LA28 Announced Additional Olympic Venues Including Palisades

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Sue

Riviera Country Club.
Photo Courtesy: USGA/JD CUBAN

Polo Ground residents thought traffic was bad during the Genesis Golf Tournament. The small community will be impacted when golf will be played at the Riviera Country Club in the Pacific Palisades for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games announced more than a dozen venue assignments for Olympic sports on July 12

Considered one of the top golf courses in the nation, Riviera will host the world’s top women and men golfers.

“We are honored to work alongside LA28 and the world-renowned Riviera Country Club to host the golf competitions during the 2028 Los Angeles Games,” remarked Antony Scanlon, executive director of the International Golf Federation. “The Riviera Country Club will offer a prestigious and continuously challenging backdrop for golf’s most elite players, and we look forward to sharing one of the finest courses with our fans around the world.”

Founded in 1926 by the Los Angeles Athletic Club, The Riviera Country Club is ranked as one of the top-tier golf courses in the world and continuously hosts first-class events such as the 1995 PGA Championship, 1998 U.S. Senior Open, 2017 U.S. Amateur, 2026 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2031 U.S. Open. The club will celebrate its centennial in 2026.

LA 2028 will mark the sixth occasion in which golf has been featured as an Olympic sport and just the fourth time since 1904. The Opening Ceremony will be held on July 14, 2028.

Los Angeles will be home to eight of the 19 events disclosed Friday, followed by Long Beach (seven) and Carson (four).

LA28 Chief Athlete Officer Janet Evans said, “The City of Los Angeles will host more Olympic sports than anywhere else, and Carson and Long Beach, which hosted competitions in previous Games, will host more competitions than ever before. The venues in these cities are world-class, and provide the ideal conditions for athletes and fans, and we look forward to welcoming them in 2028.”

This will be the third time that Los Angeles has hosted the Olympic Games, previously hosting in 1932 and 1984. It will be the first time to host the Paralympic Games. The LA28 Games are independently operated by a privately funded, non-profit organization with revenue from corporate partners, licensing agreements, hospitality and ticketing programs and a significant contribution from the International Olympic Committee.

To watch for more upcoming announcements: click here.

Posted in City | 1 Comment

Book Donations Will Once Again Be Accepted

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Sue

 

Book Donations will once again be accepted by volunteers INSIDE the Library.
Photo: Rich Schmitt/CTN

Starting on Wednesday, July 17 and on Wednesdays and Saturdays in July and August, gently read books will once again be accepted INSIDE the Palisades Library, 861 Alma Real.

Volunteers will be available to accept gently read books between 10 and 2 p.m. Donation days are: July 17, 20, 24, 27, 31 and August 3, 7, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24, 28 and 31.

Friends of the Library’s Seem Wolsefer said “Please note that we can only accept books in very good condition. Books should not be written in or highlighted or show signs of excessive wear and tear.

“We cannot accept magazines, textbooks, CDs, DVDs, encyclopedias or library books,” Wolsefer said and added, “Donating items that cannot be sold in our book sale puts extra work on our volunteers who then have to find other places that can accept the books.”

REMINDER: Please do not leave book donations at the library other than the specified days and times. Do NOT drop off donations when volunteers are not present.

Posted in Books, General | Leave a comment

Crime Continues to Soar in Santa Monica

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Sue

 

FOUR-YEAR-OLD ABDUCTED:

Breanna Shields’ booking photo.

The Santa Monica Police Department responded to a call at 12:11 p.m. in the 1900 block of Lincoln. A four-year-old girl and her grandmother were at a Panda Express when the girl was abducted. Witnesses said the grandmother had gone up to a counter to pay for their meal when the suspect lured the girl outside, according to ABC Channel 7. Police responded within minutes and gathered video images of the kidnapper, described as a white, heavyset female in her 30s.

More than 30 sworn and civilian personnel flooded the area, searching for the child and suspect. About 30 minutes later, Downtown Services Unit found them in a room at the Holiday Motel at 11th and Pico.

Police released a statement “Our heartfelt wishes go out to the child and her family as they deal with the shock of the ordeal.” The suspect, Breanna Shields, 31, was booked into jail for kidnapping charges. “Additional updates will be forthcoming when the case is presented to the District Attorney’s office.” Her bail was set at $100,00 and she is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

Police said it had appeared that the suspect had been residing in the Holiday Motel for an extended period of time.

