Colton Courier 11/17/22

e eekkllyy

The City of Colton held i t s a n n u a l Ve t e r a n s D a y P a r a d e o n November 11th, which began on O Street, before conclud ing at Fleming Park with a recognition ceremony

A little over four dozen local veterans were recognized and honored with a certificate for

their dedication, selflessness, and bravery in serving in the United States Armed Forces

As a handful of floats rolled through the middle of Colton, about 200 onlookers cheered on the parade participants and showed their appreciation by proudly donning red, white, and blue

“The event began with the Color Guard initiating the 21 gun salute and presenting the colors in front of local digni taries, veterans, and the pub lic Colton and Grand Terrace High School walked with the floats in the parade, it was really cool to see,” said Colton Photographer Alex Sanchez

While there were only about f o u r d e c o r a t e d f l o a t s , t h e floats that were present were intricately put together fea t u r i n g i m a g e s o f v e t e r a n s , flags, banners, and more

To learn more about the city o f C o l t o n , v i s i t ci colton ca us

By Dr. G (Dr Luis S González), community writer

photo ALEX SANCHEZ

About four dozen veterans from across the City of Colton Were recognized and honored on stage at Fleming park on Friday, November 11th

photo CITY OF COLTON

Socorro hernandez, Commander of VFW post 6476

The Marine Corps was established on November 10, 1775, to augment naval forces in the Revolu tionary War At that time, the recruiting headquarters opened up at a tavern in Philadelphia, PA, which is considered to be the birthplace of the Marines After success in many campaigns, the Corps was abolished at the close of the Revolutionary War in 1783 for financial reasons On July 11, 1798, 15 years later, Congress ordered the re establishment of the Corps, named it the United States Marine Corps and directed that it be available for service under the Secretary of the Navy

The Corps cele brated its birthday, known as Marine Corps Day, on July 11 from 1799 until 1921 when the date was permanently changed to Novem ber 10 to commemo rate the

establishment of the Marine Corps to aid in the Revolutionary War This day is still observed by the United States Ma rine Corps world wide Some celebrations have in cluded exhibits, pa rades, drill team performances, and speeches In Wash ington D C an offi cial Birthday Ball (dance) is held which culminates in the cutting of the birthday cake In Colton, Post 6476 celebrated its 247th Birthday with a homemade birthday dinner and the offi cial cutting of the USMC Birthday Cake

Approximately 45 people attended the November 10 event, including VFW members, families and friends The homemade spaghetti dinner was organ ized and prepared by the VFW Auxiliary, and Commander So corro Hernandez was the master of the ceremonies for the event

During his presen tation, Dr G spoke of some interesting facts including; the first recruiting loca tion in Philadelphia took place in a bar Tun Tavern, the Ma rine’s first battle took place in the Ba hamas, the Marines first won fame for fighting pirates, and that the Marine Band is nicknamed “The President’s Own ”

Congratulations to Commander So corro, his wife Nancy, and the VFW Auxiliary for organizing this long established celebra tion, and to the members of the Vet erans of Foreign Wars Post 6476 for continuing to recog nize the significance of the United State Marine Corps as well as the other branches of the mili tary For more infor mation about the VFW Post 6476 contact Commander Socorro @ 928 246 0108

While all 1,000 turkeys have already been re served to families in need via registration, Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy (YVYLA) and Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino County’s Annual Thanksgiv ing Turkey Giveaway and Resource fair still has much to offer

For those living in the county, with identifica tion, children can still take advantage of free vi sion exams and eyeglasses, child and adult physicals, COVID 19 and flu vaccinations, along with tools and social service resources from 33 other on site vendors

“It’s so important for children to have adequate vision There’s been many studies on how chil dren are more prone to getting distracted in school and acting out when they can’t see the board, because they cant concentrate So Vision to Learn will be on site administering same day eye exams and providing children with on the spot prescription eyeglasses,” said YVYLA CEO Terrance Stone

Another imperative additive to the event is the inclusion of employment agencies from 10 AM to 2 PM

“We have 33 vendors scheduled to attend the Turkey Giveaway and Resource Fair Aside from having mental and physical health re sources, an employment agency will be on site

and helping adults with job placement with one of their partner employers,” said YVYLA Event Coordinator Jennifer Rosales

A food truck will also be on site during the four hour event, serving hot plates of free food “At Young Visionaries, we’re proud to serve youth across San Bernardino County From mental health, to mentoring, providing academic support, social services and more our goal is to utilize our tools and resources as a means to keep our youth on the right path,” concluded Rosales

