Mountain Views News          Saturday, November 3, 2012

5

AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

Mountain Views News Saturday, November 3, 2012

THE VOLUNTEER CENTER OF 
SAN GABRIEL VALLEY MADE A 
DIFFERENCE IN MONROVIA

“What’s Going On?” 

News and Views from Joan Schmidt

 


The Volunteer Center of San Gabriel Valley has been around since 1943. 
It provides Volunteer Services, Court referral Program, Meals on Wheels, 
Community Harvest and Make a Difference Day.

 This past Saturday in partnership with the City of Monrovia, the Volunteer 
Center of San Gabriel Valley hosted the 22nd annual Make A Difference Day. 
Throughout the nation, community service projects are completed by volunteers 
from all walks of life-from average citizens to celebrities such as actors or sports 
figures. Here in Monrovia, over 400 volunteered. 

 The day began at Library Park. Volunteers had breakfast, signed in and were given shirts and 
a project to work on. They were of all ages; representing charitable groups like the Rotary Club of 
Monrovia, organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, Scouts, and businesses. I saw City Council 
Members Tom Adams, Becky Shevlin, and Larry Spicer as well as City Manager Laurie Lile ,Steve 
Sizemore, Director of Community Development and Melissa Nunez and Rebecca Romero from 
Community Services.

 There were 30 service projects. A few included Monroe Elementary School tree planting and 
yard clean-up, Canyon Early Learning Center, sandbox cleaning, grass seeding, Monrovia Canyon 
Park Native Plant Garden and Sandbags. I saw youths hauling mulch to place all around the Library 
Park. But these service projects were not enough. There were a Blood Drive, Warm for Winter Drive, 
Canned Food Drive, and Necessities Drive.

 After the volunteers ate and signed in, everyone went to the Library Pavilion. Council Member 
Tom Adams welcomed everyone and thanked them for coming. Elizabeth Garcia from Assemblyman 
Anthony Portantino made a special presentation and Jessica Kubel, Volunteer Coordinator came up 
to accept. Then ALL the volunteers-over 400 posed for a group picture. In between I spoke to Judy 
Angelo, CEO for the Volunteer Center. There were SO MANY local businesses that helped make this 
day possible. Some included OSH, Home Depot, Pavillions, Trader Joe, Athens and so many others-I 
couldn’t write fast enough. But Judy said Home Depot not only provided plants, seeds, trees, but so 
many tools. I told her last year they helped to remodel the Veteran’s Hall in Monrovia. And it was not 
only our Home Depot workers, but a crew I met had come from Baldwin Park to help.

 Very special Thanks to the Volunteer Center of San Gabriel Valley and the City of Monrovia 
for MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE in our community. The local cleanups and plantings would have 
sufficed, but all the drives to provide blood and much-needed items was just amazing. And of course 
a BIG THANK YOU to the volunteers from preteens up to Senior citizens-whether alone or part of a 
group-you are awesome.!

 


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THE WORLD AROUND US


PAINTBALLS MAY DEFLECT INCOMING ASTEROID

In the event that a giant asteroid is headed toward Earth, it might 
help if it were blindingly white. A white asteroid would reflect sunlight—
and over time, this bouncing of photons off its surface could 
create enough of a force to push the asteroid off its course.

How might one encourage such a deflection? One answer, according 
to an MIT graduate student: with a volley or two of space-
launched paintballs.

Sung Wook Paek, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics 
and Astronautics, says that if timed just right, pellets full 
of paint powder, launched in two rounds from a spacecraft at relatively 
close distance, would cover the front and back of an asteroid, 
more than doubling its reflectivity, or albedo. The initial force from 
the pellets would bump the asteroid off course; over time, the Sun’s 
photons would deflect it even more. From his calculations, Paek 
estimates that it would take up to 20 years for the cumulative effect 
of solar radiation pressure to successfully push the asteroid off its 
Earth-bound trajectory. 

Paek’s paper detailing this unconventional strategy won the 2012 
Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition, sponsored by the 
United Nations’ Space Generation Advisory Council, which solicits 
creative solutions to space-related problems from students and 
young professionals. Paek presented his paper in October at the 
International Astronautical Congress in Naples, Italy.

The challenge put forth by this year’s U.N. competition was to identify 
novel solutions for safely deflecting a near-Earth object, such as 
an asteroid. Scientists have proposed a wide variety of methods to 
avoid an asteroid collision. Some proposals launch a projectile or 
spacecraft to collide with an incoming asteroid; the European Space 
Agency is currently investigating such a mission. Other methods 
have included detonating a nuclear bomb near an asteroid or equipping 
spacecraft as “gravity tractors,” using a craft’s gravitational field 
to pull an asteroid off its path.

ASTEROID TO COME WITHIN 14,000 MILES 
NEXT FEBRUARY

International leaders in asteroid and comet research 
are gathering at the University of Central Florida in 
Orlando on Feb. 15, 2013, for a special “viewing party” 
that will climax with asteroid 2012 DA14 passing 
between Earth and orbiting communication satellites 
(within 14,000 miles of Earth).

The asteroid, the size of a city block, will squeeze 
by Earth’s atmosphere and the geostationary satellites 
orbiting the planet. It will be the closest flyby 
in history. Animation: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=S7YTmS6U8WM

Experts say there is no chance the asteroid will hit 
Earth—this time. But with more than 4,700 asteroids 
NASA has identified as potential threats to Earth, 
some as big as 16 football fields, these objects are getting 
a lot of attention.

Should an asteroid be detected on a collision course 
with Earth, it will be critical to know its composition 
and structure in order to deflect it. The impact of a 
small asteroid like DA14 would equal the destructive 
power of an atomic bomb. A larger asteroid could be 
catastrophic.

That’s why the planetary scientists at UCF organized 
this free viewing party and invited leaders in asteroid 
research to speak to the public about the reality and myths of these 
ancient rocks on Feb. 15. UCF and the Florida Space Institute are 
sponsoring this event.

The public also will get a chance to see the flyby through exclusive 
live feeds from telescopes in La Sagra and Tenerife, Spain, where the 
astronomers who first discovered DA14 will be tracking it. 

You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com.


An artist's rendering of the asteroid Apophis. Image: European Space Agency