HOMELESS HOLDS KNIFE TO TEEN’S THROAT:

Santa Monica Pier

The Santa Monica Daily Press reported on July 13, that a homeless man held a knife to the throat of a 16-year-old boy at the Santa Monica Pier about 2:35 p.m. on July 7. The suspect, Francisco Daniel Espindola, approached the boy, who was fishing with his mother near the west end of Santa Monica Pier. The homeless man grabbed the victim’s fishing knife from a nearby bench and held the blade to boy’s neck.

According to the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD), Espindola said in Spanish, “Be careful. I can kill you.”

The boy lifted his hands, the mother ran toward the suspect and tried to de-escalate the situation by laughing.

Espindola, 33, kept the knife raised before sitting it back down and going to a nearby beach. He was located by police and arrested.

On July 9, the District Attorney filed one charge of Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Espindola is currently on probation for robbery.

Speaking to the Daily Press, SMPD Lieutenant Erika Aklufi said, “As you will agree, this incident was extremely distressing for both the victim and his mother and we are all very, very glad we were able to get this individual in custody.”

SATURDAY NIGHT MELEE:

One SM resident wrote on a social media platform that there was a “Huge fight in downtown Santa Monica after a drone show at the pier tonight. About 100 young adults tried to jump a single kid and chased him to the Surfing Fox bar on Colorado.

“A couple of brave Latino guys kept the kid from getting killed until the cops arrived .. They were assaulted a number of times by people in the crowd. It was pretty f**king horrible and it took too long for the cops to arrive.

“When they did, they had no idea what was happening and the people assaulting this kid got away. We definitely need more police presence on the street near the pier, especially on weekends during the summer,” the resident said, “There has been a violent assault every weekend this year! I hope some of the people who were videotaping share their video with the police!”

DEFUND THE POLICE:

The Santa Monica Police Department was defunded in 2020.  The Police Department no longer has a plainclothes unit, a street interdiction team, a full-time mounted unit or a fully staffed downtown unit, all were units the department formerly staffed.

The Santa Monica Daily Press reported on July 10 (“Opinion: Santa Monica Massively Underfunding Its Police Department”) that Santa Monica is spending 25.70% of its general fund budget on the Police Department. If you compare the police budget to the whole budget (general fund and CIP budget), it’s a paltry 15.38%. In comparison, Manhattan Beach and Glendale commit over 40% of their budget to keep their cities safe, Torrance and Huntington Beach spend 35.5% and 34.07% of the budget to keep their city safe, while Culver City commits 30.14% of its general fund. Even other liberal cities like Berkeley, California proposed 32.28% of its 2025 budget to fund its Police Department.

Posted in Crime/Police | Leave a comment

Noel Coward’s “Design” on Odyssey Stage

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Sue

Starring in “Design” are Garikayi Mutambirwa (left) , Brooke Bundy and Kyle T. Hester.
Photo: COOPER BATES

 

By LIBBY MOTIKA

Circling the News Contributor

It wasn’t until 1939 before Noel Coward’s Design for Living hit the London stage, despite having opened on Broadway seven years before. The London critics thought the play too risqué.

Coward wrote the play for his good friends Lynn Fontanne and Arthur Lunt, and he himself filled out the trio. So why was it considered risqué for the 1930s?

Probably because it concerns a trio of artistic characters, Gilda, Otto and Leo, and their complicated three-way relationship.  Artistic types, Otto is a playwright whose recent work is much applauded. Leo has found success as an artist. Gilda is a free-spirited woman with a successful interior design business. The threesome are all smitten with one another. Otto loves Gilda, Leo loves Gilda, Gilda loves each of them sequentially, and the men love one another. Obviously, none of this was overt in Coward’s original production, just ripe with innuendo.

Over the years, Design for Living has been revived countless times, with many top stars taking a crack at it. The Odyssey Theatre is taking a turn. Inuendo no more. The wink winks are gone. This production in 2024 is the playground of self-absorbed, frivolous people—just the sort Coward was mocking.

Director Bart Delorenzo says he dare not compete with Coward on “the clipped delivery” and ostentatious glamour and sheen but is drawn to the artists’ throwing off the conventions of the time in work, social bonds and sexuality. “Because, really, given a blank canvas, who would ever construct a world like the one we seem to have?”

