-Doing approach,” she told the group. "Higher level high school courses are the knowledge, and Career Technical Education is the application of that knowledge."
She told the Merced group about the diversity of farming she’s seen from the vantage point of her statewide role within FFA. She has toured large agriculture enterprises such as Foster Farms in Livingston, met farmers from around the world at the World Ag Expo in Tulare County, and has met many farm families all over the state. She shared a story with her Merced audience about staying with a small farm family. The mother of this family offered her the only bedroom in the house with a mattress.
“My perspective has changed immensely this last year,” she said to me via email response to my questions. “I have seen the struggles that people of all kinds have, and I am grateful that each home welcomed me with open arms, no matter the situation.”
Danielle Diele, California FFA Leadership Board-State Reporter.Picture: www.calaged.org)
Danielle returns to her full-time student status after her term as State Reporter ends later in the spring. She plans to attend graduate school after finishing the undergraduate degree.
She wants to become an Agricultural Communicator. Her passion and desire is to advocate for the agricultural industry.
She has had an incredible opportunity representing FFA throughout California. She says she has grown as a person.
“There is no such thing as a 'typical' day serving as a State FFA Officer,” she said.
On the 99- Turlock’s Big Bulldozer
That big bulldozer building in Stanislaus County along California’s Highway 99 marks a fortieth anniversary in 2016.
The office for United Equipment in Turlock. Photo: Steve Newvine)
Highway 99 offers a lot of interesting things to see, but the sight of that big bulldozer in Turlock is one place that few people can forget. It is a two-story office building for United Equipment Company in Turlock. It’s been a functioning office for the company since opening in 1976.
The idea for building a structure that would serve the growing company and attract lots of attention came from company founder Harold Logsdon back in the mid-1970s. At the time, Highway 99 was going through an expansion to accommodate an ever increasing traffic flow.
The building was designed to replicate a Cat D5 bulldozer. The building was constructed with steel, aluminum, plywood and redwood. It is twenty-one feet high, twenty-eight feet wide, and sixty-six feet long. It provides two stories of office space.
“Dad wanted something that would stand out,” Harold’s daughter Brenda told me in 2008 when I interviewed her for my book 9 From 99, Experiences in California’s Central Valley. A lot of companies were moving to locations close to the expanded highway. United Equipment joined in with the influx and created an office that would also serve as a three-dimensional billboard.
“Dad asked an architect to come up with a design for a bulldozer to sit on top of a building,” Brenda Schmidt said. The architect gave the idea some thought and suggested that the building itself could look like that familiar piece of earth-moving equipment.
“My father approved the plans, and the building project was launched,” Brenda said.
That was in 1976 and people have been viewing the bulldozer building ever since. United Equipment still operates from that office, even though the company has expanded considerably in the past forty years. Mitch and Dustin Logsdon remain in place as company President and Sales Manager respectively.
“The building has been excellent for our company,” Mitch told me recently. “It gives the company a little notoriety and that’s good for business.”
Painted bulldozer yellow, the building combines functionality for a business office with authenticity and attention to detail. The dozer blade is a room housing the facility’s water sprinkler system. The dozer appears to be pushing dirt, and on careful inspection, one can tell that even the dirt and rock appear to have been placed with care and attention to detail.
Inside, the offices help the staff carry out the day-to-day business operations for United Equipment. The entryway includes a small display of news articles that have appeared in newspapers all over the world about this amazing building in Turlock, California.
In 2008, Brenda Schmidt shared a story about a phone call the company got from an equipment manufacturer in Saudi Arabia. She recalled the foreign firm had read about the big bulldozer, and wanted to know shipping dimensions for what was thought to be the real thing. The Saudi Arabian company thought the two-story bulldozer was an actual working piece of equipment.
“They were kind of disappointed when we told them it wasn’t real,” Brenda said.
The building has a worldwide reputation. Mitch Logsdon has traveled extensively for his work as President of the company. “I’ve seen pictures of the building on the desks of equipment executives in Tokyo,” he said.
The building still attracts a lot of curious folks from all over the state. Mitch says people have walked in to ask whether the building is a real office, or to see for themselves that is it not a real piece of construction equipment.
“We’ve heard stories of kids who were sleeping in their parents’ cars, awakened by Mom or Dad to see that giant bulldozer out their window,” Mitch said. “We still hear stories of parents pulling that prank on their kids.”
The City of Turlock in Stanislaus County has a lot to offer the rest of the world. Medic Alert, the company that is known for those ID bracelets that point out a medical condition to emergency personnel, is headquartered in Turlock. The City also is home to California State University at Stanislaus or Stan State as many people refer to the four year college.
Chances are hundreds of thousands of people passing through this stretch of Highway 99 in southern Stanislaus County have no idea of what other things Turlock has to offer. But one thing is for certain: they will likely never forget that big bulldozer.
Almost Famous- Meeting Authors, Politicians, and Actors
In a working career now approaching four decades, I am surprised at the number of celebrities I have met.
Saturday Night Live announcer Don Pardo and Steve Newvine. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
My first career in television news afforded me many opportunities to meet famous people. Whether they were politicians seeking election, actors promoting a project, or heroes who accomplished something truly special, I have taken many memories from each encounter.
The first real celebrity I met was taxpayer advocate Howard Jarvis of California. Fresh from his victory in getting Proposition Thirteen approved in California and thus changing the way real property has been taxed in the state, he was in Binghamton, New York to support a campaign to make it easier for voters to put propositions on the ballot. I interviewed him for the television station where I was a general assignment reporter.
I also recall the movie Airplane had just come out and Jarvis’ cameo in that picture, where he sits in the back of a taxi cab throughout the movie, was clearly in the back of my mind. Unfortunately, I did not ask him about that appearance. I’m sure he would have given me a much more memorable response than he did on the subject of voter referendum.
I also met then candidate George H.W. Bush (or Bush 41) while at that first reporting job in Binghamton. He didn’t need the H. W. middle initials back in 1980 when he was trying to wrestle the Republican Presidential nomination from front-runner Ronald Reagan. Those initials were added once his son George W. became active in national politics.
I met Bush 41 again after leaving the field of journalism. About fifteen years later, the now former President spoke at the State University of New York College at Geneseo.
My wife and I met him at a reception following the speech. She asked him about raising children and his answer politely deflected anything specific.
A few years after that encounter, then U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton visited Livingston County, New York as part of an effort to visit every one of the state’s sixty-five counties. I remember asking her whether she had any dealings with wisdom teeth as my daughter was having dental surgery that week.
She looked straight at me and said Chelsea had her wisdom teeth removed, and that my wife and I should make sure my daughter had plenty of videos and lots of love to take her mind off the pain. There’s a picture of Mrs. Clinton standing next to me at the Yard of Ale restaurant in Piffard, New York.
Cover of Microphones, Moon Rocks, and Memories taken as two Space Shuttle astronauts arrive in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
While working in Huntsville, Alabama as a television reporter, I was assigned the space beat. Huntsville was the home of the Marshall Space Flight Center where several components to the space shuttle were developed and managed.
NASA had a tradition of sending astronaut teams to the local Space Centers following a mission so that the workers could be thanked appropriately.
