Mountain Views News          Saturday, December 15, 2012

CITIZEN OF THE YEAR (cont. from page 1)

its citizens during 2012. They must have served 
without remuneration on the project for which 
they are being nominated, and members of the 
Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors are 
not eligible.

 If you would like to nominate someone, please 
e-mail your nominee to Noah Green at ngreen@
ryanattorneys.com. You can also mail in your 
nominations to the Chamber of Commerce at 19 
Suffolk Avenue, Suite A, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. 

APPLICATIONS MUST RECEIVED BY 

DECEMBER 31, 2012.

 The winner will be selected by members of the 
Chamber Board of Directors, and will be honored 
at the annual Citizen of the Year/Board of 
Directors Installation Dinner to be held on January, 
25, 2013.


3

Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 15, 2012 

CHRISTMAS SERVICES AT SIERRA MADRE’S 

VILLAGE CHURCH – ASCENSION - All Are Welcome

 Many special events take place at Ascension during Christmastide. You are invited to join us as we

celebrate this glorious season through story, pageant, song, prayer, scripture, and candlelight. This

year’s schedule of special services for Christmas includes:

 December 24th Christmas Eve - Family Service and Pageant at 5:00 p.m. This special family 
service features the Children’s Christmas Pageant during which our youth inspire us with an 
adaptation of Charles Tazewell’s classic story - The Littlest Angel. All children attending this 
service are encouraged to participate in the telling of the story. The service will also be filled 
with music provided by the children and a musical quartet.

 December 24th Christmas Eve – Carols and Hymns at 10:30 p.m. and Mass at 11:00 p.m.

 Ascension’s late Christmas Eve service features the traditional procession, incense, candles, 
prayer, sermon, and the great music of the season as the congregation joyously celebrates 
the birth of Christ. Four anthems new to Ascension will include Fanfare for Christmas Day 
by Martin Shaw, John Rutter’s Angel’s Carol, an ethereal arrangement of O Holy Night by 
Adolphe Adam, arranged by Gary Fry, and a delightfully rhythmic setting of Tomorrow Shall

 Be My Dancing Day by John Gardner. More familiar anthems include Harold Darke’s In the 

 Bleak Midwinter, John Rutter’s Star Carol, and the incomparable O Magnum Mysterium by 

 Morten Lauridsen

 December 25th Christmas Day - 11:00 a.m. the Celebration of the Feast of the Nativity.

 Church of the Ascension is located at 25 E. Laurel Avenue corner of Laurel and Baldwin 

 Avenues in Sierra Madre. For more information, please call (626) 355-1133 or visit: 

 www.ascensionsierramadre.com.

REMEMBRANCES


ALICE (ELLEN) HATFIELD BONDS

 Alice (Ellen) Hatfield Bonds. 1920 - 2012, Great-grand-daughter 
of Devil (Anse) Hatfield was born in the small town of Becksrun 
just outside of Pittsburg with her twin sister Annabelle. Their 
mother died when the girls were only eleven. They learned how 
to do housework earl. Alice went to work parking cabs and trucks 
during WWII in 1940, when she was only 20 years old and 5’2” 
tall.

 The Pittsburg Press put her in the newspaper featuring working 
women who wore pants and a baseball style cap, (she was well 
ahead of the fashion curve on that one.) Hearing her Mother 
say she always wanted to see California and having lost her first 
husband during WWII, (Gold Star Wife), she moved to L.A. and 
worked at the V.A. Hospital in the fifties. There she met her second 
husband, my dad, Jack Bonds. In 1958 she found a job at the 
Convalescent Home on Baldwin across the street from Bethany 
Church, she decided she liked it here and after the divorce she 
brought her two baby boys to Sierra Madre in 1960, where the 
town would never be the same. In those days, I remember many a neighborhood mother telling my 
Mom that it was impossible to raise two boys on your own who carry on so wildly. 

 My Mother never dated during our childhood years, only working as an unlicensed nurse caring 
for the elderly, sick and doing mundane and menial work. She was involved in that for most of her 
working career.

 Her one passion was to serve Jesus and go to Church like no one I ever saw. She continued to have the 
‘faith of a little child’ to the very end.

 One of the last things she said to me was, “I liked this town from the first time I saw it, always have.”

 She is survived by her two sons, Wade (Sierra Madre) and John Bonds (Morongo Valley); three 
grandsons, Austin Joe (Minister) of Dallas, Texas, John in Arkansas and Brent in Indiana.

 In lieu of flowers, please consider doing something kind for someone less fortunate than yourself 
during this holiday season; or say a prayer for someone that you are not fond of at all. Mom would 
like that. 

 Special thanks to the good people of Paz Naz (The First Church of the Nazarene - Pasadena) and 
Bethany Church (Sierra Madre) churches that visited, fed, clothed, and prayed with my mother when 
she was bedridden in the last year of her life. Very special thanks to Ruth Hashinoto.

Sierra Madre Search and Rescue

During the month of November, Sierra Madre Search and Rescue (SMSR) responded to several calls for 
assistance. Two notable calls are described below.