Nevertheless, Design for Living does require stars of a special luster. Now in 2024, what was witty and sophisticated in 1930 is feeling faded. The actors override this deficiency by tipping the action into one big romp.

All three acts of Design for Living contain variations on the same classic bedroom-farce premise–an unexpected entrance by a cuckolded lover but none of the betrayals really hurt. Everyone retains his “veneer” and pretends to be happy; introspection and heartbreak can be banished. Life can remain, in Leo’s words, “a pleasure trip” – “a cheap excursion.”

Design for Living is on stage at the Odyssey through August 25. Contact: 310-477-2055

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Goodbye Vons, Hello Piggly Wiggly

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Sue

If the proposed merger goes forward this Vons would be sold to C&S.

As the merger of Kroger and Albertsons seeks approval from federal antitrust regulators, many residents in Pacific Palisades worry about losing the Vons grocery store located at Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway.

A group of residents having coffee at Estate/Flour on a recent morning expressed satisfaction with Vons and didn’t want that grocery store to go away.

“They have good produce and a good deli,” one said.

Another added, “They have nice liquor, selection, too, and there’s a Starbucks, there.”

Vons is one of four grocery stores in Pacific Palisades that also includes Ralphs, Erewhon and Gelson’s.

Kroger, which owns Ralphs and Food 4 Less, and Albertsons, which owns Safeway, Vons and Pavilions, have sought to merge.

The combined company would own nearly 5,000 stores. The deal was first announced in October 2022. The two food chains have said they need to combine to better compete with retail giant Walmart. The deal, if approved, would put Kroger as the second-largest player in the U.S. grocery market behind Walmart.

The Federal Trade Commission sued to block the acquisition earlier this year, arguing it could eliminate competition, drive prices higher and reduce choices for shoppers.

To offset that fear, the companies are now selling 579 stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, a New Hampshire-based company that owns the Piggy Wiggly and Grand Union brands, as well as giving it access to Albertsons Signature and O Organics private label brands.

That deal includes the sale of 63 stores in California to C&S and on July 9, Kroeger said C&S would continue operating stores, honor existing collective bargaining agreement and avoid layoffs.

Two nearby stores would be among those sold under the agreement: Vons at 17380 Sunset Boulevard and Pavilions at 29211 Heathercliff Road in Malibu.

Steven Shemesh, RBC Capital Markets analyst, said that one of the primary arguments against the original sales package was that C&S does not have meaningful operational experience and that they have a history of flipping retail assets.

The suit is scheduled to go to trial at the end of August.

Maybe if the C&S Piggly Wiggly does not make it, that current Vons’ site would be a great location for a Trader Joe’s.

 

Posted in businesses/stores | 4 Comments

Op-Ed: CD 11 Neighbors Stage Rally in Support of Traci Park

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Sue

Residents from Pacific Palisades joined other community members from Council District 11 to show support for Traci Park.
Photo: SHARON KILBRIDE

(Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the Westside Current July 14, and is reprinted with permission.)

By CHRIS LE GRAS

Motorists Motorists traversing the intersection of Lincoln and Washington Boulevards in Venice, on July 13, were treated to a display of grassroots political action.

Between 40 and 50 supporters of Councilwoman Traci Park congregated for a two-hour rally called “Thank You Traci Park!” There was music, dancing, honking horns, and many pro-Park signs. Every neighborhood in Council District 11 was represented in a powerful reminder of her broad base of support.

At one point, an LAFD hook-and-ladder truck and fire engine passed. The firefighters, some of Traci’s staunchest supporters, blasted their horns and waved to the delight of the already high-spirited gathering.

CD 11 neighbors organized the rally at the last minute in response to a planned protest half a mile away, at the intersection of Lincoln and Venice Boulevards. The protesters oppose Park’s handling of the homelessness crisis on the Westside, particularly her use of Municipal Code 41.18 to remove illegal homeless encampments near sensitive areas, including schools, places of worship, daycares, and certain critical infrastructure.

Since its enactment in 2022, the law has been a focal point of protests by activists who believe it “criminalizes” homelessness. However, violations do not result in arrest or criminal prosecution. They result in infractions or “cite and release.” The protesters’ argument is akin to arguing that issuing speeding tickets to scofflaw drivers “criminalizes” driving altogether.

Despite being organized on barely 24 hours’ notice the pro-Park supporters outnumbered the protestors by 3-1. Judging from the number of drivers who honked and waved as they passed, the ratio was considerably higher still.