The cover photo from my book Microphones, Moon Rocks, and Memories shows a very young me doing a live report as two astronauts arrive by plane in the background. Those two astronauts were Joe Engle and Richard Truly who flew in the very first space shuttle mission.
I also met Astronaut Walter Schirra as he visited the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville where several actual spacecraft from the early days of the space program were on display. He was taken to a Gemini spacecraft that he flew in the 1960s.
I recall his remarks to the crowd as he wondered how he ever got into the tiny spacecraft in the first place.
Huntsville also gave me the opportunity to meet three stars of television: Pat Buttram (who played Mr. Haney on Green Acres), Efren Zimbalist, Jr. (from The F.B.I.) and Kay Lenz. Butrram and Zimbalist were campaigning for Ronald Reagan; Lenz was promoting a movie. Her career never really took off but she continues to do television roles. I saw her in an episode of NCIS a few years ago.
In the early 1980s, I found myself working in the newsroom of WOKR-TV (Now WHAM-TV) in Rochester, New York. It was there where I met television news icon David Brinkley. He visited our station’s new news center on his way to a speaking engagement at the Eastman Theater. I was too busy producing that afternoon’s six o’clock newscast to pay much attention to him, but I was able to attend a reception in his honor following his appearance at the Theater. As luck would have it, I had a chance to have a short conversation with him about local news (which he thought was pretty good back in 1983). I wrote an appreciation essay on his contributions to television news in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle following his death in 2003.
A few years later, I would meet the original On the Road CBS reporter Charles Kuralt when he visited CBS affiliate WROC-TV in Rochester where I worked as Executive Producer. He was brought into Rochester to speak at an evening event and our Station Manager imposed on him to stop by the television station to visit the news department.
I was helping a reporter write a particularly challenging sentence when the Manager brought Kuralt into the newsroom. We were in awe of this man who practically defined television feature reporting.
I recall he smiled a lot, did not say much, and had a pack of Pall Mall unfiltered cigarettes in his shirt pocket.
I met and spoke with authors David Halberstam and Doris Kearns Goodwin at the same speakers’ series (in different years) at the State University of New York College in Geneseo where I met President Bush. Halberstam had written The Fifties, and I recall our conversation centering on Elvis Presley. Kearns Goodwin spoke about the biography of Abraham Lincoln she was working on (she would title it Team of Rivals and publish it in 2005). Our brief discussion following the speech was about her book Wait Until Next Year. The book was about growing up on Long Island in the 1950s, coping with life after the passing of her mother, and being a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. We got on the subject of mothers: mine had passed away recently and Kearns Goodwin wrote extensively about losing her mom at a young age in that particular book.
I sat in the front row of a news conference where Jerry Lewis was promoting his performances in the traveling production of the musical Damn Yankees. I wasn’t in the news reporting business anymore (a friend in the business got me into the news conference), but I asked Lewis about a reference he made to a book he was writing on his comedy partnership with Dean Martin. He gave a very long and interesting response to my question. The book Dean and Me came out two years later.
Actress Teresa Ganzel and Steve Newvine. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection
Probably my favorite time meeting celebrities came in 2007 and 2009 when I attended the Game Show Congress in Hollywood. The Congress was formed to honor the significant contributors to television game shows. I met dozens of game show hosts, announcers, producers, and celebrity guest game players at these two events. These stars were accommodating to the attendees. They posed for pictures and I could tell they enjoyed the attention. I appreciated being around the people who entertained me so much on school sick days and summer vacation when I could watch daytime television in the sixties and seventies. I met Betty White, Don Pardo, Wink Martindale, Florence Henderson, and Teresa Ganzel among many others. Teresa played the Tea Time Movie Lady in the Art Fern sketches during the final years of the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. As we were posing for the picture, I told her how I enjoyed her work with Carson who had passed away in 2005. She told me, “We all enjoyed Johnny. He was wonderful to work with.”
From the world of music I met Davy Jones from the Monkees and music personality Mitch Miller during my years in Rochester, New York. Davy was in a production of The Real Live Brady Bunch, a camp stage show where actors played the roles of the Brady television family. Mitch, then in his seventies, lived in Rochester part of the year and was at the station to promote a Fourth of July concert (his birthday) where he would conduct the local symphony. Both were gracious and comfortable with their celebrity status. I think it was easier being a celebrity back then than it is today.
I’m glad it was a little bit easier back then because it allowed me to approach some of these celebrities, shake their hands, and talk about a variety of topics. These famous people, along with at least a dozen others whose stories I could not share for lack of time, were accessible. They appreciated the attention as much as we appreciated their sharing of themselves for a quick comment or observation.
It was a special time with some extraordinary people.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado by Rail
It’s been an item on my wife Vaune’s bucket list for several years: ride the California Zephyr across the country.
The California Zephyr. Photo by Steve Newvine.
We did not go the entire length of Amtrak’s iconic railroad route from San Francisco to Chicago, but thanks to our new grandson we accomplished a substantial portion of that journey.
To visit our grandson and his parents, we booked a sleeper car from Sacramento to Denver. We boarded Amtrak from the Merced station and then traveled to Stockton where we transferred to a bus that would take us to the Sacramento train station.
From there, we boarded the Zephyr for the thirty-plus hour voyage through four states. It was a bumpy ride at times, but such is life on a train.
The California Zephyr follows part of the trail blazed by the Donner party. This is Donner Lake. Photo by Steve Newvine
Heading into the Sierra Mountains, we saw our first winter snow in nearly ten years. From our compartment window, the vistas were spectacular as we viewed much of what California has to offer for those willing to move up in elevation.
Soon, we were in Nevada
Reno’s train line leaves little for the rail passenger to see. That’s the Sands Hotel above. Photo by Steve Newvine.
Early on in the mountainous region of the state, we enjoyed great scenery. However, a stop in Reno was less than spectacular because the train station that was designed to welcome Amtrak passengers had cement walls going about two stories below ground that only allowed us to see the top of the Sands and one other hotel.
The tourism promotion side of me scratched my head over the thought process that led to that design decision. Reno is a great small city, but you really would not know that from what you see at the train stop.
More mountains, pristine waterways, and wildlife followed as we headed through the western edge of Nevada. Before long, we were in the state of Utah where a stark landscape would eventually offer some of the most spectacular color we experienced on the trip.
Utah’s Ruby Canyon is a geological wonder and an amazing cacophony of color at sunset. Photo by Steve Newvine
Through the range of glacier-carved stone, our train window served as a high-definition viewing screen to admire a true world wonder. Cloud cover removed a good deal of the color on our eastbound trip through Ruby Canyon.
But on the return westbound trek, the sun offered ideal highlighting of the natural color that is a signature of this place. Later on, our conductor called attention to two bald eagles perched in a tree. We saw two more on the return trip as well.
At over 8,000 feet elevation, it was a very cold but strikingly beautiful stop along our trip in Fraser, Colorado. Photo by Steve Newvine
With about six hours to go before ending our journey, we crossed into Colorado and stopped at one of the highest points. On our journey going east and west, we stopped at Grand Junction and the community of Fraser.
