Mountain residents prepare for Anza Days 2023

Diane Sieker Staff Writer

Mountain residents are awaiting the annual Anza Days events the first weekend in July. Residents are getting ready as the funfilled weekend approaches, with traditional festivities planned for Friday, June 30 and Saturday, July 1. For decades, the actionpacked celebration has been an essential part of the community and its history. It never fails to be a entertaining, humorous, colorful and fun combination of wholesome activities put on by civic organizations and a great number of volunteers.

The Miss Anza pageant will take place Thursday, June 22, in Minor Park beginning at 6 p.m. The Anza Days committee is still accepting applicants for the popular contest held every year the week before Anza Days. More information is available by calling Lorraine’s Pet Supply at 951-763-0033. The Miss Anza contest is open to all girls from newborn to adult, divided into six divisions.

Friday, June 30, starting at 5:30 p.m., the Anza Community Hall will host the traditional Anza Days kickoff dinner and dance. A sit-down barbecue meal will be served until 6:30 p.m., with to-go dinners being offered until 7:30 p.m.. Adult entry is $10, with children 12 and under free.

After the meal, an old time country hoe-down will commence, featuring the Barnyard Boyz playing country and rock favorites from 7 until 10 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the door. Sometimes the subject of rave reviews, the event is one of the highlights of the weekend.

Saturday, July 1, from 7 to 10 a.m., the Anza Thimble Club ladies will be creating a pancake breakfast at the Anza Community Hall, which will include fluffy pancakes accompanied by scrambled eggs, sausage links, coffee and orange juice. Adult tickets are $6, and children under 12 are $3. Always a success, the charity event is a great start to the day’s activities. The Club ladies prepare the meal and all proceeds collected are dispersed to local charities in need.

Floats, equestrian groups, vintage cars and more will line up along Bahrman Road starting at 7 a.m. Float registration will be from 7 to 10 a.m., with judging taking place at 10 a.m. State Highway 371 will be closed to traffic at 10:30 a.m. and the parade will begin at 11 a.m. Anza Electric Cooperative general manager Kevin Short has been named the Grand Marshal of the event.

The parade will travel along Hwy. 371 between Bahrman and Contreras roads, through the heart of Anza.

Parking is encouraged off the highway in the open fields and parking lots, to keep the side of the road open for spectators.

Sunscreen and plenty of drinking water is advised.

Some families stake out their parade-viewing spots the night before. Good-natured competition occurs as people jockey for the best positions and the celebration is on.

Besides the fun floats and groups, the children may be delighted in getting hosed by the fire trucks and scrambling after hard candies thrown by the parade participants all along the route.

After the parade, the party will continue at Minor Park with live music, food, vendors, a beer garden, playground and more from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Lions Club of Anza Valley is planning to host an Anza Days Gymkhana and bucking bull event at the Lions Field located at 39551 Kirby Road in Anza. Sign ups start at 3 p.m. with events starting at 4 p.m. However, due to concerns about an equine disease outbreak, caution is being taken in the decision to proceed with the games.

“We are closely monitoring the Vesicular Stomatitis outbreak in Southern California,” Lions Club of Anza Valley secretary Christopher Skinner said. “We will be making a decision if the gymkhana will be postponed again. However, bull riding and mutton busting will still be held.”

The bucking bull event will be from 4 to 9 p.m. Vendors are being sought for the event. Spaces are $40 each. For vendor information, please contact Stace at 843-263-0474. Vendors are responsible for properly securing their equipment. The venue is outside and the wind can be unpredictable.

The Anza Days festivities have been a highlight in the community for decades without exception.

To learn more about upcoming ACIL events, visit them at www.facebook.com/ AnzaCivicImprovementLeague, www.anzacivic.org, or write PO Box 391000, Anza, CA 92539, call 951-330-4411 or email anzacivic@gmail.com

For more information regarding the Lions Club of Anza Valley, please email Greg Sandling at President. AnzaLions@gmail.com or visit them at www.facebook.com/ LionsofAnzaValley.

Diane Sieker can be reached by email at dsieker@reedermedia. com

Fishing is a popular activity at the Living Hope Christian

LAKE from page D-1 camaraderie provided a relaxing time for parishioners.

