Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

The St. Francis varsity soccer team not only won its season opener last Thursday, but also captured its first match in the Ralph Brandt Tournament. The Golden Knights defeated Glendale Hoover, 4-2, in tournament pool play at Friedman Field. They hosted Thousand Oaks in preseason play yesterday (Wednesday). Hoover was the first team to score in the first half, but St. Francis tied the contest at 1-1 on a shot by junior midfielder Joe Franco. The Golden Knights went ahead 2-1 in the 34th minute on a goal by junior forward Nick Posthuma with an assist by sophomore midfielder G.P. Gonzalez.

La Cañada High senior golfer Jay Lim struggled at the start the Southern California Golf Assn. Regional Qualifier at Brookside Golf Club's Course No. 1 in Pasadena. It wasn't until he let go on the back nine that he started dominating the course, the way he has all season. "I started off really poorly, my irons were a lot shorter than usual," Lim said. "Toward the back nine, I started not caring as much and starting firing at pins and being more aggressive. I stopped being so conservative and my shot came back and I started making putts.

The La Cañada High School class of 1966 held a three day 40th reunion late last month. The class of 1966 was the first class to go from kindergarten to 12th grade without going to John Muir in Pasadena while the LCHS facility was being built. This is an unusually close class that bonded in kindergarten in 1954 at the four elementary schools: Oak Grove, Paradise Canyon, La Cañada Elementary and Palm Crest. The bonding continued when all students joined together in 7th grade at the La Cañada Jr. High, then began LCHS in 10th grade.

After an eight-year lull, San Bernardino County sheriff?s detectives are once again actively investigating the murder of a La Cañada Flintridge couple. It was on Feb. 9, 2000, that the bodies of La Cañada residents Harold ?Skip? Tillman, 55, and his wife Joni, 51, were found in two isolated desert graves in Yucaipa, about 75 miles east of La Cañada. The couple had last been seen on Feb. 6, 2000, after having dinner at J.J.?s Steakhouse in Pasadena. The investigation into their deaths had yielded little to no information and had stalled.

Across from me is Roberta Medford. We’re sitting in front of an open window at her Montrose residence. “What is it about atheists that people just don’t like?” I ask. “You would have to ask them that. I don’t know!” Medford says with a good-natured laugh. I visited Medford on Monday evening to get her take on another vandalization of the Adopt-A-Highway Atheists United sign on the Glendale (2) Freeway. This time, the sign on the southbound side had been defaced.

When La Cañada Flintridge resident Oliver Kolevski's 11-year-old son, Max, was diagnosed with gluten and lactose intolerances a year ago, he had a hard time finding healthy foods for him to eat. “I had to find a way to send my son to school, without bread, without macaroni, without all these things,” said Kolevski. “And I had to figure out how to keep him healthy and happy - and at the same time to enjoy his food - and that become pretty serious business.” Kolevski said that he found some success with products like goat milk and corn pasta he found at markets like Sprouts and Trader Joe's, but he wanted to give his son more nutrition and variety.

People, motion and color were front-and-center at an artists' reception that features photography by Mark Kennedy, Glenn Newland and Jerry Schneider Saturday at Penelope's Café in La Cañada. Each of the photographers has his own style. Many of Schneider's photos are motion studies that feature a person walking briskly, the background scenes a whooshing blur of light and color behind the main figures. “I've always been interested in capturing movement, always enjoyed a painterly kind of style.

The long-awaited opening of a specialty grocery store in the vacant former Sport Chalet location on Foothill Boulevard will take at least another six months, but other area entrepreneurs promise they’re still on track to open this summer. Henry’s Market previously planned to open across from Town Center as early as this month, but a corporate merger in February that changed Henry’s to Sprouts has also forced construction delays, according to Sprouts President Doug Sanders. Sprouts remains committed to opening a store in the heart of La Cañada Flintridge — only now likely in January 2012, Sanders said.

All are welcome to Easter Services on April 8 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at 1830 Foothill Blvd. in La Cañada. The La Canada 1st Ward 9 a.m. service is under the direction of Bishop David Garrett. As occurs each Sabbath, the ordinance of the sacrament will be administered. Bishop Garrett has invited David Blasucci and Jeanne Broberg to speak on the crucifixion, resurrection and atonement of Jesus Christ. Broberg will include Easter experiences she and her husband, Dr. Charles Broberg, had on the three Easters they recently spent in Eastern Europe.

When Theresa Deliberto's close friend Susan Dietrich approached her in 2001 and asked for support as she battled breast cancer, Deliberto didn't hesitate. "She needed someone to be there all the time and she trusted me," Deliberto said. "She didn't want to be a burden to everyone else. " The Pasadena resident and La Cañada High School graduate was at Dietrich's side through seven years of doctor's visits and chemotherapy treatments. A La Cañada-based veterinarian, Dietrich continued to work right up until her death in March 2008.

Although long a holdout against free-standing convenience stores, La Cañada is poised this year to see two 7-Eleven stores open. The former La Cañada Liquor store at 1585 Foothill Blvd. is being rebranded as a 7-Eleven, and a Union 76 gas station undergoing renovations on Foothill at Angeles Crest Highway also will include a 7-Eleven. City Councilwoman Laura Olhasso said that although the city decided years ago that it didn't want convenience stores, the shops are permitted when attached to gas stations.

Los Angeles-based IDS Real Estate Group has purchased La Cañada Flintridge Town Center for a price in excess of $40 million, the company announced Thursday. A deal for the 7.6-acre retail complex at Foothill Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway, the city’s largest commercial development, had been in the works for months. Anticipation of a sale has generated a positive buzz among local business leaders that IDS would invest in Town Center to expand its amenities. “We see an opportunity to add value to key elements of the center,” said IDS Senior Vice President Rob Fuelling in a written statement by the company.