Snow and cold is big business in this community that offers its residents and visitors many months of winter sporting activities. The sign at the Fraser train depot read that we were at 8,565 feet above sea level.
The final destination of our trip was Union Station in Denver. Photo by Steve Newvine
That’s a long way from Merced both in distance and in elevation. Most Central Valley communities are at sea levels of one or two digits. Our conductor noted that the Zephyr reaches the highest altitude of all the Amtrak train routes in the United States.
We arrived in Denver shortly after six PM mountain-time or approximately thirty-hours after boarding the Zephyr in California. As sleeper car passengers, our meals were included.
At every trip to the dining car, we were seated with two other passengers to fill out a four-seat booth. As a result, we met travelers from as far away as New Zealand, as well as passengers from such places as Canada, New Orleans, Michigan, Ohio, and even the Bay Area of California.
The conversations were great as we learned more about why people would spend a day or two, or for some many more, on a train when we all know there are faster ways to travel.
The answers reveal how sometimes it’s just good for the soul to kick back and take your time.
There’s an often-told saying that goes something like this: sometimes the journey is just as important if not more so than the destination. That certainly rang true for these travelers. Some told us that they were tired of crowded airports and TSA screenings; others wanted the stress relief that comes from not being behind a steering wheel.
A young woman, a recent college graduate, told us she’s glad there was no Wi-Fi available so that she and others could enjoy the ambiance that is unique to train travel.
Amtrak made sure that no one would use a gadget to disturb the other passengers. Earphones or earbuds were required and there were overnight quiet hours.
An Amish man we met shared his story about accompanying his wife on a health-related journey that would eventually take them to Mexico.
He characterized the experience aboard the train with just a few words: “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I think most of his fellow travelers would agree.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
Saint Nicholas
A few years back, one of my holiday traditions then was the role I played in a Christmastime church function.
St. Nicholas prepares for his visit at St. Agnes Church in Avon, NY. Photo: Newvine Family Collection.
The picture shows a Santa like depiction of Saint Nicholas that I had the privilege of assuming for a few years during the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s.
In case you don’t know much about Saint Nicholas, here’s a refresher. The real Saint Nicholas was a bishop in the fourth century in what is now known as Turkey.
He came from a wealthy family, and sought to use his blessings to help others. There are many stories of miracles attributed to him. In one story he asked for a portion of a wheat cargo from a transport ship, promising the sailors they would not come up short when they reached their final destination.
The sailors reluctantly agreed to give a two-year supply of wheat to the residents of a village. As the story goes, the sailors discovered when they reached their final destination that the total weight of their cargo had not changed.
Another story attributed to Saint Nicholas was about establishing dowries for three women in one family who were not well off. A dowry was customarily given to the groom by a bride’s family when she married.
Many times, women who could not provide a dowry would not marry. If they had no family to live with, they faced an uncertain future for themselves in a male-dominated society.
The Saint Nicholas story ends with the discovery of coins tossed through a window as the family slept. The coins became the dowry.
This story fed a legend that if children left their shoes near an open window at Christmas, they would awaken the next morning to find the shoes filled with gifts and treats from Saint Nicholas.
The telling of Saint Nicholas’ story was a tradition at the church in the community where my wife and I raised our two daughters.
The saint’s official feast day is December 6th, but our church, Saint Agnes in Avon, New York, had to schedule our celebration as close to that date as possible because it did not always land on a weekend.
Our two very young daughters participated in the event in the mid-1980’s when Father Charles Bennett was the first to put on the costume to tell “his” story, and give the children treats.
He passed away a year later, so the tradition nearly ended before it was really established. Fortunately, two other parishioners took over for the next several years to portray the saint.
It eventually evolved into the children leaving their shoes at the back of church before Mass, having Saint Nicholas visit after the homily (sermon), and finding a gift (usually candy) in their shoes as they left Mass.
In the late 1990s, the Saint Nicholas visit was again in danger of being stopped at our church. My wife asked me if I’d consider doing it just one time. I did it that time, and for a few more years I became the holiday time visitor for the congregation.
There was something special about putting on the costume
It started with a white cassock (a floor-length robe) and then was layered with a red surplice (a sleeveless robe that looks like a poncho). Then a special bishop’s type hat and a long white beard were added to complete the costume.
It was hot underneath those garments, especially the beard. But it helped transform me into the man who lived a long time ago and who would share his story with children so they could once more enjoy his visit.
I was also fortunate enough to portray Saint Nicholas at the religious education classes for two parishes. The younger kids probably confused Saint Nicholas with Santa. The older ones probably just went along because it was taking place at a church.
While being Saint Nicholas for children was gratifying to me, two special times when I put on the costume stand out because the audience was not young folks.
Our parish Deacon asked me to bring Saint Nicholas to a juvenile detention facility
A small holiday party was planned for a group of teenage boys who were incarcerated. The message was tailored to this specific audience. Ina thank you note following the appearance, the Deacon told me that most of these young men had very little to look forward to during the holiday season, and that my appearance showed that someone out there cared about them.
The last time I put on the costume was Christmas night in 2003. Our family spent the Christmas evening together by producing Saint Nicholas’ final visit. I had already accepted the job that would bring me to California and would be heading west in another month.
My two daughters asked if Saint Nicholas would come to the nursing home where they worked and visit with the residents. My wife and I arrived shortly after the residents had dinner, and we stayed for quite a while visiting with these seniors.
It was one of the last things we did as a family before we were separated by thousands of miles.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that you have some cherished memories to recall at this time of year too.
Steve is grateful to his wife Vaune who helped recall some of the Saint Nicholas memories and who helped edit this column.
UC Merced at 10
Our community’s educational centerpiece reaches an important early milestone.
Photograph from the first graduation ceremony at UC Merced in 2006. Picture taken at the UC Merced exhibit at the Merced County Museum
One can extract a lot of joy while looking at this photograph
It shows smiling students in cap and gown at the time of their commencement ceremony escorted by the Chancellor of the institution. This photograph has special meaning to me. It’s from the very first commencement at the University of California at Merced in 2006.
I was in attendance that May morning when the handful of students received their diplomas from the University. The campus had opened the year before, and these students had transferred from other institutions to complete the early steps along their higher education journey.
As the recently installed CEO of the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce, I accepted the invitation to attend the ceremony. It was clear to me that this would be a very special day.
UC Merced is celebrating its first decade this year. Students started attending in the fall of 2005. A recent exhibit at the Merced County Museum featured three rooms of photographs, newspaper front pages, and icons from the University.
For a relative newcomer to the area, the exhibit offered a peek into the many steps it took to locate the campus in our community.
Icons from the construction of the first buildings at the UC Merced campus. Photo by Steve Newvine
The shovel pictured above was from the celebration commemorating the start of construction. The ceremonial ground-breaking capped off a multi-year effort to convince the University of California to build a Central Valley campus in Merced.
Locations in Fresno and Madera, among other places, were under consideration. The local effort started with a group made up of local education, business, government, and community people.
There were so many steps that needed to be taken along the way including: acquiring the land, green-lighting the development plans, and convincing political leadership beyond the borders of Merced County that this effort was good for all of California.
