Citigroup Foundation Donates $10,000
For Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Financial Literacy Program in San Juan Capistrano

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CALIF., January 30, 2009 – The Citigroup Foundation has donated $10,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County to offer a financial literacy program to Little Brothers and Little Sisters involved in the organization’s school-based program at San Juan Elementary School in San Juan Capistrano. The program meets after school weekly, and pairs a teen mentor to an elementary school student in need.
“We’re grateful to Citigroup for allowing us to offer this program to our youth for a second year,” remarked Gus Valdespino, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County. “It’s been a successful element of our program in San Juan, and we’re pleased we have the opportunity to continue it.”

Mentors Needed – A Big Brother or Big Sister acts as a friend and mentor in the life of a child in need, or Little Brother or Little Sister, ages 6-16. Orange County has a great need for mentors, especially men. There are 110,000 single parent households in Orange County, a quarter of which are living in poverty. There are over 250 children waiting to be matched to a Big Brother or Big Sister.

Celebrating Solstice at Farm School
As explained by the Big Kids

Winter is a time when a lot of people celebrate. The Farm School chooses to celebrate Winter Solstice because it is not a specific religious holiday like Christmas or Hanukkah. Solstice is the longest night of the year.
During the winter every year the teachers and our Music teacher, Anne come up with a theme for Solstice. After they decide on a theme, they find songs that are related to it. In Music class all the kids practice the songs over and over until they’re memorized. This past year the theme was friends and friendship, and the year before that the theme was peace. At the celebration, the Little Kids and the Big Kids perform the songs that they have learned over the past month in our music class.
A couple weeks before the celebration during Art class all the kids make presents for their friends and family. This is called Elf Workshop. The Big Kids design and teach crafts to the Little Kids. But before that, everyone makes a list of people for whom they want to make gifts. After the gifts are made, they are wrapped and put under the Friendship Tree.
On the day of Solstice there are many things to do. The Little Kids and Big Kids do a full rehearsal, like all the audience is in front of them. After that presents from the Solstice Fairy and from Elf Workshop are opened.
When the celebration starts. Everyone brings in dishes for the potluck. The families gather. The students gather together in the multipurpose room and walk on stage. The students’ nerves are high. And then it’s show time. The Big Kids and Little Kids sing their songs to the audience. It is a jaw dropping performance. After the performances we have goodbyes and speeches by the staff, then the potluck starts and the Big Kids serve the food and everyone loves it.
After everyone eats, they clean up and go home with happy feelings about winter break and sad feelings about people leaving for a long time.

To learn more about Farm School please visit our website at www.ocfarmschool.org or email us at info@ocfarmschool.org to find out how much your child can enjoy learning.

Manzanar Pilgrimage Photographs from the Manzanar National Historic Site 1983-2008 by Mark Kirchner

at Soka University’s Founders Hall Art Gallery February 1- May 15, 2009

Gallery hours: M-F, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Free Admission www.soka.edu/gallery

Directions: www.soka.edu/directions

Opening Reception

Thursday, February 12, 2009

5:30 – 8:30 p.m.

ALISO VIEJO, CA – Manzanar Pilgrimage – Photographs from the Manzanar National Historic Site 1983-2008, a collection of seventy black and white images by noted Newport Beach artist Mark Kirchner, documents the ongoing cultural legacy of the 1942 internment of 11,061 citizens of Japanese descent by the United States at Manzanar Relocation Center in Owens Valley, California. This exhibition opens at Soka University’s Founders Hall Art Gallery at 1 University Drive in Aliso Viejo, California from February 1st through May 15, 2009. Admission is free M-F from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. The public is invited to an opening reception on Thursday, February 12th, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. See www.soka.edu/directions for a map and directions.

About the Artist

The Manzanar Pilgrimage Photographic Exhibition reveals through observation and witness, a personal inquiry into an almost forgotten moment of American history and the perseverance, struggle and spirit of the Japanese American community

Mark Kirchner “makes records that are subtle in nature but full of inference”. He is a photographer that “weaves” images to explore the rich meanings and insights of cultural process, history and identity. The photographs are of surprising variety, including minute pencil inscriptions, portraits, traditional Japanese gardens, vast landscapes and photographs from the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. The photographs also include historical personalities that have strong associations with the Manzanar Pilgrimage: Sue Embrey, Rose Ochi, Warren Furutani, Harry Ueno and Elaine and Karl Yoneda. Anyone viewing the photographs will recognize that the content of the photographs would take years to accumulate and in fact the earliest examples date to the 1980s.

The careful observer will also see evidence of the slow decay of the site since it’s abandonment after World War II and the gradual transformation through restoration projects, community involvement and the site’s incorporation into the National Park System.

On a fateful road trip as a young boy, Mark Kirchner was drawn to the steep granite geology of the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range. In 1983, he revisited the Owens Valley as a young adult and discovered the entrance to the Manzanar War Relocation Center, just off highway 395 and the old sentry buildings with their pagoda style roofs. Closer inspection of the site revealed household artifacts, inscribed names, dates and the camp cemetery. He unknowing had invaded the history and private world of the 110,000 Japanese-Americans relocated into ten armed internment camps after the outbreak of World War II in 1942 and was hooked.

Kirchner was inspired as a photographer by his studies with Ansel Adams when Adams was 77 years of age. While in high school in 1979, he was the youngest student admitted into Adam’s legendary Yosemite Workshop and years later worked for Adams as an group leader. Ansel inspired Kirchner’s photographic craft and awakened him to the potential value and role that photographs have to inspire and educate. Coincidentally, Adams made political inference against the internment when he photographed Manzanar in 1943.

