On shaky ground

e Parade of Breeds, one of Pierce's last farm events for the community School foundation faces nancial di culty

More than 200 people attended the Parade of Breeds, co-hosted by the Boots and Saddles Club and Pre-Veterinary Club, at the Pierce Equestrian Center on Nov. 5.

The Equine/Horse Science Department Advisor, Patricia Warner, thought the event was successful and said she couldn’t believe how many people came out to support the event.

“I’m going to burst into tears,” Warner said. “It’s been fantastic.”

The show was held in the covered arena and began at 11:15 a.m. after an accident on the freeway delayed the start of the show by 15 minutes.

One by one, horses were led into the arena and Warner gave hints over the microphone about what the breed of each horse could be.

According to Warner, many people brought horses from the Lancaster area and someone brought a horse from as far as Hemet, Calif. She said there was at least 35 different breeds among the 40 horses in the parade.

Aside from being an event for community members, the show doubles as a test for one of Warner’s classes. Her students sat in the stands, writing down the color and breed of each horse as they came out the first time around.

The horses were brought out again after an hour intermission and Warner announced the breeds.

The intermission included barrel racing, jumping and reining demonstrations in the middle arena.

Public Relations of the Preveterinary Club Ravi Ramakrishnan said the event proved to be a good opportunity for cooperation between this year’s co-hosts.

“I’d say it was a good collaboration between Boots and Saddles and Pre-vet because they’re usually competing clubs, so it was nice to see them come together and

Corsairs forced to walk plank

work and raise money to ultimately help the clubs stay around,” said Ramakrishnan.

The Pre-veterinary Club had a petting zoo at the event, where people could feed the donkeys and goats.

Pierce student Christina Troupe said that even though she’s scared of horses, she loved the event and plans to return next year.

“I love animals and when I saw there was a petting zoo, I was like ‘I have to go,’” Troupe said. “We got to pet them and it was so cute. We were even able to feed the donkeys. I loved it.”

There was a kids’ activity station by the entrance of the event where children could color, pose for photos on top of a saddle, get their faces painted, and decorate horseshoes.

The Boots and Saddles Club sold food and drinks as a way of fundraising. The treasurer of the club,

Makenna Kellogg, said the food sold well and that she was glad with how prepared the club was.

Kellogg said she thinks the Boots and Saddles Club can work again with the Pre-veterinary Club for next year’s Parade of Breeds.

“I think it would just take a little more organization between the two,” Kellogg said.

In its 48 year history, the foundation has helped students and faculty alike financially, but now it struggles to keep its head above water.

Founded in 1968, the Foundation exists to provide individuals, families and companies with a way to give back to Pierce College’s students, faculty programs and capital improvements, according to the Foundation’s website. It aims to assist students, faculty and administrators with financial and material support for college facilities as well as the development of grants, scholarships, in-kind contributions, sponsorships and partnerships.

Non-profit organizations are typically run by a board of volunteers and a paid executive director, but for the past fifteen years Pierce’s Foundation hasn’t had a steady executive director. Denise Robb, an associate professor for political science at Pierce, has been the board’s chair for about two years, ever since she created a scholarship in memory of her parents and wanted to ensure its maintenance.

“I read that the Foundation was going out of business and selfishly, I got upset because I thought, well, what’s going to happen to my scholarship?” Robb said.

reaches 400 wins, Brahmas one step closer to state

Volleyball

Coach Nabil Mardini celebrated win number 400 after dominating the Santa Monica Corsairs in three straight sets.

The Brahmas won, 25-14, 2516, 25-13.

Mardini said he was happy with the way the team played and he hopes to carry the same energy into future games.

“We’re just getting ready for the playoffs,” Mardini said. “The girls are getting antsy, I’m getting antsy, but you can’t look ahead. You still have to take care of business.”

The win brings the team’s record to 23-3. The Corsairs were able to keep up at the start of the first set, with Brahmas leading by one or two points. When the Brahmas led 108, the tone of the game shifted and Pierce increased their lead.

Multiple kills from Pierce’s outside hitter Cassidy Rosso pressured the Corsairs to call two timeouts within five minutes.

During the second set, the Corsairs were able to close the gaps whenever the Brahmas took the lead.

The score tied at 8 and again at 11, but the Brahmas began to maintain their lead at 14-12, making less mistakes and more powerful plays.

Setter Peyton Moyles said the team was able to come back after a slow start in the second set.

“We usually fall back on our fundamentals and our energy and that’s what we can always count on,” Moyles said. “When things start to not go our way, we find all that energy and that’s what we run with and that’s what we use our momentum for.”

From the start of the third set the Brahmas controlled the ball. When the Corsairs scored their first point, the Brahmas had 7. Pierce’s energy and momentum continued until the end of the game, when the Brahmas won the third set, 25-13.

“There was pure energy at the end,” Moyles said. “It was really, really fun to be on the court the whole, entire third set. This was just one of our good games.”

Santa Monica College’s coach, Turhan Douglas, said Pierce always plays with aggression and high energy.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Douglas said. “The only advantage we had coming into this is that they would take a team with a record like ours for granted, but I thought my girls played at a real high level. Pierce has a tendency to bring that out in teams.”

This game marked Mardini’s 400 wins, which the team celebrated with confetti and cake on the court once the match was over.

“It means I’ve been here for a long time,” Mardini said. “I appreciate what the girls did. It means a lot to me. A lot of good memories here at Pierce College.”

Douglas, who's known Mardini for a long time, said he thinks highly of him and how he coaches his team.

“Nabil, in my opinion, is right now the best coach in the country,” Douglas said.

To figure out what was going on, Robb attended a board meeting and asked what she could do to help. She was asked to attend the next meeting as well. When she showed up to the next one, Robb was surprised to find that almost all of the former board members she’d sat with in the first meeting had quit.

“That’s literally how that happened,” Robb said. “I didn’t really want to be the chair, I just wanted to help. Up until now I’ve been growing the board.”

Robb explained that without a formal grant writer, executive director, and developmental director, the board had come to manage everything those positions would normally take care of. Working alongside Robb was Floriya Borzenkova who officially held the title of senior program director, though she acted as the paid executive director.

Borzenkova left her position at the Foundation on Aug. 2 this year after 16 years of working at Pierce.

According to Borzenkova, Pierce College used to run the Foundation and pay its executive directors, but the directors kept changing as did the presidents of the college, bringing with them different opinions about the Foundation and how it should be run.

“The worst thing that can happen to any non-profit organization is if they lose stock or if there’s a change in the leadership,” Borzenkova said. “It’s like a wheel spinning in the mud. Nobody can start raising money immediately; it takes time.”