The local group never looked back as they kept the enthusiasm going through state budget cycles, supported the UC as it fought challenges in court, and helped bring back into focus the prize of a four-year state university amidoccasional perceptions that the community had lost momentum.
The story of how UC Merced became reality has been well documented by the University and local historians.
I cite a few for your information at the end of this column.
The first decade of UC Merced has been critically important to the Central Valley. Enrollment grows at a pace controlled by the University so as to not put any of the delicate development plans at risk.
The UC Board of Regents recently approved the so-called 2020 Project plan that will monitor growth as the student population rises to the full enrollment target of nearly ten-thousand. The campus continues to add new classroom and dormitory buildings.
The UC appears to be a constant state of construction.
To date, three Chancellors have led the institution: the late Carol Tomlinson Keasey, Steven Kang, and the current Chancellor Dorothy Leland.
Current full-time student enrollment is sixty-six-thousand with faculty and staff numbering now at fifteen-hundred full and part time.
A Merced Sun Star front page with the latest news about construction of the newest UC campus. Photo by Steve Newvine
As a community, we came together when a student attacked two students, one staff member, and one construction worker with a knife during classes in November 2015. University Police shot and killed the attacker.
The UC and the community of Merced County were united like a family as a result of the outpouring of compassion on campus.
And that takes us back to that first photograph
Students are the most important aspect of any educational institution. Over the years, we saw how students melded into the City of Merced along with their counterparts from Merced College. UC students wrote messages and campaigned hard to bring the First Lady in as commencement speaker in 2009.
The following year, students again worked diligently to bring NBC News Anchor Lester Holt to UC Merced as commencement speaker.
Athletic programs began as club programs in the early years of UC Merced. Now the Wildcats have organized teams in a number of sports. Photo: Steve Newvine
The first ten years have brought many highs, a tragic incident of campus violence, and a lot of pride to our community.
There’s no crystal ball to help us predict exactly what our UC, or our county, will look like in ten years. We wouldn’t want one anyway. We want to grow along with our college anchor, meet the future face-to-face, and live each day to the fullest.
But it will be fascinating to review these words in another decade when the campus marks another milestone. I hope to be among those telling the story of the community that could, and the University that made us all proud.
The UC history of the Merced campus can be found here: http://www.ucmercedplanning.net/pdfs/flrdp/2history.pdf
Merced County Historian Sarah Lim’s column on the UC Merced development in the community can be found here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article38302386.html
Steve Newvine’s tribute to UC Merced’s first Chancellor Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, written at the time of her death, can be found here: http://greatvalley.blogspot.com/2009/10/steve-newvine-legacy-that-endures.html
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
His newest book is a second edition of Finding Bill- A Search for Meaning. It’s available at Lulu.com
Letters from a Vietnam Veteran
My Uncle Billy’s descriptions of life as a soldier in the jungles of Southeast Asia tell a story of loneliness, bravery, and love of family
Letters from the pen of Specialist 4 William Newvine. From the Newvine Family Collection.
“So how is everything going on at home? Been out riding the Ski Doo very much? Or isn’t there enough snow yet”. Letter dated January 25 1965.
He was away from home, a long way from home. His family made sure he got frequent letters. My dad, aunt, and uncle sent them regularly. Some of my cousins and I sent occasional letters too.
His mother wrote to him every day.
He was my uncle Billy Newvine, known by his Army buddies as Bill. Bill served in the US Army in Vietnam. Surviving the jungles of Southeast Asia in some ways was the less-troubled part of his life journey.
He was killed in a car accident driving a brand new Chevrolet convertible he bought upon his return to the States.
The crash happened about six months after his military service ended.
I’ve detailed my journey to learn more about my Uncle through columns here on this website and in a short book called Finding Bill.
I was eleven years old when he was killed.
Bill Newvine in Vietnam, 1967. From the Newvine Family Collection
On a recent visit to my hometown, I visited my Aunt Betty, Billy’s only sister. I already knew he received a lot of letters from home, and that he responded when possible.
I asked Betty whether she had kept any of his letters. After searching around the family farmhouse where she has lived most of her life (and where Billy lived until he was seven years old), she found about forty letters Billy wrote to her while in the Army.
“After twenty days on the USN Walker, we got here. We got here on the ninth, but were not allowed in the harbor to the tenth. Then not allowed to unload till yesterday the fourteenth.” Letter written September 15, 1966, postmarked October 16, 1966.
He sent letters from many places. Some were from where he started his military life in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Other letters were from his pre- deployment time at Fort Lewis in Washington State. Many letters covered the entire time he was in Vietnam which spanned from September 1966 to September 1967.
I spent some time sorting through the letters Aunt Betty loaned me. I arranged them in chronological order, took several pages of notes, and made a few copies at the local drug store. What emerges is a story of a young man (just twenty-one years old) who misses his family, who has made new friends, and who is showing the courage to endure what he’s going through in the jungles of Vietnam.
Letters arrived to my Aunt Betty at a rate of about two a month during the time Bill was in Vietnam. From the Newvine Family Collection.
“…got almost two months in. Our time started September 2. So we are supposed to be back in the states September 2. We will fly back. The old man told us that…” Letter dated and postmarked October 27, 1966
I was taken aback by the passage above because of Bill’s sense of looking toward the end of his hitch. By the postmark, I can tell he had only been in Vietnam a little over a month. Yet, he is already explaining the details of how he will get back home in another eleven months.
Bill’s letters make it clear he was a dedicated soldier
Some of the unvarnished scenes he describes on the battlefield disgusted him, but he knew there was a job to do as well a story to tell his loved ones about what he was experiencing.
Bill Newvine (far right) celebrates Christmas 1966 in Vietnam. From the Newvine Family Collection.
“I pulled up and aimed and did not fire. But he fired and then you feel different and fired. My hand froze on the trigger I shot the whole twenty rounds.” Letter written December 16, 1966 and postmarked December 17, 1966.
There are also images of what he missed from home: family, friends, a snowmobile, and his sister’s farm. The letters are what I would describe as newsy. In a letter before leaving the United States, he tells his sister about mistaking members of the rock group The Animals for women in the Chicago airport. He frequently references winter in upstate New York and his favorite winter pastime of riding his snowmobile.
“Well how is the sledding around there? I guess Dad is having fun with his. I took more time over here to get out in November.” From the same December 17, 1966 letter.
His letters reflect research I did for the book Grown Up, Going Home where I include interviews with his Army buddies.
One friend told me how Bill would frequently mention his snowmobile and how amused Bill was with some of this buddies who just couldn’t believe that you could drive a snowmobile over a frozen lake in the middle of winter.
In another letter, Bill described what I call an altercation in a bar when a South Vietnamese soldier insulted two women. (“I gave him a love tap on the jaw… His buddy carried him out of the bar. The bartender bought us drinks.”) Bill writes that he was in that bar with his friend Paul, who is likely Paul Metzler, a man I spoke to for my book project.
Paul had a lot of nice things to say about Bill, but I recall the most touching story he shared was the one about a letter he received from my grandmother (Bill’s mother) a few months after Bill died in the car accident.