Protestors also argue that Park has “used the Inside Safe program to transfer people out of our community.” Apparently, they believe that it’s better to let homeless people languish on the streets than be moved inside a few miles away. That’s an odd argument coming from people who claim to be the compassionate ones.

Compared to the protestors’ doom and gloom, the pro-Park rally was upbeat, filled with smiles and hope for the next six years. Above all, it was peaceful and respectful.

Three years ago, CD 11 still had a councilman [Mike Bonin] who evinced open hostility to his constituents. For a decade under his failed tenure residents watched helplessly as parks, beaches, the Venice Boardwalk, playgrounds, streets, and even private property succumbed to illegal homeless encampments.

Vandalism, violent attacks, break-ins, fires, even sexual assaults, rapes, and murders became shatteringly commonplace. People were afraid to leave their homes after dark. Suffice it to say, there were no spontaneous displays of support from constituents in his final years.

Unconfirmed rumors suggested that the former councilman played a role in yesterday’s protest. If so, it was yet another failure on his part.

For people who were involved with Park’s 2022 campaign, the rally brought back fond memories. The same grassroots energy, and the same anti-establishment zeal, propelled her campaign and set it apart from traditional consultant-dominated operations. Park’s campaign was truly of and by the people. That energy was on display once again on a muggy July afternoon.

There was also a sense, albeit subconscious, that the effort to secure Park’s reelection had kicked off. Familiar faces from 2022 reconnected. There were a lot of hugs. There was a true sense of community.

For two hours, the best of democracy was on full display in West Los Angeles. While the organizers and participants worked hard, the energy was pure Park.

Posted in City Councilmember Traci Park, Community | 4 Comments

Taking a Leap of Faith

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Sue

About 20 residents participated in the first Palisades Prayer Project.

By NINA KIDD

The Palisades Neighborhood Prayer Project, 2024, is underway.

Twenty Palisades friends and neighbors met to pray on June 4. Across denominations they came together in solidarity with congregation members of Kehillat Israel and Palisades Chabad and in prayer for the innocent citizens in both Israel and Gaza.

After almost 10 months, the war in Gaza continued to inflict both Israeli and Palestinian casualties. People across the world continued to worry over the five Americans and one hundred-plus Israeli citizens still held hostage.

Pastors Cyndi and Joe Ramirez, (Revive LA Chapel), with support from Nina and Dave Kidd (from Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church) convened the prayer gathering. They led the group in an hour of worship music and prayers.

Joe Ramirez, now Commander for the Palisades American Legion Post, called Pastor Matt Hardin (P.P. Presbyterian Church) to the front where he asked for the Lord’s blessing on all our neighbors in pain, particularly those in our Jewish community.

The evening’s attendees were invited to write and submit confidential prayers. A Presbyterian Church team prayed on their behalf the next day.

Local musicians May Claire LaPlante, and Amanda and Russell Long, sang and played keyboards and guitar. Julie Burditt played guitar and sang in both Hebrew and English; and Cantor Chayim Frenkel (Kehillat Israel) sent his recording singing a Hebrew prayer.

Faithful neighbors prayed together across denominations, lifted in music.

Pastors Cyndi and Joe and Nina and Dave agreed that this first grass roots-led Palisades Neighborhood Prayer Project was a successful leap of faith. Their prayers in solidarity with the Palisades Jewish community continue.

This Palisades Neighborhood Prayer Project invites concerned neighbors and friends to their second prayer meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 23, at the American Legion Hall, at 15247 La Cruz Drive. Rank and file parishioners as well as prayer beginners and skeptics are welcome. For more information email Ramirez at joe@revivela.net with subject line: “Prayer Project.”

“Never underestimate the power of prayer! Constant prayer, with full conviction, without loss of hope, really does create miracles.” – Indian author Ritu Ghatourey

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“Orchids 101” for Beginners

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Sue

Donna Ballard will speak to orchid growers who are beginners at the hobby.

The Malibu Orchid Society Monthly meeting, which is held in Hart Lounge at the Community Methodist Church in Pacific Palisades, will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16. The speaker will be Donna Ballard “A Culture Session: Orchids 101.”  Light refreshments will be served, and all residents are invited to attend.

Her presentation of Orchids 101 will be geared toward beginner and intermediate growers. Orchids have four basic cultural needs: appropriate light levels, appropriate temperature levels, basic watering needs, and humidity requirements.  Understanding these needs, growers will achieve success in growing and blooming orchids.