Lost Hikers, Chantry Flat/Big Santa Anita Canyon: The Team responded to Chantry Flat to assist 
two hikers who had gotten off trail, become disoriented and were unable to get back to the trailhead 
due to darkness. Rescue team members began searching along potential routes of travel based on 
the limited information SMPD had been able to obtain during the initial call for assistance. SMSR 
Operations Leaders (OL) were able to establish communication via SMS/text messaging and 
determined the hikers were using an Apple iPhone. Using one of the OLs iPhones they were able to 
use the “Find My Phone” application to get an approximate location that allowed crews to concentrate 
efforts near Hermit Falls. Since the “Find My Phone” application was not able to provide detailed 
location information, rescuer’s familiarity with the area was critical in determining the side canyon 
where the subjects were stranded. Field crews located the hikers several hundred feet up the side of 
a side canyon. The subjects were cold but uninjured and required the use of a rope “handline” to get 
back to the trail. 

 

Missing Hiker, Chantry Flat/Big Santa Anita Canyon: The Adams Pack Station staff received word 
from a hiker at Sturtevant Camp that his friend had fallen from a section of the trail between Mt. 
Wilson and the camp. The hiker reported that he was no longer able to locate his friend. SMPD put 
out a page notifying SMSR and the Team responded. A so-called “bash crew”, equipped to move 
quickly and evaluate the situation, was immediately sent into the field to make the approximately 4 
mile hike to the location where the hiker was last seen. The bash crew reached the location in just 
over an hour and made contact with the reporting party who escorted them to where he had last seen 
his companion. After several minutes, verbal contact was made with the missing hiker and the crew 
was able to locate the subject in the canyon bottom below the trail. After determining that there were 
no injuries beyond a few scrapes, crews escorted both hikers back to their vehicle at Chantry. 

Both of the calls described above were helped by the use of technology. Each took over 3 hours 
to successfully resolve when the technology was working. Cell phones and other technologies are 
wonderful tools but should never be completely relied upon in the mountains. There are many areas 
where cell phone reception is limited or completely unavailable. While there are a series of call 
boxes in the Chantry Flat/Big Santa Anita Canyon that connect users with the Pack Station, hikers 
may struggle to locate or be unfamiliar with the use of the system. If there had been no cell phone 
reception or the call to the Pack Station had not gone through, each rescue could have taken many 
more hours to resolve. 

With the shorter days of winter and increased likelihood of poor weather, hikers and others are 
reminded that being prepared is crucial for a safe trip into the mountains. Being prepared includes 
carrying warm clothing and a light source as part of your 10 essentials. Remember to make sure 
someone knows where you’ve gone and when you will return. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s 
Department’s Hiker Plan is a good way to document your plans.

For 60 years the all-volunteer Sierra Madre Search and Rescue team has been responding to calls 
for help in the local mountains and beyond. Funded entirely by private donations, SMSR provides a 
range of public programs on wilderness safety in addition to its search and rescue activities. The Team 
never charges for any of its services. 

For more information, including how to arrange a wilderness safety demonstration for your school 
or group, visit www.smsr.org.


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Sierra Madre Police Blotter

Sunday December 2, 2012

At 9 am, a traffic collision occurred near the intersection of Baldwin Avenue and Alegria Avenue. 
While turning into a driveway, a vehicle collided with the left front bumper of another vehicle parked 
at the curb. No injuries were reported and only minor damage was caused by the collision. 

Friday, December 7, 2012

Police investigated a report of a vehicle being stolen in the 00 block of Monterey Lane. The owner 
parked his vehicle in his driveway on Thursday night and discovered it missing the following morning. 
The owner reported that two days earlier, someone had entered the same vehicle as it was parked in 
the driveway and had removed a set of keys which included a spare key to the vehicle. The vehicle 
has not been recovered yet.

At 1:30 pm, a resident in the 500 block of East Laurel Avenue observed a male white approximately 
18 years of age, walk into his backyard and take a skateboard. The resident gave chase but lost sight of 
the suspect. The investigators received sufficient information on the suspect to create a photo line-up 
and show it to the resident. The investigation is on-going. 

Saturday, December 8, 2012

At approximately 2:45 am, police received information on a vehicle driving the wrong way on Foothill 
Boulevard near Michillinda Avenue. Units responded and located the described vehicle at Baldwin 
Avenue near Foothill Boulevard. The investigation revealed that the driver (male, 20 years of age) had 
been drinking and was unable to safely operate a vehicle. He was arrested for DUI. 

COMMUNITY BLOOD DRIVE

This coming Thursday, December 20th the Sierra Madre Community Services Department 
and American Red Cross is hosting a Community Blood Drive from 12 noon to 6:00 pm. 
This life saving event takes place at the Sierra Madre Community Recreation Center, 611 E. 
Sierra Madre Blvd., and is open to the public. Individuals who are 17 years of age or older, 
110 pounds or more and are in generally good health are eligible to donate blood. As a 
thank you to all donors, the American Red Cross is providing Subway sandwiches plus a 
coupon from Cold Stone Creamery!

 To schedule an appointment, please visit the American Red Cross at www.redcrossblood.
org or contact the Community Services Department at 626.355.7394. Walk-ins are welcome 
but appointments are encouraged.