Paul told me how touched he was to receive the letter from the woman who had just lost her son. “It was a beautiful letter,” he said to me. “It broke my heart.”
Paul and Bill mustered out of the Army together and flew from San Francisco back east upon their departure from the service.
In another letter, Bill makes a reference to two soldiers from his unit who were killed while taking the camp garbage to a dump.
“Then yesterday we are here in base camp. Two guys made the trash run and there was fifteen VC inside the perimeter and killed them at the dump. That sure makes you feel funny.” Letter dated March 15, 1967 and postmarked March 19, 1967.
Those two men were Tom Nickerson and Clint Smith. I learned their story from the man who helped me research and find some of the soldiers who knew my uncle.
I found their names along with other soldiers my Uncle knew on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC in 2012.
Bill closed all his letters to my aunt Betty in the same way: So long for this time, Bill. From the Newvine Family Collection.
The story of Bill Newvine: son, brother, uncle, friend, and Vietnam War veteran continues to be told. These letters my Aunt Betty saved for nearly fifty years offer another side to this forever young man. Betty’s forethought to keep the letters is a special gift.
Bill Newvine, a typically quiet person, learned to survive during his time in Vietnam. Whether it was defending the honor of a woman in a barroom, or taking out an enemy Vietcong soldier bent on doing the same thing to him, he fought and endured.
From the letters this seemingly shy young man wrote, it is apparent that Bill perhaps expressed himself best with the written word. His letters are part of his legacy.
Steve Newvine lives in Merced.
He is including a new chapter about the letters his uncle wrote in the second printing of the book Finding Bill.
Central Valley Honor Flight- A Tale of Two Men
A World War II serviceman is paired with a Valley man on a trip of a lifetime
Foy Foster and his Honor Flight Guardian Jerry Jackson. Photo by Vaune Newvine)
Jerry Jackson is a history buff with a special fascination for World War II. His passion for the brave soldiers who served during the war led him to a fund raising dinner for Central Valley Honor Flight, the non-profit organization that has been taking World War II veterans to Washington, DC to see the memorials to our service men and women.
“I have a particular interest in the European theater,” Jerry told me. “My grandfather served there during the war.”
Jerry’s interest in his grandfather’s service, coupled with a weekly radio program airing in the Central Valley, buttoned up his desire to take the next step to learn more about Honor Flight.
“Paul Loeffler put a face and a voice to my interest in World War II through his weekly radio program, Hometown Heroes”, Jerry said. The radio program airs on a Fresno radio station. All the interviews with World War II veterans are archived on the Hometown Heroes website.
Jerry attended a fund raising event for the organization and soon discovered he wanted to volunteer for Honor Flight as a guardian for the next mission of Central Valley Honor Flight.
Guardians serve their assigned veteran throughout their Honor Flight experience. With most living World War II veterans now in their eighties and nineties, it’s important that they have someone at their side throughout the duration of the trip.
“We’re told right up front that we stay with our veteran throughout the trip,” Jerry said. “We are there to serve them.”
Jerry’s desire to serve Honor Flight came with a big barrier. The volunteer guardians are asked to contribute one-thousand dollars toward their own cost to fly to and stay in the nations’ capitol. As the father of three, with two in school and living at home, that contribution might have been the deal killer.
“I told my wife I wanted to go, but that I shouldn’t because of the cost,” he said. “She suggested starting a Go Fund Me campaign on-line.”
That on-line fundraising effort paid off for Jerry. Family and friends were enthusiastic in their support and made contributions. The success of his campaign on Go Fund Me, coupled with a family yard sale, got him to the point where he could do it. Soon, he had the money to make the contribution.
He got vacation time off from his job working for the Madera County Public Works department. The next step was to meet the veteran he would be accompanying to Washington.
About two weekends before the Honor Flight left, Jerry met his veteran.
Veterans, their Honor Flight guardians, and other volunteers assemble at Castle Airport in Atwater, Merced County. Photo by Steve Newvine
He’s Foy Foster
Foy served in the Army Air Corp as a bombardier in a B-24. He flew 35 missions out of England in the 734th Squadron of the 453rd Bomb Group. Jerry met Foy at the veteran’s home. Jerry took Foy to an informational meeting and dinner held in Atwater.
“He’s a great guy,” Jerry said. “After meeting him I told friends I’m looking forward to our trip.”
Foy Foster is indeed a great guy. In an interview for the radio program Hometown Heroes, Foy described his war experiences.
He enlisted in the Army Air Force as soon as heard of the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941.
“I was overcome with patriotism, and I couldn’t imagine our country being attacked like that,” he told Hometown Heroes host Paul Loeffler. “After basic training in San Antonio, I was sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico for bombardier school. I got my wings in 1942 as a Second Lieutenant."
While he was a cadet in Albuquerque, he was chosen to sit in the co-pilot’s seat for a mission.
In the pilot’s seat was film star Jimmy Stewart
“He was very nervous all the time,” Foy said. “He kept telling me to keep my eyes moving and watch out for other planes.”
Stewart made the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life after leaving his service in World War II.
“Colonel Stewart was so skinny,” Foy told Hometown Heroes. “He was a great guy.”
Right around the same time as his encounters with the Hollywood actor, Foy became an instructor for six months in the southwest. He would later volunteer for overseas duty. He then became an instructor for B-17 pilots, and then chosen as a staff officer for a newly formed 453rd Bomb Group flying B-24s.
“We were so busy for about four months teaching,” Foy said. “We were anxious for the real thing.”
“I remember our first mission out of England to France, it was all new to us,” he said. “In later (missions) we had flack, pieces of metal, throughout the air. Every minute over Nazi Germany we were under attack.”
Foy also took part in D-Day. He told Hometown Heroes:
“We had to gear up and leave at midnight for a bombing at daybreak. .. We met up with the others over England. There were planes everywhere. .. Our first mission was to drop bombs on the German army. We flew back to England, reloaded, and flew back…That first day we did three missions.”
Foy endured the loss of his flight crew (he was grounded on that particular mission due to a bad cold), as well as attacks by friendly fire.
He served honorably. Upon his return to the states, he went to college, married, and raised a family.
And now, he’s on a final mission to pay his respects to his lost comrades and to accept the thanks from a grateful nation.
A grateful crowd wishes the Central Valley Honor Flight participants a safe trip. Photo by Vaune Newvine
Central Valley Honor Flight departed Monday morning, October 19 from the air strip at the former Castle Air Force Base. The veterans and their guardians were greeted by what some described as the largest send-off crowd in the short history of Honor Flight.
This current group of Honor Flight honorees is made up of sixty-one men and two women. They come from all over the Central Valley, with some thirteen counties represented on this trip.
For guardian Jerry Jackson and his assigned veteran Foy Foster, a friendship has started. They are two men bound together for a trip to honor the men and women who gave so much by defending our nation.
To hear the entire Foy Foster interview from Hometown Heroes, go to: http://www.hometownheroesradio.com/episodes/ Scroll down to episode 161
For more on Central Valley Honor Flight, go to: http://www.cvhonorflight.org/
Steve Newvine lives in Merced
He has written Finding Bill, a story about his uncle who served in Vietnam.
