JIM DE BOOM -- Community & Clubs

HOLIDAY LIGHTS: Our shopping centers and thousands of homes in Costa

Mesa and Newport Beach are beautifully decorated for the holidays. It is

worth putting the family in the car early in the evening and driving

through some neighborhoods.

Among the best is a home located at the southeast coroner of Costa

Mesa and Tustin avenues in Costa Mesa, where they have decorated flowers,

scrubs and trees in colored lights that are dazzling. About a mile away

is Snoopy’s Santa Claus Village at the northwest corner of Albert and

Santa Ana. This one just keeps growing every year and it is fun for young

children.

For $5 you help the Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation and see Orange

County’s largest Holiday Light Extravaganza at the McDonnell Centre

Business Park in Huntington Beach from 6 to 10 p.m. now until Dec. 31.

The venue is more than one mile long and includes thousands of colorful,

twinkling lights on trees and more than 75 static and animated displays.

The Centre is at the corners of Rancho Road and Bolsa Avenue in

Huntington Beach. (714) 969-2795.

BOAT PARADE THOUGHT: I, like most of you, have been reading in the

pages of the Daily Pilot about the proposed changes in the Christmas Boat

Parade route for 2002 and suggest that those residents who are concerned

about losing the parade route in front of their homes become sponsors of

the parade or at least a sponsor of one of the boats.

Hey, you are seen as a great host and hostess by your family, friends

and business associates, while others have provided the entertainment

free of charge to you. It’s time for you to step forward and share in the

cost of a boat being in the parade and putting on the parade.

Most of the restaurants and many of the businesses along the parade

route are sponsors of the parade, members of the Newport Beach Chamber of

Commerce or attend the annual Christmas Boat Parade Awards Dinner and

Auction -- to be held Fri., Jan. 25 at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Information and reservations for the dinner can be obtained by calling

the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce at (949) 729-4400.

CLUB NOTES: The Exchange Club of Newport Harbor candidate Dorcas

Preston was named Ms. Senior America from a field of 40 candidates in a

ceremony at the Imperial Hotel in Las Vegas. Newport Beach-Corona del Mar

Kiwanis Club member Nan Kappeler presented a $480 check to the Newport

Beach Fire Department from the sale of memorial bracelets in memory of

the heroes of the Fire Department of New York on Sept. 11. Past President

W.C. Fox led with the sale of 30 entertainment books as the members of

the Exchange Club of Newport Harbor sold a total of 185, which added $1,300 to their club treasury.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF SERVICE CLUBS: Tom Gielow, sponsored by Ten

Marinos, who joined the Costa Mesa-Orange Coast Breakfast Lions Club.

Worth Repeating: From “Thought for the Day,” provided by Greg Kelley

of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council: “I long to accomplish a

great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks

as if they were great and noble.” -- Helen Keller

* COMMUNITY & CLUBS is published Saturdays in the Daily Pilot. Send

your service club’smeeting information by Fax to (949) 660-8667; e-mail

to o7 [email protected] or by mail to 2082 S.E. Bristol, Suite 201,

Newport Beach, CA 92660-1740.