Living Hope is an active Christian church that values tradition and family values. Watson, his wife Cindy and church members are active in the community, volunteering and assisting local nonprofit charities with their events.

Living Hope Christian Fellowship meets weekly at the Community Hall for its services.

To contact Living Hope Christian Fellowship of Anza, visit www.facebook.com/LivingHope-Anza-268791509833485 or www.livinghopeanza.com/home

Diane Sieker can be reached by email at dsieker@reedermedia. com provided his unique renditions of popular tunes, picked on his acoustic guitar.

“This was a great day for the library,” Friends of the Anza Library president Jill Roberts said.

Special guest Riverside County Supervisor Chuck Washington signed up as a member of the Friends of the Anza Library and gave a sizable donation to the organization on behalf of the county.

“We talked about different ways to embrace finding your voice and how the community is helping individuals do so throughout the summer at their many events,” Washington said.

The Friends of the Anza Library annual membership is only $10. Supporters that join now get 10 free books from the library’s bookstore.

The Anza Valley Library is a joint-use public library, located inside Hamilton High School, but a separate entity. It is part of the Riverside County Library System, located at 57430 Mitchell Road, Anza.

The library’s hours are Thursday and Friday from 4 to 7 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m.

Staff may be reached by calling 951-763-4216.

Please join the Friends of the Anza Valley Community Library at www.facebook.com/ groups/223224583610311.

To learn more about the Anza Valley Community Library, visit www.facebook.com/AnzaLibrary

Don’t have a library card? Go to www.rivlib.net to sign up online for free.

Diane Sieker can be reached by email at dsieker@reedermedia. com

PANCAKES from page D-1 fundraising activities to help raise money to benefit our Sage community,” Eleni Malandrinos, Sage Roadrunners Ladies Auxiliary president, said.

Friends and neighbors mingled with firefighters, law enforcement officers, community activists and government representatives. Bake sale goodies, raffles, arts and crafts and fire and police giveaways greeted visitors as they entered the fire department building for the breakfast.

This event is part of fundraising activities to help with community projects and to fund local nonprofits.

Sage Fire Department No. 28 is located at 35655 Sage Road, which is about eight miles south of Hemet.

For more information about the Sage Roadrunners Ladies Auxiliary, please contact Eleni Malandrinos at emalandrinos@ aol.com

Diane Sieker can be reached by email at dsieker@reedermedia. com

Detransitioners – A new need for community

own flag that is in pinks, blues and white. North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) has been around for over 50 years. They lobby to free young people to love who they wish, including of course, older adults.

Across the country laws are changing, biological men are coming into girls’ shower rooms after swimming, etc. Women, who fought long and hard for equal rights, are now having to step down or step aside for biological men to take their places on the podium in the first place position for sports.

not accept it just because it’s “inclusive” language. If someone wants to be called something different, OK, but if you are a mother and a breastfeeder, wear those traditional names and roles proudly.

There are all kinds of new rules, while women watch men, like actor Dylan Mulvaney put on makeup and women’s clothes, prance around like a squealing 10-year-old little girl and say he’s a woman. He is not a woman. He is a man dressed as a woman and it makes a mockery of women.

life, climax, or pregnancy. It’s extremely sad.

Where do they turn? Once they decide to detransition back to their biological sex, many say their LGBTQ community is just toxic and shuns them. It leaves them very lonely.

June is Pride Month, and the efforts continue to normalize transgender and non-binary culture. But obviously, not everyone is on board. Boycotts on businesses like Anheuser-Busch and Target, have caused billions of dollars in losses.

For decades, most people I know treated all people respectfully and just said, “It’s not my business or concern what people do behind closed doors as long as they don’t try to push it on me or my children.”

Well, we are long past that now. Parents across the country are being encouraged to have their children read to and entertained by trans women, who are biological males. Sometimes story hour includes dancing which is suggestive and inappropriate.

Young boys are given accolades for cross dressing, dancing and entertaining adult men. In California, if a parent doesn’t go along with their child’s new trans identity they’ve discovered on social media or at school, they could be brought up on child abuse charges and lose their child. Counselors aren’t allowed to actually treat what may be depression. If they do, they could lose their license for not automatically “gender affirming.”