Kirchner graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1985 where he studied photography, and visual anthropology with photographer/social scientist John Collier Jr. By chance Collier as a young man had been apprenticed to study photography with Dorothea Lange who made the iconic photograph “Migrant Mother” and other memorable great depression photos. In 1942 Lange was hired by the War Relocation Authority to photograph Japanese neighborhoods, WRA processing centers, and the Manzanar internment camp and later had her work censored by the same hiring entity.

Of all Manzanar photographers, Kirchner reveres Toyo Miyatake. Miyatake, an intern himself, had the courage to document the humanity within the barbed wire fence that surrounded Manzanar. He made his photographs with a camera built within the camp using a lens and film holder that was smuggled into the camp. Since all recording devices had been confiscated, Miyatake risked being further confined in a federal prison. Coincidentally, Kirchner was asked to “make a picture” of a visiting couple on his first trip to Manzanar. It turned out to be Miyatake’s son Archie and his wife Takeko. Archie asked Kirchner to make the photograph on the same spot where Toyo had taken their photograph some forty years earlier as high school sweethearts.

Today, Kirchner continues photographing cultural and sociological interests and teaches photography at Soka University of America.

Artist Statement

“The process of witnessing the pilgrimages over many years has given me the time to attempt a holistic photographic document. Within this body of work I hope to make visible those brief moments when the human spirit is revealed.”

Students and other activists organized the first group pilgrimage to Manzanar in 1969 and that lead to the creation of the Manzanar Committee. For over 39 years, the Manzanar Committee and other groups have fought for the protection of the site. This effort included the placement of the California Historical Marker #850 in 1971, its listing as a National Historic Landmark (1985) and its current designation as Manzanar National Historic Site. The National Park Service now administers Manzanar. This year marks the 40th annual Manzanar Pilgrimage that will be held on April 25, 2009. For more information on the pilgrimage contact the committee at www.manzanarcommittee.org.

Soka University of America is a private, non-profit four-year liberal arts college and graduate school offering a 9:1 student/faculty ratio and study abroad for all undergraduate students. SUA features a non-sectarian curriculum and is open to top students of all nationalities. About half of Soka’s students come from the United States and half from 30 other countries. Soka University is founded upon the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights and the sanctity of life and is located on 103-acres in Aliso Viejo, CA.

ANHS Community

Below is a calendar of ASB-related events for the second semester of the school year. The calendar does not include every event ASB will host, and some of the event dates may change. Please refer to the activities section of alisoniguel.com to find updates of this calendar each month.

Aliso Niguel ASB Activities Calendar

Date
Event
Time
Location

2/3-2/6/2009
Val-o-Grams on Sale
Lunch
Quad

2/4/2009
ASB E-Council and Class Council Packets Available
Lunch
ASB Room

2/6/2009
ASB E-Council and Class Council Interest Meeting
Lunch
ASB Room

2/10-2/11/2009
ASB Club Rush 2
Lunch
Quad

2/11/2009
Val-o-Grams delivered to 3rd period classes

2/12/2009
ASB E-Council and Class Council Packets Due
Lunch
ASB Room

2/17/2009
2nd Semester Back to School Night
6:00 PM

2/17-2/27/09
ASB E-Council and Class Council Campaign

2/23/2009
ASB Commissioner Packets Available
Lunch
ASB Room

2/24/2009
ASB Commissioner Interest Meeting
Lunch
ASB Room

2/25/2009
Class Competition
Lunch
Pit

2/27/2009
ASB E-Council and Class Council Elections
Lunch
Quad

3/3/2009
ASB Commissioner Packets Due
Lunch
ASB Room

3/5/2009
Jostens – Service Day – Deliver Rings
Lunch
Quad

3/9-3/13/09
ASB Commissioner Interviews

Upstairs Staff Lounge

3/16-3/20/2009
Multicultural Week
Lunch
Quad

3/20/2009
Multicultural Fair
Lunch
Quad

3/26/2009
Jostens – Deliver Announcements
Lunch
Quad

3/27/2009
Spring Pep Rally (No Tutorial)
3rd Period
Main Gym

3/27/2009
Spring Dance
7:00 PM
Main Gym

4/6-4/10/2009
Spring Break (No School)

4/14/2009
Jostens – Deliver Announcements
Lunch
Quad

4/20/2009
Blood Drive
All Day
Small Gym

4/23/2009
Motivational Speaker
4th Period
Main Gym

5/4-5/15/2009
Advanced Placement Testing (No Events Scheduled)

5/14/2009
Senior Picnic
All Day
Knott’s Berry Farm

5/19/2009
Esprit de Wolverine
6:30 PM
Main Gym

5/22/2009
Car Show
Lunch
Main Parking Lot

6/3/2009
Senior Awards
6:30 PM
Main Gym

6/5/2009
Senior Send-Off Pep Rally
3rd Period
Main Gym

6/6/2009
Prom
7:00 PM
SeaCliff Country Club

6/16/2009
Jostens – Deliver Caps And Gowns
9:00 AM
Food Court

6/17/2009
Senior Brunch
11:00 AM
Laguna Niguel Regional Park

6/18/2009
Graduation
5:00 PM
Stadium

Eric Paulsen

Activities Director

Aliso Niguel High School

28000 Wolverine Way

Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

Fax: (949) 448-9854