Yorba Linda
Star
Serving Yorba Linda since 1917
AN EDITION OF
THURSDAY, MARCH 2 1, 20 1 3 OCREGISTER.COM/YORBALINDA
TAKING ‘‘
FLIGHT
The ultimate payoff is happy kids.” C AT H Y R I G B Y S TA R O F ‘ P E T E R PA N ’
Cathy Rigby, known for playing Peter Pan and her trips to the Olympics, helps children live their dreams in the performing arts. BY DANIEL LANGHORNE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Cathy Rigby can’t fly with her students to Neverland. But she’ll do what she can to get them to Broadway. Rigby, 60, is most widely known for playing Peter Pan on stage and is currently on her fifth tour with the show. In Yorba Linda, the McCoy Rigby Conservatory of the Arts trains children to be future superstars in the arts but still have fun. The conservatory has diversified the art classes it offers since Rigby and her husband, Tom McCoy, bought a dance studio in August 2006; it now includes disciplines like acting, voice, playwriting, studio art and musical theater. “The ultimate payoff is happy kids,” said Rigby, who lives in town and competed in gymnastics in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. Since the beginning of her current run of “Peter Pan,” which ends in Boston at the end of April, Rigby has left the day-to-day operation of the conservatory to her staff. “They do try to keep it to where each child has the opportunity to grow and learn at any time,” she said. Her driving philosophy for the conservatory is to instill a good work ethic in children. She believes this will serve them well, whether it’s while learning how to dance or while composing themselves in an interview. At the conservatory’s offices in a business park at La Palma Avenue and Via Lomas De Yorba, the only
KEVIN LARA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
S E E R I G B Y ● PA G E 3
Corinne Green, 1 1, a student at the McCoy Rigby Conservatory of the Arts, hangs in the air during an aerial gymnastics lesson. Corinne has attended classes at the conservatory since she was 3.
Festive fundraising run to benefit Placentia-Yorba Linda schools
Future of high school site in talks after lease termination
BY JULIAN REYES ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Friends Christian Church focused on addressing $1.2 million owed to city.
The inaugural fundraiser by the REACH Foundation, an education foundation that aims to help schools in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, kicked off Sunday morning with the ShamRock ’n’ Run race, which drew a combined 1,000 participants. The race took place around Veterans Park and featured 713 5K runners and 287 2K runners. The fundraiser brought in between $8,000 and $10,000, all of which will go to school programs, according to
BY DANIEL LANGHORNE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
PAUL A. HEBERT, FOR THE REGISTER
Participants don St. Patrick’s Day attire during the inaugural ShamRock ’n’ Run Sunday at Veterans Park.
Stephanie Vande Kappelle, co-chairwoman of the REACH Foundation. For information on how
to make in-kind donations, contact Julie Nibali at jnibali@reach4pylusd.org. MORE ON PAGE 4
The leaders behind Friends Christian High School consider themselves down but not out. Although the city recently terminated its lease with Friends Christian Church for a 32-acre site on Bastanchury Road, near Casa Loma Avenue, the congregation’s leadership is unshaken in what they say is a calling to build a Christian high school in Yorba Linda. “I’d say what has impressed me the most with
that resolve is that they never lost hope,” said Matthew Cork, senior pastor. “I mean, there’s been moments that there could be frustration or sadness, but there’s been this undeniable sense of hope that we were called to do this, and out of that calling they gave everything.” Yorba Linda officials will talk about what could be built on the property that would best benefit the community, said David ChrisS E E C H U R C H ● PA G E 2
The faith for us and the resolve came because we believed God called us to do this. For whatever reason it stopped. Maybe we misheard God. I don’t know. But in that a lot of great thing were done and a lot of great things happened around that table of servants and volunteers.”
‘‘
M AT T H E W C O R K S E N I O R PA S TO R O F FRIENDS CHRISTIAN CHURCH