A reminder that the Altadena Chamber of Commerce's monthly mixer will be tonight, Nov. 11, at the Altadena Golf Course 10th Hole Bar; & Grill, 1456 E. Mendocino, 5:30-7 PM.
For Chamber members, free admission includes a free raffle ticket for a grand raffle prize. Guest $7 admission, no-host bar, bring a raffle prize and receive free commercial time for your business.
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PSN today says that the National Federation of Independent Business has honored Mike Horner of Catalina Island Camps as the Western Region Solveras/NFIB Small Business Champion. Horner is president of both Catalina Island Camps and Tom Sawyer Camps, Inc., both headquartered in Altadena.
(A big shout-out to Mike and to his son and daughter-in-law Tom and Maria Horner, who run the camp near Two Harbors on Catalina Island -- we've been going there many years, and love it!)
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The holiday good works have started: this from (Altadenablog sponsor) Webster's Fine Stationers:
From Mon. Nov. 9 until Tues., Nov. 24, Webster's Fine Stationers will be a drop-off location for the collection of food items donated to Five Acres for their annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. To provide some incentive, Webster's Fine Stationers is offering anyone who donates food items to Five Acres a 10% savings on their purchases.
Simply give your food donation to one of the WFS Crew and they will give you a coupon for 10% off your next visit, or you may choose to use it right away! What could be better in these economic times than a win-win situation for everyone? We hope you'll choose to donate what you can this year to this very worthy Altadena non-profit.
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A look at a few of the scenes at tonight's North Lake Open House:
Altadena authors (from left) Andre Coleman, Ellen Snortland, Michele Zack, and Jervey Tervalon at a meet & greet at Webster's Fine Stationery. Michelle Hunevan and Revell Revati were also there to sign their works.
Wreck n Sow entertained the crowd in Galloway Alley.
The photos of Project: Altadena! were on display in the outdoor gallery. Thanks to Molly TIerney, who worked so hard to make this happen!
We photographed Debbi Swanson Patrick photographing firemen for one or the other of her many blogs!
(It was also great to meet so many Altadenablog readers tonight!)
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The North Lake Ave. Business District in conjunction with the Altadena Arts Coalition will have an open house on Sat., Sept. 5, from 5 PM until whenever to celebrate Project: Altadena!
Project: Altadena! will be the largest photo-exhibit of its kind in Altadena history. Over 2,000 photos, all taken with disposable cameras by Altadena residents of what they love about "their" Altadena! One photo from each entrant will be enlarged to 8X10 and will be on display (and for sale) at Altadena Junction on El Molino Ave.
There will be food booths highlighting selections from O'Happy Days, The Coffee Gallery and Park Bench Deli, plus there will be a taco booth, too!
Altadena's own band, Wreck & Sow, will be playing for your enjoyment....brothers Pierre and Andre Dupuy along with band members Mike Stave, Randy Cochran and Dan Leahy are all set to tear it up. This night is going to be huge, people!
Webster's Fine Stationery invites you to a book signing by Altadena authors from 5-8 PM.
Webster's says, "This is going to be so much fun....hope you can make it! Live music, food, entertainment - we've got it all at the Altadena Arts Coalition's North Lake Business District Open House!".Scheduled authors include Andre Coleman, Revvell Revati, Michele Zack, Michelle Huneven and Jervey Tervalon. (Just added: Ellen Snortland!) We'll also have Bo Astrup's LA Photobooth outside the store so you can record your memories of this fabulous evening forever!
Gallery at the End of the World: Group art show: Wreck N Sow playing on the 'Cement Stage', vegetarian catering by John from O Happy Days, and The Coffee Gallery mobile coffee unit will be available. The Gallery has events all weekend -- check the ad in the right-hand column for more details!
Photography by Walt: will be open for "funphoto" sessions at the studio and offering other studio specials!
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You can't get too much of a good thing. After May's first (and wildly successful) open house, the North Lake Ave. Business District in conjunction with the Altadena Arts Coalition will have another open house over Labor Day weekend -- Sat., Sept. 5, from 5 PM until 10 or so.
