SIERRA MADRE EDITION

 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2018 


VOLUME 12 NO. 41

GENERATIONS CONNECT....

FELONY ARREST FOR CHILD 
ENDANGERMENT 

Sierra Madre, CA. – October 10, 2018 – While responding to a call 
for domestic disturbance, the Sierra Madre Police Department took 
possession of 22 firearms and made an arrest for child endangerment 
and unlawful storage of a handgun. Sierra Madre Police Chief 
Ortiz stated “the children were removed from the home and placed 
in the custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children 
and Family Services, due to the general living conditions and safety 
concerns found in the residence, including leaving a loaded handgun 
on a dresser in the children’s bedroom.” 

In the morning hours of October 8, 2018, the Sierra Madre Police 
Department went to a residence in the 500 block of N. Michillinda 
Avenue, in regards to a domestic disturbance involving a husband 
and wife. While officers were completing their investigation, they 
learned the wife had allegedly injured the husband during the incident. 
The wife was arrested for suspicion of domestic violence. 
While still at the scene, officers saw a loaded handgun lying on a 
dresser in a bedroom belonging to the couple's children. The husband 
was arrested for alleged child endangerment and unlawful 
storage of a handgun. 

Chief Joe Ortiz said “we respect the people's constitutional right to 
have firearms inside their residences, however we are legally and 
morally responsible to ensure firearms do not get into the hands of our most precious members of our 
community, which are our children. Thankfully, a tragedy may have been averted thanks to the observations 
and thorough investigations of the officers involved in this incident.” 

If you own firearms and have children in your home, you can learn more information and obtain a free 
gun lock through www.ProjectChildSafe.org.

Dr. Lisa Manuelian and her daughter 
Kareen have started something big. 
The mother-daughter duo have always 
known that they wanted to work 
on a big project together, preferably 
something that involves either service 
or giving back to a community. Their 
initial ideas ranged from service in 
Armenia to starting a swimming club 
somewhere in Africa. Ultimately, they 
decided on something closer to home: 
starting a program at the Kensington 
Senior Living in Sierra Madre. 

 Service has always been important 
to the Manuelian family. Kareen did 
400 service hours in two years and has 
earned the President’s Award twice. 
When she was in middle school, 
Kareen joined the Service Club at 
her school and immediately began 
doing two hours a week instead of 
the two hours a month requirement. 
Her mother has experience in 
retirement homes, so Kareen looked 
to the Kensington. At the time she 
was only 11, and the typical age 
requirement was 15, but because of 
her familiarity with her mother’s field, 
the Kensington decided to make an 
exception and make Kareen their 
youngest volunteer ever. 

 Kareen loved the work she was doing, and she told 
her mom that she had found the perfect place to start a 
mother-daughter project, Moment2Connect. Kareen 
says that she felt so connected to the people she was 
working with and she wanted to share that experience 
with her peers. Her goal is, “to help kids reach out and 
experience connection,”. Her mom, Lisa, describes the 
social skills that kids get to work on as they play games 
and do teambuilding exercises with the residents. She 
says that during the sessions there are no phones or 
electronics; the kids talk to the residents and get to 
know them. The kids, “Don’t want to leave,” when time 
is up around 11:00AM; they usually stay until about 
11:30. 

 The program is not yet open to the public; Kareen 
and her mom say that they have 18 students and a 
waiting list already. Currently they have children from 
local elementary schools, middle schools, and high 
schools. Kareen serves as a leader and since she is also 
a co-founder, she is working to be able to teach other 
teens in the group to lead as well. Her responsibilities 
currently include handling calls, meetings, and 
working on research. 

 Within the next six months, Kareen and her mother 
want to begin the process to make Moment2Connect 
a non-profit that reaches out to less privileged facilities. 
They say that they are up for the challenge; it was over 
a year-long process to start Moment2Connect simply 
because the approval process took a long time. But 
after a lot of review and a lot of meetings they started 
the program in late Spring. They took time off for the 
summer because the program was so new and most 
of the kids had vacation commitments, but the hope 
is that next year there will be enough students that 
the program can continue. Lisa says that now that 
the program is established, and on the calendar every 
month, everything she and Kareen do needs to be 
planned around it. 

 To find out more about the program, or to donate 
anything you have that might be useful, follow the 
program on Instagram @moment2connect or email 
Dr. Lisa Manuelian at lisa@drlisamanuelian.com. 


"...we are legally and morally responsible 
to ensure firearms do 
not get into the hands of our most 
preciousmembers of our community, 
SMPD Chief Joe Ortiz"


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