“Seventeen years ago YVYLA started this an nual turkey giveaway with only 25 turkeys But this year, and for the past few years we’ve been blessed to give away 1,000 turkeys and thanks giving food boxes, and we couldnt have made this big of an impact without our Partners at CAPSBC,” concluded Stone

The Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway and Reo surce Fair will be located at 696 S Tippecanoe Ave , San Bernardino

To join YVYLA’s mailing list and to stay up to date with forthcoming giveaways, text YVYLA to 22828

For more information, visit yvyla ie org

PHOTO ALEX SANCHEZ

Grand Terrace and Colton High School, and the latters ROTC program were present walking through O Street and across D Street

PHOTO ALEX SANCHEZ

The color guard kicked off the ceremony with a 21 gun salute where they shot off caps and pre sented the colors in front of the city

PHOTO ALEX SANCHEZ

The Colton Veterans Day Parade began at 10 AM on O Street and concluded at noon at Fleming Park

PHOTO ALEX SANCHEZ

Colton High School’s Marching Band making its way down O Street

C a d e n C e n t e r

USC vs UCLA to r e new football rivalr y this weekend

By Caden Henderson

The USC vs UCLA crosstown ri valry has been rather dull the past few seasons, as one of or both teams involved have either been struggling or on the decline at the time of the game

But this year, the stakes are raised With a PAC12 championship berth on the line and maybe even, for USC, a col lege football playoff spot on the line, this rivalry is sure to give us plenty of action this Saturday, so let’s preview the matchups and predict who will come out on top

Starting with UCLA, they have sur prised a lot of people this season, even despite their upset loss last week to Ari zona Led by QB Dorian Thompson Robinson, better known as DTR, the Bruins offense has sliced up defenses all season, and will surely still be ranked in

the top 20 at the time of the rivalry game However, all of this comes down to the game vs USC If the Bruins lose, they will be eliminated from PAC12 championship contention, and their hopes of a big time bowl game may also drop significantly

For UCLA to win, they will need to ei ther stop USC’s highly talented offense, or win a shootout against the Trojans, meaning DTR will have to lead the Bru ins to a similar performance as last year, when he led his team to put up 62 points in a blowout win vs the Trojans But, both of these scenarios are easier said than done, because USC has business to take care of

Outside of their heartbreaking 1 point loss on a last second 2 point conversion to Utah, Lincoln Riley’s first year coaching USC has been perfect Led by QB Caleb Williams and WR Jordan Ad dison, the Trojans rank top 10 in all of college football in just about every sta

tistical offensive category, including their streak of 4 straight games with 40 or more points As for the defensive side of the ball, it hasn’t been as good for USC The run defense has been disap pointing but they do seem to have built up some momentum over the past cou ple of weeks If USC manages to win the game, they will be headed to the PAC12 conference championship game and possibly be just 2 wins away from a college football playoff appearance However, if USC wants to really make a statement to the CFP committee that they deserve a playoff spot, the defense will need to show up with the offense, and put UCLA to bed early

With the preview of both teams out of the way, it’s prediction time While I did say if USC really wanted to make a statement they’d blow the Bruins out, I think UCLA is just too talented for that to happen However, I do see the Tro jans still winning by a score of 48 38 in a game that proves to be an offensive shootout like many expect

No matter how the game goes though, at the end of the day it’s USC vs UCLA with championship aspira tions on the line, and it doesn’t get much better than that Tune into the battle of LA this Saturday at 8 PM EST/5 PM PST on Fox to see all of the action go down

Community News

The San Bernardino County Probation De partment received funds for an intensive proba tion supervision program for high risk DUI offenders with multiple DUI convictions

The $620,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), approved by the Board of Supervisors, will go toward additional proactive home contacts with probation ers to make sure they are fol lowing court ordered terms of their probation and prevent probationers from re offend ing

“The grant provides critical resources and services, which will hopefully help individuals get back on track and reduce the number of alcohol and drug involved traffic colli sions,” Chief Probation Officer Tracy Reece said “Without funding from the OTS, the su pervision program would be adversely impacted ”

This year, funding will allow for an additional officer to pro vide supervision to high risk offenders in underserved com munities

“The safety of our communi ties is a top priority and inten sive supervision programs hold DUI offenders accountable for their actions,” OTS Director

“This concerted effort im proves the safety of our road ways by addressing the devastating impacts impaired driving has on our communi ties ”

The probation grant will also pay for warrant operations tar geting probation violations and/or DUI suspects who do not appear in court, alcohol testing, treatment compliance, DMV restrictions, and special weekend, evening and holiday operations to enforce terms of probation

The grant program runs through September 2023

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

SB County Pr obation awarded g rant to super vise people with multiple DUI convictions

Barbara Rooney said

Community News

“Hakup ye'aye'a'n taamit ya'ki' nepuuyum?” says Araujo Levinson in Ser rano “Beautiful day isn’t it, my friends?”