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Gallery At The End Of The World
Hosted by Ben McGinty
On Thursday July 30, 2009
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
2475 N. Lake Ave
Altadena, CA
There will be a special Art Exhibit
Live Band with good food.
Members $5, Guests $7
Bring a raffle prize & get free commercial time for your business.
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Newest Altadenabog advertiser Curves, 2525 N. Lake Ave. #6, tells us they'll be celebrating their first year anniversary with a special celebration this Mon., July 13, 3 -8 (or so) PM.
Owner Rose West says that the whole community is invited to join the celebration. There will be healthy snacks and drinks, free gifts, and a raffle, good time to be had by all.
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Altadena Energy & Solar, a local firm, is helping Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, VA) build a new dorm that will incorporate solar-powered domestic water heating, estimated to save 50% of the costs of domestic water heating. EMU's website has the details.
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A little something fun to start off a busy day: Hometown Pasadena looks at Super King Market, and likes what they see.
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Altadena-based Waste Less Living was recently recognized by the Los Angeles Regional Agency (LARA) for its efforts and for its efforts and success at helping homeowners, businesses and schools reduce their waste through the practice of composting.
LARA is a consortium of 16 member cities in Los Angeles County. The Agency was formed by environmentally conscious recycling advocates from the member cities. In 2004, the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) approved the formation of LARA as a regional agency whose mission is to assist members in meeting and exceeding the 50% waste diversion mandates of State Assembly Bill 939.
For the Sierra Madre Community Nursery School, Waste Less Living was a corporate sponsor and was instrumental in diverting approximately 306.2 lbs of compostable waste from going to the landfill. Waste Less Living was recently contracted to conduct a solid waste audit for High Point Academy.
Waste Less Living is also sponsoring an "Eco-Mom's Night Out" on June 25, 6-8 PM at Cafe Culture, 1359 E. Altadena Dr., Pasadena:
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SGV Trib, with AP's help. does a story on the recession and picks on Karen's Hallmark for local color.
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Altadena-based Miller Hawkins Productions Event Coordinators was honored as "California Small Business of the Year" for District 44. MHPevents principals Inger Miller and Jill Hawkins received this special recognition from Assemblyman Anthony Portantino. This acknowledgement applauded a single district –based small business for exemplifying the contributions of the California’s 3.7 million small business owners to the California economy.
The award was announced May 26 at the annual California Small Business Day in Sacramento.
“We are honored to have been selected for this award; and we thank Assemblyman Anthony Portantino for this recognition. We are also grateful to all of our clients that allow us to do what we love,” said Miller and Hawkins.
“This is a special event when government, business, associations and community come together to honor the small business contributions of innovation, job creation and economic growth to the State of California,” said Betty Jo Toccoli, President of the California Small Business Association, on behalf of the two-dozen small business organizations hosting the event.
sent this way by Monica Hubbard, who's got to be two people.
UPDATE 5/29: PSN has a nice piece on them as well.
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... if it's Bulgarini Gelato! Altadena's favorite better-than-ice-cream joint is going westside on us, and they send us this:
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A great story from PSN, on a topic close to our heart: the King Ranch Market (which recently took over the location of the old Apple Market) has a program to hire developmentally disabled persons. They've got ten employees already and are looking for more -- it's all part of a program out of the Foothill Vocational Center. Another good reason to shop local!
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From the formidable C Jake:
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Just was not able to get to this sooner, and we didn't get the notice until yesterday afternoon, BUT --
The Health Across America Bus has stopped at Webster’s HealthMart Pharmacy 2450 Lake Ave., this morning, offering free diabetes screening. On the bus is Erik Chopin, winner of season three of “Biggest Loser,” a diabetic who works closely with his local pharmacist to control his diabetes. It's all part of a 21-city bus tour called Health Across America: Pharmacists Partnering in Diabetes campaign that will be in the Los Angeles area on Thursday, May 14.
