News

PASADENA | ALHAMBRA | ALTADENA | ARCADIA | EAGLE ROCK | GLENDALE | LA CAÑADA | MONTROSE | SAN MARINO | SIERRA MADRE | SOUTH PASADENA

Altadena Guild of Huntington Memorial Hospital will be hosting its 69th Home & Garden Tour on Sunday, May 1, in hopes to raise money for a new cadiac care center.

Altadena Home & Garden Tour returns for 2022

By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

At the foothills of the looming San Gabriel Mountains lies the eclectic community of Altadena, home to palm-laden streets and dotted with historic homes.

After a two-year hiatus, the Altadena Guild of Huntington Memorial Hospital’s Home & Garden Tour will return Sunday, May 1, for its 69th with hopes to fulfill its $100,000 commitment to Huntington Hospital’s new cardiac care center by giving guests a tour of the community’s architectural marvels.

“Normally our home tours draw a thousand or more people,” guild member Elaine Bauer said. “We’re completely convinced that we will reach that, if not many more, and we are hoping to do that because the programs that we support are so valuable to the community around us and far-reaching, too, with HMRI and all of the discoveries that they’ve made over the years that have helped people.”

The Altadena Guild was founded in 1951 to support the work of Huntington Memorial Hospital and has since raised several million dollars to benefit the hospital and Huntington Medical Research Institutes.

The guild has also underwritten hospital employee scholarships and supported the Constance G. Zahorik Appearance Center to benefit cancer patients.

To help support its mission, the home and garden tour invites guests to an idyllic stretch of Mendocino Lane to explore four homes and gardens in the neighborhood.

“It’s an iconic street that gives you a peaceful feeling to walk along,” Bauer said. “We have four beautiful homes and gardens on tour. Each home is stunning in and of itself, and they’re all completely different styles, so it’s going to be a wonderful tour for guests to investigate these different designs.”

The tour will feature a house designed by architect Richard Bates known to Bauer as the “palm tree house,” home to a subtropical botanic garden with 140 species of palm.

Another home is an Italianate villa with a garden space that features a pool and Venetian bronze fountain alongside the rear courtyard.

The tour will also pass a single-story modern home and garden, complete with a guest house ADU, and the fourth home, which is a classic, Spanish style two-story house.

“As you walk along, you are greeted by soldiers of palm trees lining the street, and as you walk Northeast, you’re looking at the mountains,” Bauer said. “It’s just beautiful. It’s an open area, and the street will be full of community tables, people wandering, and lots of music, too.”

In addition to the home and garden tour, there will be numerous vendors and community tables showcasing local businesses and sponsors from in and around Altadena, designated areas where both Porsche and Cal-Rods will have their cars on display, food and entertainment including live music and tango dance performances.

Guests will also receive a program with detailed write-ups for each home along with maps and advertising for the businesses and entities supporting the guild and its work, particularly towards Huntington Hospital and HMRI.

“Huntington Hospital has invested a great deal of money into the health and welfare of the community surrounding us, and that’s why we’ve decided to give that hundred-thousand-dollar commitment to the cardiac care center,” Bauer said. “HMRI has also invited students and researchers to come into their fabulous facility on Fair Oaks across from the hospital to work on all of these really difficult medical issues that we are faced with these days and to uncover solutions for improving quality of life for all of us.”

2022 Altadena Guild Home & Garden Tour WHERE: Mendocino Lane, Altadena WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 1 COST: $45 in advance; $50 day of tour INFO: altadenaguild.org

Pasadena native serves at Naval Air Station North Island

By Annika Tomlin Pasadena Weekly Staff Writer

Growing up in Pasadena, Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Giffin attended Monrovia High School and graduated in 2011. Today, he finds the values in Pasadena similar to those needed to succeed in the military.

After joining the Navy four years ago, Giffin currently serves as a helicopter aircrewman.

“Growing up in Pasadena, I learned a strong work ethic and to stay motivated,” Giffin said. “I joined the Navy because I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps.”

The lessons he learned from growing up in Pasadena have helped Giffin while serving at Naval Air Station North Island.

He serves with the “Wolfpack” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM 75), a San Diego-based squadron that operates the Navy’s next generation of submarine hunter and Anti-Surface Warfare helicopter, the MH-60R Seahawk.

Each helicopter is nearly 65 feet long, may weigh up to 23,500 pounds (max gross), and can travel over 120 miles per hour for nearly 320 miles on a single tank of gas.

“HSM 75’s mission is to conduct combat operations as an integral part of Carrier Strike Group Nine and Carrier Air Wing Eleven,” said Cmdr. Tom Mashuda, Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 75.

“Our mission success requires that all hands work in unity as a pack. Every member of HSM 75 has a vital part in our mission from the most junior aviation maintainer ensuring our MH-60 aircraft are combat-ready to the pilots and Naval Aircrewman who operate them.”

According to Navy officials, the MH-60R is the most capable multi-mission helicopter available in the world today. It is used for a variety of missions, including hunting and tracking enemy submarines, attacking enemy ships, search and rescue, drug interdiction, delivering supplies, and supporting the Navy’s special operations forces.

“Each job has a role in the bigger picture of the Navy,” Giffin said. “Ultimately, we allow freedom of navigation along the import and export of goods on the sea.”

With more than 90% of all trade traveling by sea, and 95% of the world’s international phone and internet traffic carried through fiber optic cables lying on the ocean floor, Navy officials continue to emphasize that the prosperity and security of the United States is directly linked to a strong and ready Navy.

Giffin and the sailors he serves with have many opportunities to achieve accomplishments during their military service.

“I am most proud of becoming a fully qualified aircrewman,” Giffin said. “It has been a long road to get here.”

As Giffin and other sailors continue to train and perform missions, they take pride in serving their country in the United States Navy.

“The Navy allows me to have a lot more opportunities and different experiences than most,” Giffin added. “I love my job.”

Four months after the killing of 13-year-old Iran Moreno, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office added $50,000 to the city of Pasadena’s $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects responsible for the murder.

Along with the state of California, an anonymous donor has given an additional $5,000 atop of the $20,000 reward from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that was approved last November, bringing the reward to $85,000.

Pasadena Police Department homicide detectives have not received any tips thus far regarding the case, which began in November 2021 after a stray bullet struck Moreno while he played video games inside his home on Raymond Avenue in Pasadena. He was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. The police are hoping that the increased reward will motivate members of the public with crucial information about this murder to come forward.

“I hope the increase helps, because there have been no leads generated from the previous reward,” Lt. Keith Gomez of the Pasadena Police Department’s violent crimes section said. “We are following some leads that are unrelated to any tips related to the

Pasadena native Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Giffin joined the Navy following in his father’s footsteps.

Reward on Iran Moreno case increases to $85K

By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

reward, but it’s still an active case. Any help we can get from the public would be great.”

Information gathered from the public during investigations has often proven to be instrumental in helping law enforcement bring those responsible to justice on behalf of all victims.

Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to call Pasadena police at 626-744-4241, or you may report information anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers by dialing 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or by using the website lacrimestoppers. org.

Information or tips related to the homicide can also be directed to Lt. Gomez at 626-744-4517.