Around the Valley with a Total Reading Time of Five Minutes
What the drought looks like at the former Stevinson Ranch golf course, why visitors love spending time at Hilmar Cheese Visitor Center, and a special designation for Our Lady of Mercy Church in Merced.
Photo by Steve Newvine
There are many signs of what the drought has done to the Central Valley. Drive through any residential neighborhood and you will find brown lawns and dirty cars. It is not surprising to go out to dinner at a local restaurant and see a sign that says “water served on request” as managers comply with California law.
The photograph at the top of this column shows the former hole number one at one of my favorite golf courses, Stevinson Ranch, before it closed in July. Rich green fairways lured golfers to this out-of-the-way world class course for several years. Management closed the course in July due to a drop in business coupled with the ever increasing need for irrigation water.
Now take a look at that same golf hole two months after the watering stopped.
Photo by Steve Newvine
This is What the Drought Looks Like in our Valley
Turning off the irrigation at a golf course pales in comparison to the thousands of acres of farmland throughout the state that have been shut down from production. The valley has gone through a very rough dry patch. Let’s hope we’ve seen the worst of it.
Photo by Steve Newvine
Hilmar Cheese Factory
After nearly a decade living in Merced County, I finally got to see the visitor center at Hilmar Cheese. Every year, the Center at 9001 Lander Avenue, welcomes more than 15,000 school students for field trips, at least 300 tour buses, and thousands of others.
Inside, there are displays showing the basics of cheese production. But as many of us know, making the dairy product at Hilmar Cheese is a sophisticated process. According to an environmental news website, the company employed nearly eight-hundred workers in Hilmar in 2010, with more employees at a facility in Texas. Hilmar Cheese turns out two tons of cheese daily.
The visitor center offers a welcoming environment for families, includes a gift shop, and offers a tribute to the agriculture industry in the valley. It’s worth the trip
Photo by Steve Newvine
Holy Year of Mercy
Finally, Our Lady of Mercy Church in Merced is set to welcome visitors from throughout California over the next twelve months.
Pope Francis has named the 2016 church year as the “Holy Year of Mercy”. The official name is the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
In the Diocese of Fresno, Bishop Armando Ochoa has designated Our Lady of Mercy as a “stationary church for the faithful” during the year of mercy. It’s expected the Bishop will authorize special Mass times and services throughout the church year, which runs from December 8, 2015 through November 20, 2016. The Our Lady of Mercy Preservation Foundation receives contributions for the upkeep of the church. A fund raiser was recently held at St. Patrick’s Parish Hall.
The church expects many visitors to come to Our Lady of Mercy over the next twelve months. The church is located at 459 W. 21st Street in Merced.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/hilmar-cheese
Thank You for Hiring Me
Labor Day is set aside to honor the virtue of hard work. It’s a day off for many folks, and just another day at the job site for many others. In the northeastern United States, Labor Day signaled the end of the summer vacation season.
Growing up in upstate New York, my first day of school was traditionally on the Tuesday following Labor Day.The Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy was held on Labor Day weekend up until a few years ago.
But if the first Monday in September is set aside to bring attention to our labor force, a day should be set aside to draw attention to the people who have done the hiring. These owners, managers, human resource professionals, and others deserve some sort of call out.
I occasionally think of the people who hired me for several jobs I held over many years.
Newvine Personal Collection
When my broadcasting career was launched at a small radio station, a man named Dave hired me at the end of a short interview for a weekend announcer. He needed someone fast, and with a recommendation from another staff person who knew me, the job was offered on a Friday without the standard voice audition. It was accepted immediately by me and I was on the air that weekend.
My first television job
A man named Mark gave me my first television reporter job.
He’s in the picture at the top of this column.Mark had several candidates from which to choose. After an in-person interview, I waited about a week before receiving his call that included points about the salary, benefits, and the expected working shift.
He did everything except offer me the job. He told me he would have to run his choice past the station manager and that if everything went well, he would call me the next day. I slept only three hours that night and waited all day long the next day for the call.
It finally came at 6:30 PM. The job was offered and I accepted on the spot.
When I switched careers in the mid-1990s, a man named Joe headed the search committee for the job of executive director at a chamber of commerce. The decision was not entirely his, but as the chairman of the committee, his view carried considerable weight. He saw some potential of bringing someone from a different field of work into an organization. I remember the phrase “transferrable skills” was used by him on several occasions.
Thirteen years later, a woman named Mary made the difference in my professional career by again seeing the potential of “transferable skills” to position me in a new role helping local governments save energy.
I try to call her every year on my work anniversary date to thank her for that leap of faith.
It’s important to be ready to work.
We hear a lot about education, job training and the so-called “soft” skills such as promptness, following through, and good customer service.
All of this matters. But when I think back on the successes I’ve had in getting hired in the first place, I always get back to the person who made the decision to invest their company’s resources in me.
They could have hired someone else. But something spoke to their decision-making process and helped swing the pendulum in my direction.
For that judgment, I say thank you!
We rightly focus a lot of effort in the direction toward finding and keeping a job. As we take a day off to celebrate Labor Day this year, I urge you to spend a little time remembering the people who said those two magic words:
You’re hired!
Steve Newvine lives in Merced and serves as the immediate Past Chair of the Merced County Workforce Investment Board.
His book Soft Skills in Hard Times is dedicated to the people who hired him at various jobs over the years.You may read a preview of the book at:http://www.lulu.com/shop/steve-newvine/soft-skills-for-hard-times-new-forward-teens-in-the-20-teens/paperback/product-20506951.html
Housekeeping with Golf, Graffiti, and a Good Friend
In this case, there’s some new information on a previous column that may be of interest. I also have an update on a column topic that I have tapped two other times in the past year. And the final item is about a good friend of mine.
The last time I did a housekeeping column, I thanked Modesto Bee writer Jim Agostino for the concept, especially for the phrase at the beginning of the piece telling the reader approximately how long it will take to read.
In this case, the estimated reading time is four minutes.
Stevinson Ranch Golf Course Flag, Photo by Newvine Personal Collection
Stevinson Ranch Golf Course just sent out an email to the people who were regular subscribers of their email service telling us that memorabilia from the course is for sale.
The course closed in July
People can buy flags from the putting greens for $20 each. The remaining golf hole signs, carved into wood and showing the layout of a particular hole, are selling for $100 each.
I took a picture of one of those flags when I played there for the last time a couple of months ago. My souvenirs from that course are the memories it gave me over the last couple of seasons when I returned there after an extended absence.
A flag would be nice, but I’d rather look ahead to the next challenging golf course that becomes my favorite.
Frankly, the whole story about Stevinson closing is kind of sad.
The owners did what they had to do. I don’t blame them.
I accept their business decision, but I now have a round to play somewhere else.
Mail Pouch Tobacco barn
Mail Pouch Barn, South Merced, Photo from Newvine Personal Collection
Do you remember the column that posted in April of 2014 - CLICK HERE on the Mail Pouch Tobacco restored barn sign on highway 99 south of Merced?
That column got a lot of shares and a lot of hits for which I am grateful.