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The Altadena Chamber of Commerce has declared this "Shop Altadena First" week, and announced a couple of chamber events:
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... in Saturday's PSN, a fine feature on Debbie Rainey's fine establishment at 2470 Lake.
Not to detract at all from the deli, but someone needs to tell the reporters how to spell Zane Grey and Prof. Lowe's African-American background is news to us.
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The excitement is building as the Altadena Arts Coalition and the merchants of the North Lake Ave. Business District prepare for their open house, one week from tonight, May 15, 4-9 PM.
Lori Webster of Webster's Fine Stationers and a noted local blogger/Facebooker/Twitterer herself will be hosting a "Blogger's Cafe," including snacks, coffee, and tea, and a chance to meet some of our local bloggers (including Altadena Above It All, Open Mouth Insert Fork, Altadenahiker, Pasadena Daily Photo, and and others -- Altadenablog may be putting in an appearance as well!) Ask questions, get advice, meet the faces behind the keyboard.
Altadena Hardware will feature music by owner Steve Salinas and his band, "The Dispositions, " playing from 6-9 PM.
Previously announced were an art opening at the Coffee Gallery, an antique car show at Ronnie's Automotive, "Spring Fever" at the Gallery at the End of the World," 20-minute portrait painting at Altadena Junction, and an exhibit of emerging photographers at Photography by Walt.
Come meet your neighbors, explore local businesses, and have a good time! For maps of participating businesses and more details, stop by Webster's Fine Stationers at 2450 N. Lake Ave.
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The Altadena land use committee easily approved a conditional use permit (CUP) for the proposed development on the old WaMu property at Lake and Calavaras. (There was a snafu that was discovered after almost all spectators left the meeting, but it got fixed -- more details below).
What this means is that the CUP will go before the Altadena town council at its May 19 meeting. If approved, the council will make a recommendation to regional planning, which will then pass it on to the county Board of Supervisors. The developers expect that the approval process will take another 3-4 months, and are projecting opening day for the new development anywhere between July and November, 2010.
The CUP involves alcohol sales in the new development -- Rite Aid (which will move from its Lake/Altadena Dr. site) will sell wine, beer, and distilled spirits, as it does now, and Fresh & Easy, which is being courted for the new development, will sell wine and beer. Sales will not include single sales (individual cans or bottles).
Tracy Verastagy of Rite Aid said that they felt a Lake Ave. location would be better long-term than the current location, which she described as "a very old facility in a very old center." The cost of updating at that location could run $500,000-$1 million, if the owner of the property was agreeable to updating the entire center.
While Rite Aid is committed, Fresh & Easy is not yet a lock, according to a developer's representative. The plan is for Rite Aid and Fresh & Easy to each occupy half of the ground floor, and the developers are targeting medical practices for the top floor. Hours will be standard business hours, and there will be a drive-thru pharmacy location in the back, as well as a parking structure.
After the committee approved sending the CUP to the council (and after almost everyone left), they discovered that they actually needed to have a copy of the permit application on hand in order to approve it-- and they didn't. So the committee rescinded its previous approval, and passed another motion, provisionally approving the CUP if the Altadena town council received a copy before its meeting. That motion was passed.
Patrick Reagan at Altadena Wants a Co-op actually got his story up first -- read it here for another take on the subject.
5/9 9:30 AM: corrected info about drive-thru pharmacy per Gino Sund's comment.
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This note from town council chair Gino Sund -- finally, some activity on the old WaMu property:
Attached is the Agenda for the Land Use Committee meeting scheduled for May
5, 2009. There will be a public hearing on the proposed new development
located at 2246 N. Lake Ave. This is the old WalMu site. The
development is expected to be a two story 51,000 sqft commercial
structure. The developer is requesting two Conditional Use Permits to
allow alcohol sales by two proposed tenants, Rite-Aide Pharmacy and
Fresh and Easy Market.
The Land Use Committee meets at the community center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, 7 PM.