Ballard will share expert growing tips and demonstrate repotting techniques for various orchid genera. If a resident has an orchid plant and has questions about repotting, the speaker will likely have tips to accomplish a successful transfer.

She was born, raised and attended school in the San Fernando Valley. For more than 40 years she has been studying plants as a professional interior plant technician, a position she recently retired from.

For the past seven years, she served as a volunteer at the Huntington Botanical Gardens Thornton Estate Orchid Conservatory where she worked alongside Doug Overstreet who oversees the vast Thornton orchid collection.

Ballard is an active member of the Orchid Society of Southern California  (OSSC) and an Accredited American Orchid Society Judge for the AOS Pacific South Judging Region. She serves on the AOS Board of Education and is currently the 1st Vice President of the San Fernando Valley Orchid Society. She frequently exhibits at both the Santa Barbara and Huntington Orchids Shows.

Her personal orchid collection numbers over 1400, and this is within an area of 485 sq. feet which encompasses her greenhouse, shade house and interior growing areas. Orchids she grows include Cattleyas, Paphiopedilums, Cymbidiums, Dendrobiums, Sarcochilus, miniature Vandas and Phalaenopsis orchids.

Do these orchids need to be repotted – and exactly how do you do that? Answers maybe forthcoming at a lecture about Orchids 101.

 

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“Grease” a Must See

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Sue

The Greasers are ready to entertain you.
Photo: KATHERINE MOSSMAN

Instead of spending another boring evening scrolling through streaming services, how about having some real fun?

Grease, performed by Theatre Palisades Youth, is exceptional. . . .and fun . . ..and cute . . . and filled with enthusiasm . . . tricky dance steps -nearly perfectly executed . . .and raw talent. It is a must see.

I loved the kids playing Danny, Sandy and Cha Cha in the performance I saw. Danny needs a certain amount of swagger and charisma and this kid had it. Sandy’s voice was perfect, and you couldn’t take your eyes off Cha Cha, as she seemed to be having more fun than anyone as she danced her way through the contest.

But as always, Director Lara Ganz, gives her young actors the chance to have a leading role. There are four Sandys, three Dannys and three Cha Cha’s. The casting of some of even the youngest kids as teachers or members of the gang, is absolutely brilliant.

Director Lara Ganz said that Grease has been one of her favorite musicals since it hit the theaters in 1978 – and it was actually filmed at Venice High school.  Grease, set in the 1950s, is the story of high school sweethearts Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson, which was played by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the original film.

“When I first took on the program director position at TPY in 2016, I tried to put on Grease as my debut show, but the rights were too expensive,” Ganz said. “But with the growth of our program, we are finally able to make this longtime dream a reality.”

The 50 actors, ages 8 to 14 are performing a family-friendly school version of Grease, which tells the story of working-class teenagers navigating the complexities of peer pressure, politics, personal core values, and love.

Meet the Pink Ladies of TYP’s Grease.
Photo: KATHERINE MOSSMAN 

Sandy is being called to throw off the conformity and repression of the 1950’s for the freedom and adventure of the 1960’s. This cultural chaos is perfectly represented by rebellious teenage attitudes so perfectly depicted by the Greasers, T-Birds, and the Pink Ladies, based on a real 1950s girl gang that existed in Grease creator Jim Jacob’s high school in Chicago.

Choreographer Rebecca Barragan played Cha Cha in a touring Broadway show of Grease and in the TPY production her 14-year-old daughter is playing Cha Cha.

Choreographer Aaron Jung said, “Grease is, absolutely without a doubt, the WORD. The dances are stunning and the solos are soaring.”

Even if you’re not a musical fan, it’s worth going to Pierson Playhouse just to see the costuming, designed by Gillian Calof, Vanessa Schacter and David Montgomer.  For this production, choreographer Rebecca Barragan also played a major role in the vision for the costumes.

Barragan and Ganz’s overall vision was to stay as authentic as possible to the 1950s, but choosing bright, vibrant Tupperware-esque colors.

Performances this week are Friday, July 12 at 7 p.m., Saturday, July 13 at 2 and 5 p.m., Sunday, July 14 at 1 and 4 p.m. Next week one can catch the show on Thursday, July 18, at 7 p.m., Friday, July 19 at 5 and 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 5:30 p.m. and the final show for this run will be Sunday, July 21, at 1 p.m.

