DOWNTOWN — Jana Strain can thank Shamu for helping her become one of the rising stars in the extreme sport of freediving. It was during a visit to the animal park Sea World over a year ago that Strain, 27, was inspired to become a dolphin trainer.
NEW YORK — The chatter died down as all eyes turned to a member of the cadre, who given the events earlier that day had something important to say to his ROTC students.
LINCOLN BLVD — The year was 1969. The role was “Villager” in Homestead High School’s performance of “Tea House of the August Moon.” The man was John Paizis, then a sophomore, who was appearing onstage for the first of what was destined to become many, many performances.
MID-CITY — It’s been a lifetime of service for Santa Monica plastic surgeon Robert Amonic. “I have always thought it’s very important to give things back to the community,” he said.
SUNSET PARK — Emmalie Hodgin calls traffic “a cancer in Santa Monica,” and on busy cut-through thoroughfare 23rd Street she might just have a point. Twenty years ago, further development projects — a mini-mall, in particular — motivated Emmalie and about 10 other neighborhood residents to form the F
WILSHIRE BLVD. — If there’s proof that wine has transitioned from a drink for the pretentious to a drink for the people, it’s Ian Blackburn. The founder of LearnAboutWine.
DOWNTOWN — An engagement can be one of the happiest times in a person’s life and for Edward Guerboian, it’s an occasion he celebrates almost daily. As the owner of Readers Fine Jewelers, Guerboian, 57, said it would take him days to recount all of the engagement stories he’s been a part of since the
DOWNTOWN — Despite working in preservation most of her adult life, Santa Monica Conservancy and Landmarks Commission member Ruthann Lehrer said she didn’t have plans of protecting historic structures early on in life.
PEARL STREET — Jeff McCulty is a blue-collar pastor — his fingernails are stained black from working on car engines and he wears baggy blue jeans with scuffed white sneakers — but this Southern Baptist minister feels right at home among Santa Monica’s manicured lawns and white picket fences.
DOWNTOWN — A quick Google search of Dr. Samuel Genensky pulls an impressive resume of accomplishments during his 81-year-life, from the time spent as a mathematician at the RAND Corp.
SUNSET PARK — Annemarie Kelleghan has literally grown up alongside the very students she tutors. The 17-year-old Sunset Park resident has spent the past five years as a volunteer tutor at the Fairview Branch Library pridefully watching young students progress along the way.
MALIBU — It’s rare to see Daria Kobayashi-Ritch leave her house without her camera and the 17-year-old is known among her friends because of it. “If I don’t have my camera, I have my phone,” she said.