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A note from C Jake at the Altadena Chamber of Commerce:
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Mark your calendar for Fri., May 15, as the North Lake Ave. Business District holds its first Open House, 4-9 PM.
Businesses on and around Lake Ave. in Altadena will be open, and there will be food, music, art, and other activities available for the family.
The open house is the brainchild of the newly-formed Altadena Arts Coalition, a local arts and business group spearheaded by Ben McGinty (Gallery at the End of the World), Lance Anderson (Altadena Junction), Molly Tierney (Photography by Walt) and "Jeff the Chef" Klein (Coffee Gallery).
McGinty said that the idea for the open house "morphed out of" a map he found of Altadena businesses in the 50's-60's, published by the Altadena Chamber of Commerce. To mark the open house, the coalition will also release a map of today's local Lake Ave.-area businesses.
McGinty, who has operated his gallery in Altadena since 1994, said that the whole point of the evening was "about awareness. It's not about sales, it's about people getting excited about what we've got here." McGinty said he has walked up and down Lake Ave. from Altadena Dr. to New York Dr., talking to each business to try to get some buy-in.
Among the activities already booked include an art opening at the Coffee Gallery, an antique car show at Ronnie's Automotive, "Spring Fever" at the Gallery at the End of the World," 20-minute portrait painting at Altadena Junction, and an exhibit of emerging photographers at Walt's.
McGinty said that the vision was an evening with "hundreds of people walking the street, meeting their business neighbors, realizing that (Altadenans) don't have to leave their back yard -- just a chance to come out and find what's in the community."
Anderson said that future Open Houses were being planned, including one to coincide with the annual lighting of Christmas Tree Lane.
Keep checking in with Altadenablog, your center of information on the Open House!
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Marisol Martinez, the other powerhouse behind Altadena Junction studios (Lance Anderson being her partner) is offering something new at the Junction, 2524 & 2526 El Molino Ave.:
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The local shopping weblog profiles Altadena's own (and Altadenablog sponsor) Webster's Fine Stationers today, a big booster of shopping locally (which we encourage!).
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Now that you've got that big tax refund (sound of crickets chirping), it's time to spend it -- and what better place than Webster's Parking Lot Sale on Saturday?
The Webster's companies sent us this:
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It's coming -- a great day of golfing (or watching golfing), dinner, and mixing with friends. All the details are on the flyer (click to expand).
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The Easter Bunny is workin' the streets in front of (Altadenablog sponsor) Webster's Fine Stationers this afternoon. Come on in for a chance at an Easter basket!
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Egg-zactly what you were looking for ... Webster's Fine Stationers (an Altadenablog sponsor) is bringing over the Easter bunny on Saturday to celebrate the season! Lori Webster writes us:
Lori also reminds us that Webster's food drive for Five Acres comes to an end tomorrow (Mon.), so if you've been procrastinating with your donation, it's time to get hopping! A list of needed items is available at the Webster's blog.
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MHPevents (Inger Miller and Jill Hawkins), Altadena event planners, were finalists in the 2009 Catersource/Eventsolutions conference in Las Vegas. They won an industry award in the "Best BBQ or PIcnic" caategory for turning the Gerrish Swim and Tennis Club into a "Concrete Clambake." Their note on the event says:
We guess the next blogger's picnic will have some catching up to do!
(Thx to the all-knowing, all-seeing Monica.)
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Members of any San Gabriel Valley Chamber of Commerce get a reduced rate at this conference at CTAC in Irwindale next month (click graphic to enlarge).
(Remind us to tell you of the time when we were asked to develop a brochure to solicit funds to develop CTAC without including any contact information -- the brochure was to persuade businesses to send them money, but we couldn't tell 'em where to send it!)
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The Altadena Chamber of Commerce is still taking early bird entries for its 16th annual golf tournament to be held at the Altadena Golf Course. Early-bird foursome rate will be $400 until April 24, with a variety of fees for individual and corporate entrants. For more information, contact the Chamber at 794-3988.