“Werre’! Haminat!” the stu dents reply in unison “Yes! Hello!”

Twice a week, Araujo Levin son sets out from Riverside to make the 60 mile roundtrip drive to the Morongo Indian Reservation, home to the Mo rongo Band of Mission Indians, to teach Serrano language classes to approximately 100 pre school through eighth grade students Serrano, a subset of the Uto Aztecan language, is an In digenous California language thought to be more than 2,500 years old

“It is said that the Serrano lan guage is ancient, that the Creator gave the people their language,” said Araujo Levinson Sadly, it is a language that faces extinc tion

But Araujo Levinson is deter mined to change that A lan guage preservation specialist with the Morongo Cultural Her itage Department, he has learned at least 15 Indigenous California languages, all of which face ex tinction

“I think it is important to pre serve these languages because the history, perspective of the

people, culture, and anything similar is engraved into the lan guage,” he said “Once it is gone, you lose so much ”

His goal: to help his students understand how important learn ing a native language is to their identities, and to ignite in them “a fire and a spark to want to be the best speaker,” he said

For more than half his life, the 26 year old math major has him self been infused with a spark and fascination for other lan guages As a high school stu dent, he challenged himself to learn 10 languages, which had the unintended and therapeutic consequences of lifting him out of depression, a condition he still experiences Today, he said, “Languages and mathematics are my therapy ” A personal essay recounting his multilin gualism was included in a 2016 book titled “The Bible of Lan guage Learners and Polyglots” by Jimmy Mello

In 2017, his curiosity about California’s Indigenous lan guages led him to Ernest Siva, an elder, tribal historian and cul tural advisor with the Morongo Band of Mission Indians Siva’s aunt, Dorothy Ramon, who died in 2002 at age 93, was the last “pure” speaker of Serrano, meaning it was her first lan guage as she grew up Siva and his wife founded the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in Ban ning to inspire and advance dis covery, understanding and

continuance of tribal cultures

In November of 2017, Siva and Araujo Levinson began to meet weekly, and over the course of the next 13 months, the elder be came Araujo Levinson’s mentor, teaching him the Serrano lan guage during their one on one sessions The lessons included much more than language in struction

“During the first meeting, I re alized Mr Siva knew more of the language than I anticipated,” Araujo Levinson recalled “Whether it was the language or songs or history, I learned some thing new at every meeting ”

During those meetings, Siva also passed along a philosophy that Araujo Levinson has adopted, and “holds near and dear ” That is, “You teach [the language] to whoever wants to know Of course, there are boundaries ” For example, he explained, he would never ask Siva about topics that are sacred to the culture “But if somebody wants to learn how to say hi, how to say the color blue, you tell them I think Mr Siva fol lows the example of his aunt and his elders, who shared what they knew and what they learned to keep the language alive ”

Araujo Levinson learned the language quickly, and at Siva’s recommendation, he was hired as a language preservation spe cialist in March 2019 and began teaching Serrano at the Morongo

School, where it is a required class for all students

Stories about Siva and Araujo Levinson’s unique relationship and their efforts to revitalize California’s Indigenous lan guages have been featured in the L A Times, on KCRW radio and on the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center web site And in an op ed for the L A Times, Araujo Levinson makes a compelling case for the importance of keeping Califor nia’s Indigenous languages alive

Looking toward the future, Araujo Levinson plans to grad uate in December and pursue a

Ph D in math in the field of mirror symmetry

Where does language fit in?

“It’s always going to be a hobby of mine, regardless,” he said “As I mentioned earlier about the philosophy I learned from Mr Siva, I’m always will ing to help teach whoever wants to know ”

And, after researching his own family history and discovering the story of his great grandfa ther, Carmen Cisneros, a de scendant of the Mixtec, a Mexican Indigenous group, he plans to study, and eventually speak, the language of his own ancestors

CSUSB student deter mined to r evive and pr eser ve Calif or nia’s Indigenous langua ges

San Ber nardino Animal Shelter of fering fr ee pet micr ochipping in November and December

Community

In an effort to ensure lost pets are reunited with their owners during the holidays, the City of San Bernardino Animal Services Depart ment will be offering residents of San Bernardino and Loma Linda the chance to microchip their pets for free through December 31 Grant funding from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the California Animal Welfare Fun ders Collaborative is making this op portunity possible

