201901.03
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Bravo! Trailblazers, survivors and bringers of fun

by in News

A music trailblazer celebrates 106th birthday

Viola Smith, one of the first professional women drummers of the 20th century, recently celebrated her 106th birthday. The Costa Mesa resident is still going strong, teaching techniques to the drummer for Piecemakers Band.

Smith started as a professional drummer at the age of 13 in an all-girl orchestra formed by her father, Nicolas Schmitz. She later started her own all-girl orchestra with her sister, Mildred, called The Coquettes and played in several other bands.

  • A poster from the early 1930s featuring Viola Smith during her drumming career. (Courtesy of Viola Smith)

  • Viola Smith on the drums at age 100. (Courtesy of Brianna Serr)

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  • Coastal German Shepherd Rescue volunteers Katherine Angel and Georgianna Limberis Kelso, with her rescue dog, Alexia, receive a $5,000 grant for their animal welfare organization as part of the Petco Foundation’s 2018 Holiday Wishes campaign during a special celebration event at a Petco Store in Tustin. (Courtesy of the Petco Foundation)

  • Tarbut v’Torah day school choir kicked off the menorah lighting at Fashion Island with a performance. (Courtesy of Charles Weinberg)

  • Holocaust Survivors with Steve Silverstein and Rabbi Reuven Mintz during the menorah lighting event at Fashion Island. (Courtesy of Charles Weinberg)

  • Survivor Ildi Good with children participating in the ceremony at the menorah lighting at the Fashion High. (Courtesy of Charles Weinberg)

  • For many students of St. John the Baptist Elementary in Costa Mesa, a snow day was their first experience touching and playing with snow. (Courtesy of St. John the Baptist)

  • St. John the Baptist Elementary School Chaplain Fr. Damien Giap explains the significance of snow day to elementary school students. (Courtesy of St. John the Baptist)

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She appeared in two movies: Abbott and Costello’s “Here Come the Coeds” and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” She was also a cast member in the original Broadway production of “Cabaret” with Joel Gray, playing the drummer in the Kit Kat Band. Smith is featured in a chapter of the 2014 book, “Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country,” by Angela Smith.

More recently, Viola was filmed for an upcoming feature-length documentary by director Heddy Honigmann from The Netherlands, entitled “100 UP.”

Orange County animal welfare organization gets its wish

The story of an adopted dog, Rigby, who saves an orphan kitten has won Coastal German Shepherd Rescue in Irvine a $5,000 grant from the Petco Foundation.

In a special celebration at the Petco Store in Tustin, Coastal German Shepherd Rescue received the grant as part of the Petco Foundation’s 2018 Holiday Wishes campaign. This holiday season, the Petco Foundation announced 51 Holiday Wishes grant recipients from across the country for a total of $755,000 in grant awards to support the year-round lifesaving efforts of these animal welfare organizations.

– Submitted by Denise St. Jean

Eight Holocaust survivors honored at Newport Beach Hanukkah event

The Chabad Center for Jewish Life and Fashion Island held a public menorah lighting in honor of the Festival of Lights at Fashion Island’s Atrium Garden Court. The community honored eight Holocaust Survivors who bravely illuminated the world for the eight decades since Kristallnacht, the onset of the Holocaust.

On Nov. 9 to Nov. 10, 1938, during “Kristallnacht,” also called “Night of Broken Glass,” Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews.  After this event, conditions for German Jews grew increasingly worse; Kristallnacht served as a tipping point.

The eight survivors were each introduced to the crowd by Steven Silverstein who recounted their incredible stories of survival.  These accounts included spending time in labor camps, living in ghettos set up by the Nazis, being hidden by people who themselves might have been killed for doing so, living in holes and scrounging for food for years, and escape under harrowing circumstances, all while not knowing if they would survive the next day.  Some were but small children at the time.

Each survivor was accompanied onto the stage by a child to light a candle, a literal and figurative passing of the torch, the continuity of their inspiring flames, from one generation to the next.  They all participated in lighting the menorah, and then each received a memento of the occasion, a personalized Star of David Menorah.

– Submitted by Lisa Bogart

St. John the Baptist kids get a snowy surprise

St. John the Baptist Elementary School in Costa Mesa surprised its students with their first ever snow day.

Students came out of their classrooms to discover tons of snow covering the lawn. The holiday celebration was created by Fr. Damien Giap, who carried over the tradition from his previous post at JSerra Catholic High School.

JSerra students fundraised to make the snow day happen. Some of the high school students even headed over to help – they had snowball fights with the kids and passed out snow cones and hot chocolate. Snow day will become an annual tradition at St. John the Baptist for years to come, officials said.

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