I did an update a few months later - -"Barn Signs and Bureaucracy Collide in Mail Pouch Sign Controversy "- when I learned that the state transportation agency Cal Trans was forcing the barn’s owner to have the advertisement painted on one side of the building removed.
Cal Trans says that’s because the ad violated some rule regarding distance from the highway to where the advertising is displayed.
The rule seemed silly at the time and I said so. I believe I used the word “bureaucratic”.
The state of California ruled that the sign for Brent Jerner’s APG Solar company had to be painted over.
Ironically, if it wasn’t for Brent, the restoration would not have happened in the first place. He was the one who secured a grant from a non-profit agency that paid for a local artist to do the restoration.
The update to the story is even sillier than the bureaucracy I described in that second column on the Mail Pouch barn last year. The side of the barn with the solar company advertisement that had to be painted over is now covered with graffiti.
I’m not showing a picture of that because I don’t like giving graffiti trespassers the exposure they seek.
But to Cal Trans and their bureaucratic decision to take something positive and turn it into a negative, I do say “what do you think of the barn now?”
My first Merced friend
Steve Newvine and Jim North, Photo from Newvine Personal Collection
And finally, a personal note about the man I call my first friend in Merced.
Jim North met me at a golf outing at Stevinson Ranch about nine years ago. I was new to the community, and we were lumped into a foursome.
Little did I know that pairing would last all these years.
Jim was an Air Force veteran. He was one of many who came to Merced County to serve at Castle Air Base. After building a life with his family here, he made the community his home.
Upon leaving the military, Jim owned and operated the Hot Diggity Dog food cart seen at many community events.
Jim and I played golf on a number of occasions over the years. I’ll never forget a day at Rancho Del Rey in Atwater when I pulled out a ball that was part of a dozen given to me by a friend from upstate New York.
I told Jim the whole story and he listened patiently as I explained how this ball from a good friend, how it the last ball in a box of twelve, and how it had my name and birthday stamped on it in honor of my fiftieth birthday.
I then hit the ball into a pond. Jim looked at me, smiled and said, “Well, Happy Birthday I guess.”
Jim and his family have had a rough year.
I hope that story brings a smile to them because I still smile every time I think about it. Steve Newvine lives in Merced
A Journey with Rotary to the Paul Harris Fellowship
Paul Harris was a Chicago area attorney at the turn of the last century. Believing that a lot of positive things could happen when business people got together and worked collaboratively, he founded the service organization now known as Rotary International.
While the logo for Rotary is a gear wheel, the name actually represents the original meeting tradition of rotating the site of the weekly meeting among the members’ places of business.
The Paul Harris Fellowship was created to recognize contributors to The Rotary Foundation: the arm of the international service club that funds all kinds of humanitarian projects around the world.Most notable among these projects has been the elimination of polio worldwide through vaccinations in third world countries.
Rotary identified that universal goal of eliminating the disease and with the laser focus of a well-organized business, took on the challenge and achieved the goal.
While Paul Harris Fellows are recognized for reaching designated levels of support, contributors may also name someone else as a Fellow in recognition of that individual’s special achievements.
What makes this designation special for me is that I have not been an active Rotarian for the past eight years.I asked for inactive membership status when I changed jobs and knew that the travel requirement would make it nearly impossible for me to attend regular meetings of my Rotary club.
I had been in Rotary since 1995, serving in three clubs over an eleven-year period.I was President of my club in upstate New York for a one-year term.
When I asked to be moved to inactive status, I knew that Rotary would not be as big a part of my life now as it was before. But I believed in the Rotary Foundation.Wiping out polio worldwide was an achievable goal and the organization was primed to make that happen; and it did.
There have been other projects that are just as significant.When the Indian Ocean tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004, Rotary was there to help in the aftermath.Safer water for parts of the world where that just doesn’t happen has been a priority in recent years.
Rotary has been to earthquake worn areas within hours of the initial shocks.There are hundreds, of projects where Rotary International stepped to the plate, rolled up some sleeves and got down to the business of helping people.
So when it was clear to me that I would not be an active Rotarian as least through the duration of my current job, I did experience a sense of loss.At practically every Rotary meeting, someone mentions the work of Rotary and the need to support the Rotary Foundation. During my first ten years in Rotary, I heard lots of speeches about the work of the Foundation.
But during those early years, there were other demands on my family. About all I could do then was make a few token donations.
In the end, it was a twenty-year journey from becoming a member of Rotary International to achieving the Paul Harris Fellowship. While I haven’t been part of a local club in nearly a decade, I remain very proud of the journey and very blessed to be part of the effort that is stated so clearly in the organization’s Four-Way Test:is it the truth, it is fair to all, will it build goodwill, and will it be beneficial.
For more on Rotary International, go to www.rotary.org
Community Spirit Makes a Team’s Dream Come True
Meet the Titans Elite baseball team.They are an age twelve-and-under local travel team made up of players from Merced, Atwater, Chowchilla, and LeGrand. The team has played in tournaments sanctioned by the United States Specialty Sports Association. (USSSA)
A travel team is defined as a group of really good players, sometimes playing for different teams, who form a stand-alone team.This year, the Titans Elite set out to play the game they love in a ballpark connected to baseball tradition.
They did that, and much more.
Back in 2013, the team put in an application to play in a tournament held in Cooperstown, New York.
We know that Cooperstown is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.It is also the home of the Cooperstown Dreams Park, a premier destination for travel teams.
The park has twenty-two fields, and the week the Titans played, they were among one-hundred-and-four teams competing from all over the United States.
The tournament was played in early June.The team left central California on June 5th and returned June 11th.
Playing is not cheap.The cost for each player is $895.The same rate applies for coaches. When you add in airfare and other expenses for the week, it was both a distinguished honor and a high price tag to play.The cost for each player for this dream week at the home of baseball was approximately $1,600.
That’s where the community came into play.Coach Kent Floro says the commitment by the players’ families combined with the generosity from the local business community and others helped make it all possible.
Money was raised from local businesses, service clubs such as Merced Breakfast Lions and North Merced Rotary, along with other organizations and individuals who made contributions.
Kent provided me with the details of the Titan’s performances on the field in Cooperstown.
Teams representing twenty states were represented in the tournament.The Titans finished in the top twenty-five among the one-hundred-and-four teams.
On the first day of the tournament, they defeated the Mid-Atlantic Shockers from Maryland 19 to 3.Later that day, they beat Thunder Academy from Colorado 21 to 5.
On the second day, the Titans defeated the Salt City Sox of Utah 11 to 2.Later on day two, they defeated the SBA Life Heat from Florida 8 to 5.
It was then on to day three of the tournament and another Florida team.The Titans beat the PL (Pembroke Lakes) Bulldogs of Florida 12 to 8.Kent says this was a great game for the Titans.
“The Bulldogs are one of top teams in the tournament and were ranked number three in the state of Florida.”
The Titans first loss came after that game when they came up short to the Germantown, Tennessee Giants 13 to 5.
“That was the one game I thought we should have won,” Coach Floro said. “But I think the emotion that it took to beat the Bulldogs earlier combined with the players being a little worn out from the trip all hit at once.”