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Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) of Altadena has announced that it's working with JPL to develop a software model to predict the behavior of rechargable batteries in spaceflight. Yep, it's complicated, but the press release is here.
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Assuming no more buses crash into the building, Friday will be the delayed open house at Altadena Junction, the artistic/performance/healing space created by Lance Anderson and Marisol Martinez.
The announcement says:
The party starts on Fri., March 6, 6-10 PM at 2524 and 2526 El Molino. For more information, call 626-791-8586 or email: vergefringe@gmail.com.
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LA Weekly has a feature on overachieving Altadenan Sean McCleese, who enrolled at Oxy at age 16, now works at JPL, and has started Student of Fortune , an online tutoring service.
UPDATE 2/6: McCleese is interviewed by SoCalTech.Com.
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Kelly Tompkins, founder and CEO of AdventureLink, an Altadena-based adventure travel firm, talks to the SoCalTech website about their new round of venture capital funding and their use of technology.
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The Altadena
Chamber of Commerce will hold its 16th
Annual Golf Tournament at the Altadena Golf Course on Fri., May 1, at 12:30 PM. (registration starts at 11:30 AM). For more information, contact the Altadena Chamber at 626-794-3988 or Altadenachamber@yahoo.com
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Via SGV Tribune, six Australian technology firms made their pitch to venture capitalists and other interested investors at the Business Technology Center this week.
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The Orange Cat is a must-see website and newsletter for San Gabriel Valley parents. It was very exciting to read (via her Facebook) that it has been purchased by Altadena's own Susan Carrier! We look forward to the Cat's next life from Altadena.
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This note to town councilor Alice Wessen from Ernest J. Brambila of Alliance Commercial Properties is being passed around the newsgroups. Altadena Plaza is presently wrapping up construction on Lincoln Ave. and Altadena Drive:
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The Altadena Chamber of Commerce will hold their annual banquet and officer installation Jan. 23 at the Altadena Town & Country Club. Highlight of the festivities is honoring Altadena's Citizen of the Year, who this year is Sara Carnahan.
Sara has been active in Altadena for years and years. She was born in Altadena and attended Eliot Jr High and Pasadena High School. She has served on many community boards; including two terms as President of the Altadena Historical Society, Altadena Meals on Wheels, Altadena Senior Center, ACCAB board, American Association of University Women and much more She is currently a member of League of Women Voters, Pasadena area.
Reserve your table or seat now by calling the Chamber office at (626)794-3988 or sending a check.
Tickets are $75.00. A table of ten (10) is $700.00.
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Sara Carnahan, who has been active in numerous Altadena organizations over the years, has been named Citizen of the Year by the Altadena Chamber of Commerce. You can find all the details where we did --in the press release in today's Pasadena Star News. (Sure glad we waited for our promised copy! Our Chamber membership is really paying off!) UPDATE 9:30 AM: The chamber has called, appropriate contrition demonstrated, all is forgiven!
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The Webster's Center (which includes Altadenablog sponsor Webster's Fine Stationers), invites you to their Center-wide holiday open house this Fri., Dec. 12, which is also a benefit for Five Acres. Bring an unwrapped gift for a child age 5 to 13 and receive a 10% savings certificate, good on home and holiday decor. Webster's Fine Stationers will give Five Acres that 10% and match it....giving a total of 20% of every qualified purchase to Five Acres. You may drop off your unwrapped gift at the Pharmacy or at WFS.
Enjoy holiday spirit in all the stores, starting with Santa and his Elves in Karen's Hallmark at 3 PM. Savor holiday goodies at WFS and warm your hands arounds a steaming cup of hot apple cider. Let your spirit be lifted by knowing that your holiday shopping is helping a child in need.
Scott and Lori Webster write us, "Listen to the carols of the season while you greet your neighbors and enjoy delicious holiday cookies. This is Christmas as it should be.....what it once was....a community gathering to share its many blessings. We'd love for you to join us and give the gift of giving. ."
Festivities go on until closing at 7PM. Find out more about it at http://www.webstersfs.blogspot.com.
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