Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, September 22, 2018

MVNews this week:  Page A:4

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SOUTH PASADENA - SAN MARINO

Mountain Views-News Saturday, September 22, 2018 

Zest Gala to Benefit Senior 
Center in Pasadena and 
Honor Rosemary Simmons

Chu Condemns Changes 
to Detention Policies for 
Immigrant Children

West end Thriller to Arrive 
Just in Time for Halloween

 
According to Congresswoman, 
Judy Chu earlier this month 
the Trump Administration 
announced that it would be 
promulgating regulations 
to terminate the Flores 
Settlement, the agreement 
that ensures that the welfare 
of children is prioritized when 
they are in the custody of 
the federal government. The 
Flores Settlement ensures that 
children who are detained be 
placed in the least restrictive 
setting within three days of 
entering custody, and that the 
placements where children 
are sent be licensed by the 
state child welfare agency. 
This agreement became an 
obstacle to the administration’s 
implementation of their 
zero tolerance policy for 
immigrants, which required 
imprisoning immigrants and 
separating children from 
parents, both of which have 
been shown to have serious 
emotional and psychological 
impacts on children. Therefore, 
in order to continue the 
imprisonment-focused family 
detention policy, the proposed 
regulations would allow the 
administration to hold children 
in inhumane detention 
conditions indefinitely, and 
gives the U.S. Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement (ICE) 
agency the authority to establish 
family residential detention 
standards. This proposed rule 
would affect both children 
who come over the border with 
family and unaccompanied 
minors, swelling the number of 
imprisoned immigrant youth. 
Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27), who has 
visited a number of immigrant 
detention facilities, released the 
following statement:

 “This rule is a heartless and 
vindictive response to the 
public’s outrage over Trump’s 
‘zero-tolerance’ policy that 
separated children from 
families. The Flores Settlement 
was established to ensure that 
the best interest of the child 
was taken into consideration 
as their immigration status 
was being determined. But 
President Trump and Stephen 
Miller want to throw concern 
for children out the window 
in order to bolster their 
propaganda that all immigrants 
are criminals, thereby justifying 
their policy of imprisonment. 
Worse, the new regulations 
will not only put more children 
in prison, but will guarantee 
they are treated worse than 
they already are. In addition 
to their myriad problems in 
carrying out their existing 
mission, ICE is not qualified to 
take care of these children and 
has no training or background 
in child welfare. We must not 
inflict further trauma on these 
immigrant children by holding 
them in detention facilities 
like prisoners indefinitely. 
The administration should 
be considering alternatives 
to detention that will keep 
families and children together, 
while ensuring their well-being 
and health is not jeopardized.”

 The Pasadena Senior Center’s 
annual Zest gala Saturday, Sept. 
29, will be an elegant, fun-filled 
evening honoring Rosemary 
“Rary” Simmons, a long-time 
community volunteer whose 
good works have impacted 
thousands in the greater 
Pasadena area.

 Cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and 
a silent auction during a 5 p.m. 
reception will be followed by 
dinner and the program at 6 
p.m. 

 Dr. Drew Pinsky, known 
to international television 
and radio audiences as Dr. 
Drew, will serve as master of 
ceremonies. He is a prominent 
Pasadena physician who is an 
addiction specialist and media 
personality. 

 “We are pleased and proud 
that our Zest gala this year will 
honor Rary Simmons, who has 
developed an extraordinary 
legacy of community and 
philanthropic leadership 
over the decades through her 
faithfulness to the Pasadena 
and San Marino communities 
and her generous disposition,” 
said Akila Gibbs, executive 
director of the Pasadena Senior 
Center. 

 Born and raised in the Los 
Angeles area, a graduate of 
Occidental College and a 
resident of San Marino since 
1954, Rosemary “Rary” 
Simmons, serves on the 
advisory committee for the 
Pasadena-based Cancer 
Support Community; serves 
on the board of directors for 
Hill-Harbison House, which 
primarily benefits San Marino 
Girl Scout troops and City 
of San Marino Recreation 
Department programs; and is 
the only emeritus member of 
the Huntington Hospital board 
of directors, where she chairs 
the Philanthropic Committee. 

 She previously served as 
board chair for the Sycamores 
Boys’ Home in Pasadena 
(now Hathaway-Sycamores 
Child and Family Services) 
and has served on boards and 
committees for the Los Angeles 
Music Center, Hillsides 
home for foster children and 
Pasadena Showcase House for 
the Arts.

 She served for 10 years on the 
San Marino City Council, was 
its first female member and 
went on to become the first 
female mayor of San Marino.

 She was married to Frank 
Simmons from 1952 until his 
death in 2008. She has five 
children and six grandchildren.

 For more information or 
to receive an invitation to 
the Zest gala, email pamk@
pasadenaseniorcenter.org or 
call (626) 685-6756. Tickets are 
$200 per person. Proceeds will 
help fund the Pasadena Senior 
Center’s enrichment classes 
and social service programs. 
The location of the gala will 
be included in the printed 
invitation.

 For more information about 
services and programs visit: 
pasadenaseniorcenter.org or 
call 626-795-4311.

 


 Pasadena Playhouse, the 
State Theater of California, 
presents London’s second 
longest-running West End 
play The Woman in Black, 
Wednesday, October 17 
through Sunday, November 
11.

 Over eight million people 
have lived to tell the tale of 
one of the most successful 
– and terrifying - theatre 
events ever staged. It is 
coming to rattle audiences 
in Pasadena just in time 
for Halloween, with all the 
stage wizardry that has led 
audiences in London to 
shriek in fear for over 28 
years.