There’s a movement underway to rename pedophiles as Minor Attracted Persons (MAPs) to make it more acceptable. Is that part of the + in LGBTQ+? They have their

I fully expect coaches to start “recruiting” biological boys and men to compete on girls teams so they can have an edge, break records and win. Isn’t that what coaches are pressured to do? What is stopping them? Does it matter that girls are now getting hurt from their male competitors?

There’s also a lot of pressure for regular people, or “Cis” people, to compromise being true to themselves. What they know to be true scientifically and biologically doesn’t matter; they are being coerced to say things that aren’t true. It is called “compelled speech” and is quite the opposite of free speech because you are expected and possibly forced to say things that you don’t believe. This pressure is typical in Communist China.

So women aren’t free anymore to identify as they always have. This is again, for men, so that the trans people can be more comfortable. Women are not supposed to identify as mothers anymore, but be “birthing people” which is more “inclusive” language. Our feelings and rights are again second class. We like “identifying” as mothers, because we are mothers, real mothers and real women. Motherhood is likely the most significant and fulfilling identity we have.

We can’t breastfeed anymore because we are now “chestfeeders.”

It’s all ridiculous, and we should

Why is it offensive to put on blackface, but not womanface? Now there are videos where men, dressed as women are making fun of menstruation, tampons, etc. These guys have no clue of what women have to go through. Honestly, it’s just so sad. I’m glad to see a few men stepping up to defend womanhood. I don’t understand how such a small group of people can bully the rest of the population with such political backing, not to mention the theatrics.

But aside from those realities, as mothers, friends and counselors, we have a whole new reality to think about and prepare for. There are tens of thousands of mostly young people who have tried this lifestyle and realized it was a grave mistake for them. They have varying degrees of permanent damage that’s been done to their bodies. They are grieving the loss of a normal life and have a high suicide rate.

They have lost their feminine or masculine voice and normal hair patterns. Children have taken hormone blockers and will never be able to have children. Some women are now bald and have beards from hormone therapy. Some young people have permanently removed their genitals and breasts. Some have replaced their sex organs with surgically created ones that don’t work like “real” ones. They will never know a normal sex

I was reading through subreddits for detransitioners this weekend. There are over 50,000 people who have a community dedicated to detransitioning through Reddit. That is a huge number. There is also a growing group of detransitioners talking about their struggle on Youtube and TikTok. Many of them regret making such serious permanent life altering decisions.

I listened with empathy while they said they wished their therapist or doctor would have slowed it down and their parents wouldn’t have been so supportive.

Many detransitioners take responsibility for their decisions, but they wish someone would have tried to address the root of the problem rather than just providing hormone therapy and prescribing surgery. Both men and women were sorry that they would never be able to have children, and women how they would never be able to breastfeed their babies. Excuse me, “chestfeed” their babies. It is so sad. It’s overwhelming. It made me consider what we could do as a community to help. The churches could work together to create a place of peace and acceptance to help them. The church and the community could come together. It is common for churches to have drug and alcohol recovery groups, pregnant mom groups, single parent support groups, pornography recovery groups, etc. How could we support this new and growing group of hurting people?

The more the politicians, schools, and social media introduce this ideology, normalize it and push it on young people, we are going to see a growing group of people who need love, acceptance and support while they do the really hard work to get their lives back.

A virtual solution could improve the student housing shortage

Rick Benbow Regional Vice President of Western Governors University

The moment when a student learns they’ve been accepted into college, especially one on their shortlist, can be filled with excitement and pride. Those emotions can soon shift to frustration and panic when they ask, “Where will I live?”

Across the U.S., student housing availability and cost continue to move in opposite directions.

According to a 2022 survey by StudentBeans, about one-fifth of U.S. students have experienced housing insecurity, which makes them “twice as likely to want to drop out of college.” With the rising cost of tuition and increasing enrollment rates, universities and colleges have not kept up with the demand for on-campus housing. Communities cannot totally fill the gap, with limited off-campus housing pushing rental costs beyond what many students can afford.

While nearly 45% of U.S. students continue to live with their parents, an option not universally available, too many students resort to long commutes, substandard housing conditions, couch surfing or even sleeping in their car. Over 200,000 see