Then came the single elimination playoffs; single elimination meaning that once you lose, you are out of the tournament.In the first round, the Titans advanced by defeating the Longwood Longballers from Florida 14 to 2.The next step in the playoffs pitted the Titans against the number five top-ranked team: the Utah Marshalls.The Titans were defeated 18 to 5.
“Titans Elite did outstanding in this tournament,” Coach Floro said. “We are from a small area while many of the other teams were picked from large metropolitan areas or an entire state.”It’s believed some of the teams flew in players to help them on the single-elimination part of the tournament.
The week was full of excitement with many of the young players living away from their families for the first time in their lives.The players had a great experience in the home of baseball. “They represented our community both by playing exceptional baseball and as real gentleman while we were in the camp,” Kent told me.
The week started with a flight from the west coast to the east coast.After ground transportation from the airport to Cooperstown, the players were sealed away at the camp where they stayed throughout the tournament. Parents could not come into the camp area after the first day.From Friday night until Thursday night the following week, players and coaches were together playing the game they love on their field of dreams.
Visitors cannot go to the village that is the home of baseball without taking in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.Part of the Titans Elite week in Central New York included a day at the Hall of Fame.They saw the plaques of Hall of Fame members, viewed displays of iconic pieces of major league baseball history and took in the natural ambiance that defines this very special place.
Everyone agreed that as great as the Hall of Fame is, no one can truly appreciate all it has to offer the baseball fan in just a one-day visit.
One of the visitors from the Central Valley expressed his feelings from visiting the Hall of Fame in just one word, “Awesome.”
The group likely got a break from the poor summertime air quality in the Valley.Upstate New York, especially in rural areas such as Cooperstown, has some of the cleanest air in the United States.
They probably saw upstate New York agriculture, which is primarily dairy farming.They saw many hills and lots of deep green foliage.New York State, as well as most of the northeast United States, has no drought worries with above-average annual precipitation.
So while the run to the top ended with the loss to the Tennessee team, the Titans Elite can look back on several stunning individual achievements.
Kadon Floro (Coach Kent’s son) made the final round of the Home Run Derby and ended up finishing tied for fifth place. Kadon also had a .520 batting average for the tournament.Other high batting averages were:Hunter Stonier ( .500), Jake Sapien (.435), Gerald Braxton( .409), Danny Murphy (.350), and Aaron Martinez(.300).Home run leaders among the Titans for the tournament included:Kadon Florio with five,Aaron Martinez with four, and Jake Sapien with three. Hunter Stonier, Fernando Ruvalcaba, Gerald Braxton, Cooper Lanz, Cole Schortzmann and Michael Trejo all had one home run each in the tournament. Antonio Cortez and Gerald Braxton teamed up to pitch an outstanding game against the PL Bulldogs.
The Titans came back from their adventure in upstate New York with some outstanding accomplishments that made the communities of Merced, Atwater, Chowchilla and LeGrand proud.Ranking fifth among one-hundred-and-four teams in a national tournament is quite a feat.
And there’s more to come for the Titans Elite.They have another national tournament coming up in late October that will be played in Las Vegas.
Tournament batting averages, home run tallies, and pitching achievements notwithstanding, the real prize from their week in Cooperstown can be summed up by Coach Floro.
“It was a memory of a lifetime.”
MEET THE TITANS ELITE
Gerald Braxton
Louie Ceja
Antonio Cortez
Kadon Floro
Cooper Lanz
Aaron Martinez Jr.
Daniel Murphy II
Nathan Richards
Fernando Ruvalcaba Jr.
Jake Sapien
Cole Schortzmann
Hunter Stonier
Michael Trejo
Coaches: Kent Floro, Neal Richards, Vince Sapien, Tony Cortez, Aaron Martinez
For more on the Cooperstown Dreams Park, visit www.cooperstowndreamspark.com
Steve Newvine lives in Merced and grew up in a small town about eighty miles north of Cooperstown.He is indebted to Ken Stonier for leading him to the story that became this column.
Polaroid Memories-Instant and Enduring Photographs
As you can see in this photograph, some winters were extra snowy in upstate New York when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. That’s my brother Terry and me standing on top of the snowbank with the road sign at waist level. The family car, a 1964 Pontiac Star Chief (a topic of a Merced Sun Star essay I wrote about five years ago) is parked below.
This is just one of dozens of photographs my Dad took with the Polaroid camera he received as a Christmas gift from my Mom back when I was growing up.Mom rightfully deserves the title of Queen of the Camera in our household, but with her Christmas gift to her husband, we had a King of the Camera for all things Polaroid.
Cameras were originally the domain of professional photographers in the mid to late 1800s.George Eastman’s Kodak cameras took photography to the casual user in the late 1800s.Edwin Land’s invention of the Polaroid in the late 1940s, changed personal photography again by making it possible to see the picture shortly after it was captured by the camera.
One can only wonder what either inventor would think about today’s imaging processes with digital cameras and cell phones that can take pictures.
Keep in mind that a Polaroid camera, and the capacity to deliver a photograph within sixty seconds of taking the picture, was high tech for the early 1970s.Back then, it seemed as though everyone in the family was impressed at the magic that would come out of that small shoebox sized camera.
I remember that if black and white film was in the camera, the picture could be treated with some kind of substance that prevented the photo paper from curling.If the more expensive color film was being used, the picture would be mounted on a sticky-back card.
This shot of my Mom and sister Becky celebrating their birthdays was typical of the kinds of pictures taken during my years growing up.Usually on the evening of a birthday, some of our cousins and other family members would join the birthday celebration.
Neither my Mom nor my sister seemed to mind sharing the spotlight when their birthdays (spaced one day apart) would come around.As you can see from the look on my sister’s face, birthday celebrations were a happy time.
In addition to birthday parties, our family albums were filled with photos documenting holidays, graduations, confirmations, vacations, and other special events.
My parents also took pictures of ordinary events such as a card party in our kitchen or a game of croquet played in our backyard.
When I visit my boyhood home, I take one of several photo albums to the local drug store and scan as many pictures as I can.
My Dad let someone else shoot this Polaroid picture of him on vacation in front of our camper trailer.All of our summer vacations during my years growing up involved packing up the trailer, and heading off to one of several State parks for a weekend in the wilderness.
Usually at the beginning and end of the summer school vacation, we’d take the trailer out for a weeklong vacation.Anyone who has done this knows that while it can be a challenge packing for the extended time away from home, setting up the campsite, and then living with one another in close quarters, it could also be a lot of fun.
At one place in the Adirondacks, Golden Beach State Park in Raquette Lake, several families from my hometown would head out to the campsites during the same week.For that particular vacation, it felt like we were never really away from home with all the family and neighbors who joined us.
Fortunately for me, a lot of those memories live on thanks to the many photographs my Mom took on her Kodak Brownie, and my Dad shot on his Polaroid camera.
Steve’s 2010 essay on the family Pontiac was included in his book Microphones, Moon Rocks, and Memories.To read that essay and a few others from that book, follow this link and click “Preview” under the cover image:
To explore Steve Newvine's complete collection of books, simply click on the link below.
CLICK HERE
Steve is also open to delivering speeches for service club programs and other public speaking engagements.
Contact him at: SteveNewvine@sbcglobal.net