 For this production, 
director Robin Herford 
is recreating his original 
staging for the first time in 
the United States. Susan 
Hill’s gothic ghost story, 
adapted for the stage by 
Stephen Mallatratt, is set 
in an isolated windswept 
mansion -- with tragic 
secrets hidden behind its 
shuttered windows. There, 
a young lawyer encounters 
horrific visions in the house 
set amidst the eerie marshes 
and howling winds of 
England’s forbidding North 
Coast.

 He is a man obsessed, 
believing that his family has 
been cursed by a ghostly 
woman in black; he tells his 
terrifying story to exorcise 
the fear that grips his soul. 
It all begins innocently 
enough, but as he reaches 
further into his darkest 
memories, he quickly finds 
that there is no turning 
back. With just two actors, 
The Woman in Black gives 
audiences an evening of 
unremitting drama and 
sheer theatricality as they are 
transported into a chilling 
and ghostly world.

 Producing Artistic Director 
Danny Feldman said, “We’re 
very excited to be presenting 
one of the great international 
theatrical thrillers -- and just 
in time for Halloween! This 
gripping production is a 
brilliantly successful study 
in atmosphere, illusion and 
controlled tension, and we 
are thrilled to be presenting 
it as it has been in London 
for nearly three decades.” 

 The Woman in Black stars 
Bradley Armacost as Arthur 
Kipps and Adam Wesley 
Brown as The Actor.

 Susan Hill’s novel, The 
Woman in Black was 
originally published in 
1983. Stephen Mallatratt 
adapted for the stage in 
1987 and it was produced 
as a low-budget holiday 
show at the Stephen Joseph 
Theatre in Scarborough, 
U.K., where Herford was 
Artistic Director. The play 
transferred to London’s 
West End in January 1989. 
If this sounds familiar, this 
classic chiller was released 
as a major motion picture 
starring Daniel Radcliffe 
in 2012, and is the highest 
grossing British thriller in 
20 years.

 Tickets start at $25 
and are available at 
pasadenaplayhouse.org, 
by phone at 626-356-
7529, and at the box office 
at 39 South El Molino 
Avenue. This American 
premiere production of the 
original London West End 
production, is presented 
by PW Productions and 
Pemberley Productions.

Blue Boy 
Conservation 
Exhibition Set to 
Open Sept 22

 
The exhibition “Project 
Blue Boy” will open at The 
Huntington Library, Art 
Collections, and Botanical 
Gardens on Sept. 22, offering 
visitors a glimpse into the 
technical processes of a senior 
conservator working on the 
famous painting as well as 
background on its history, 
mysteries, and artistic virtues. 
One of the most iconic paintings 
in British and American 
history, The Blue Boy, made 
around 1770 by English painter 
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-
1788), is undergoing its first 
major conservation treatment. 
Home to the work since its 
acquisition by founder Henry 
E. Huntington in 1921, The 
Huntington will conduct some 
of the project in public view, as 
part of a year-long educational 
exhibition that runs through 
Sept. 30, 2019.

 The Blue Boy requires 
conservation to address 
both structural and visual 
concerns. “Earlier conservation 
treatments mainly have 
involved adding new layers of 
varnish as temporary solutions 
to keep it on view as much 
as possible,” said Christina 
O’Connell, The Huntington’s 
senior paintings conservator 
working on the painting and 
co-curator of the exhibition. 
“The original colors now appear 
hazy and dull, and many of the 
details are obscured.” According 
to O’Connell, there are also 
several areas where the paint 
is beginning to lift and flake, 
making the work vulnerable 
to paint loss and permanent 
damage; and the adhesion 
between the painting and its 
lining is separating, meaning it 
does not have adequate support 
for long-term display.

 The painting first appeared in 
public in the Royal Academy 
exhibition of 1770 as A Portrait 
of a Young Gentleman, where it 
received high acclaim, and by 
1798 it was being called “The 
Blue Boy”–-a nickname that 
stuck.

 Huntington is located at 1151 
Oxford Road, San Marino. 
For more information visit: 
huntington.org. 

South Pas Community 
Blood Drive Wednesday

 


 The South Pasadena 
Library and City have 
coordinated with the Keck 
Medicine of USC Blood 
Donor Center to host a 
blood drive on Wednesday, 
September 26th, from 9:00 
a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on El 
Centro Street in front of the 
Library Community Room. 
El Centro will be closed 
to traffic from 8:00 a.m. to 
5:00 p.m. to accommodate 
USC’s 39 foot mobile blood 
donation vehicle. Donors 
must have a photo I.D., be 18 
and over and weigh at least 
110 lbs. They should also 
drink plenty of fluids and 
eat a nutritious meal 2 hours 
before donating. The blood 
collected will benefit our 
local region. You can save 
3 lives with a single blood 
donation! City staff and 
residents are encouraged to 
participate!

 Questions? Contact Eric.
Carpio@med.usc.edu or 
323-442-5433 or Library 
Administration at 626-403-
7330.

Stoneman School Update

 On September 13, 2018, the 
city of San Marino issued 
itself a Notice of Violation 
for Stoneman School related 
to the building’s lack of an 
automatic and integrated 
fire alarm system. This is 
the same procedure that the 
city would follow for any 
privately-owned facility.

 At the present time, there 
is no negative impact on 
the Recreation Department 
or its programs. Although 
subject to the discretion of 
the full City Council, the city 
is not contemplating closing 
the building or cancelling 
any programs. 

 The city is appropriately 
concerned about the safety 
of Stoneman School and 
wants to

ensure that city officials and 
Staff act in the best interests 
of our participants. 

 For more information visit: 
cityofsanmarino.org.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com