Tickets click here are $22 for general admission and $17 for a senior/student. Warning: TPY shows generally sell out—and this will be one where tickets will be scarce.

The theater, Pierson Playhouse is located at 941 Temescal Canyon Road, phone (310) 454-1970.

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Welcome to the Neighborhood Reverend Shaver

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Sue

Reverend John Shaver is the new minister at the Community United Methodist Church.

Community United Methodist Church on Via de la Paz has a new minister, Reverend John T. Shaver. The church’s former minister, Dr. Wayne Walters, retired July 1.

Shaver’s first sermon was on July 7, and this editor was instantly hooked as he spoke about Mr. Rogers and it’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

Shaver explained to the congregation that before the 10 a.m. service, he had been on the sidewalk in front of the church welcoming people, “won’t you be my neighbor.”

Some weren’t even congregants. Yet, they still seemed to be delighted to meet the new minister, and one woman even explained church to her child.

This editor had a chance to sit down with Shaver at Flour on Via de la Paz this past week. He said he had worked as a barista during divinity school, and he also met Fred Rogers, who was an ordained Presbyterian minister through the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Shaver said he was headed to an 8 a.m. Greek class – not one of his favorites – and Rogers saw him and acknowledged his mood about having a difficult class at an early hour.

Initially Shaver, a fourth-generation preacher, who grew up in Pittsburgh, had no intention of following in his father’s footsteps in the ministry. He had helped his dad at churches in rural areas and small towns outside of Pittsburgh.

“People in my family are preachers, teachers and farmers,” said Shaver, who received a bachelor’s degree in political science from North Carolina University, with plans to go to law school.

When not a lot of job offers for a political science degree materialized, Shaver went to Boston University and then the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary where he received his master’s degree in divinity in 1998. He also started working on his master’s degree in social work at the University of Pittsburgh (he’s one clinical class short of the degree).

About this time Shaver was sent to two small churches in the area where coal mines were closing and steel mines shutting down. It was a tough economy for the people living there. Shaver, who “didn’t want to do what dad and his grandfather had,” was told “Just try these churches.”

And as Shaver said, “Sometimes God has other plans.

“When I walked in the church, vacation bible school was going,” he said. “I stayed for a year, and we had a wonderful time.”

His grandmother lived in the Thousand Oaks area, and he came West for a visit. While he was here, Pastor John Nadel “asked me a lot of questions,” Shaver said, and later found out, “It was an interview.”

Shaver accepted a call to the Westlake area, and one of the people working at the church would become his future mother-in-law.

Michele, his future wife, was also working part-time at the church before she started teaching elementary school in 2002.

Shaver went back to Western Pennsylvania, where he was assigned two medium-sized churches and the couple dated, long-distance. They married and Michele joined him on the East Coast. Their daughter Madison was born in 2006, but Shaver said he could see his wife missed California.

Then, District Superintendent Catie Coots brought him to the West Coast in 2008, and he became the lead minister in Valencia. His daughter Kendal was also born that year.

After six years in the Santa Clara area, he moved the family to Encinitas at the San Dieguito Methodist Church, where he worked for about 10 years.

Before coming to the Palisades, he took a six-month sabbatical, working in Central America in Nicaragua and then Mexico. He worked with a dentist, helping to make sure there was clean water, and aiding with entrepreneurial skills with community members. “I went into help with needs, and share God’s love, while helping people with basic necessities,” he said.

Shaver made an interfaith Holy Land Trip in February 2023, with a man he describes as one of his best friends, Rabbi Mark Blazer of Temple Beth Ami in Santa Clarita. The two clergy had about 50 congregants accompanying them.

About coming to Pacific Palisades, Shaver said, “I felt it was time for a new challenge. God was saying it was time to try something new.”

He describes this location, “It’s a wonderful church, great music, a fantastic preschool – there are so many wonderful things about this church,” he said, and added he’s also fascinated with the history of the Methodists developing the Palisades.

If you would like to hear Shaver, service is at 10 a.m. on Sunday Morning, at 801 Via de la Paz. The music is wonderful and there is a Sunday School program for children during the service.

This Sunday, July 14, after the service there will be a potluck lunch to welcome Pastor John and his family. The church will provide chicken, and members are asked to bring a side salad or dessert to share.

Posted in Community | 2 Comments