Microchipping is available Tuesday through Saturday between 10:00 am

and 4:00 pm at the Shelter, located at 333 Chandler Place in San Bernardino No appointment is necessary The mi crochipping and registration into the pet ID database only take a few minutes

“Microchipping is far and away the best way to quickly get lost or stolen pets back to their families,” said San Bernardino Animal Services Director Kris Watson “Thanks to scanning, our Animal Control officers are often able to immediately return lost pets to their homes without ever bringing the ani mals into the Shelter ”

A study by Ohio State University found that microchipped cats were 20

times more likely to be reunited with their families than non microchipped cats and microchipped dogs were re united at a rate 2 5 times more often than dogs that weren’t microchipped

Pet microchips are implantable com puter chips that encode a unique iden tification number to help reunite owners with their lost pet They are no bigger than a grain of rice and they are placed under a pet’s skin The proce dure is quick and painless for the ani mal Unlike collars and ID tags, they can never break or fall off When the chip is scanned, the pet’s encoded chip identification is recognized by the scan ner With the chip identification number

in hand, reuniting a pet with their fam ily is only a phone call away

San Bernardino Animal Services re minds current pet owners with mi crochips if any of your contact information (phone number, address, email) has changed, to be sure you up date your microchip registration online in the database

The free microchipping promotion is limited to residents of San Bernardino and Loma Linda For more information, contact San Bernardino Animal Serv ices at (909) 384 1304

Superher o-Me Halloween Dr ug Fr ee Concer t at the Uptown San Ber nardino Urban Garden

More than 400 youth and fam ilies from the Inland Empire celebrated a drug free con cert, costume and pumpkin decorating contest at the first annual Superhero Me Halloween event this past Sunday evening at the San Bernardino County Urban Garden

Music Changing Lives (MCL), the In stitute for Public Strategies (IPS), and Mental Health Systems (TURN BHS) hosted the free event in the garden which provides a safe, drug and alco hol free space to empower individuals to live vibrant, healthy, and productive lifestyles

During the event, local aerosol artists Lefty, Rondeezyyy, and Vibrantinflux guided the youth in creating a series of murals with themes that support and en courage young people to choose drug free lifestyles Local artist Christine White also collaborated with dozens of children to paint pumpkins

“The use of art and art therapy to treat

substance use disorders dates back to the 1950s I believe we can also utilize art to prevent youth from getting in volved in drugs and alcohol by giving them creative outlets to express them selves,” said Lupita Martinez, who manages the East Valley Community Change Project for IPS

The concert featured live perform ances from rapper Suga T and the San tana cover band, Europa Parents and youth also received action focused in formation on the positive effects of avoiding drugs and alcohol

“In this day and age kids are inundated with negative images and influences, but we can also arm parents with good data and research If parents talk to their children early and often about these substances, we can protect our youth from many of the high risk behaviors associated with these drugs,” said Vania Ramirez, who is a Prevention Specialist for the Central Valley Prevention Pro gram, a project of TURN BHS

The urban garden is the brainchild of Josiah Bruny, the Chief Executive Of ficer of Music Changing Lives, an or

ganization that aims to inspire and em power youth with a holistic approach that includes music, art, financial liter acy, civic engagement, food stability, and gardening based programs

Last year, Bruny created the Urban Garden Initiative, a public private part nership that hopes to raise a half million dollars to build a welcome center, am phitheater, and a learning center on the acre of land located on the corner of Electric Avenue and North 40th Street

Local nonprofits including the IPS and TURN BHS have joined the Inland Empire Health Plan and the Inland Em pire Resource Conservation District in providing resources to help fulfill Bruny’s vision

“I am humbled to finally have partners that work together and not against one another It’s a breath of fresh air We are in our communities and on the ground day in and day out It’s hard for me to express in words how important it is to finally have partners that under stand your worth and value,” Bruny said

Shab Elawar, who has lived in San Bernadino for more than two decades, donated the land for the garden with the goal of creating a local food sustainabil ity program

“We can utilize nature to become more independent,” Elawar said “When all the agencies and resources come to gether to support the garden and hold activities here like the concert, it be comes more impactful for the commu nity It shows the community cares about them, they are not living on the side anymore ”

The garden is also home to Soulful Sundays: held on the fourth Sunday of every month, local residents are invited to visit the garden for gardening work shops and various volunteer opportuni ties, while enjoying music, food, and more

More information on Soulful Sunday events can be found on MCL's Face book page To learn how to contribute to the Urban Garden Initiative, please contact: Josiah Bruny at 951 992 0721