Update 3-4-14

 

Hi,

 

First, the usual letter that arrives from South around this time of year, from Principal Maureen Henry:

 

    I am pleased to inform you that our Senior High Scholarship Awards presentation will take place on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 at 7:00 PM in South Hall.  We would greatly appreciate your participation again this year in sponsoring The Vince Tampio Theater Award and The Booker Gibson Music Award.

    The students at South continue to shine in their academic performance and service to both school and community.  Your generous scholarship awards allow us to recognize these students.  Please confirm your participation by contacting our awards coordinator, Liz King-Giordano.

    Many thanks for your continued support.

 

The background information on the scholarships, for those of you who may not know.  We support two, annual, $500 scholarships at South, one honoring Booker Gibson and the other honoring Vince Tampio.  This will be the eleventh year of our at least fifteen-year commitment, and because of the generosity of some members of the class of '63 and one member of the class of '64, we already have several hundred dollars stashed toward each scholarship.  But this is also the first year of fundraising after we finished our ten-year commitment, and we're going to be changing some of the two-dozen donors who've been supporting these awards.  As a little bit of a safety net, I'd like to use 100 bucks of our stash towards each scholarship, saving the rest to use in the next two years.     

    That means for this year, we need $400 towards the scholarship in Booker's name and $400 towards the one in Vince's.  Obviously, we welcome all new donors, for one year or for more.  As before, please send your checks to:  Rich Eisbrouch, 23030 Dolorosa Street, Woodland Hills, California 91367.  The checks should be made out to me, and please indicate in the bottom left corner of the check which scholarship you'd like to support, or if you'd prefer your donation to be split between the two.

    I'll keep sending the weekly totals and tell people when to stop.  It usually takes four-to-six weeks to raise the money, and for ten years, I've comfortably gotten the checks to Liz King Giordano by mid-May.

      As always, thanks.

 

Other notes that arrived:

 

From Amy Kassak Bentley:  I keep editing the Valley Stream history video I posted on YouTube, updating the captions mostly.  I've been adding more locations and dates as people suggest them.  But, apparently, every time I update the video, the link changes.  That's why people have had trouble using the links.  Still, the title of the video never changes,  So the surest way to find the video is to go to the YouTube site and type in:  Valley Stream – The Evolution of a Hometown.  And thanks, everyone, for your additions.

 

From Stu Borman, about Mr. Saffrin's biology notebooks:  I had forgotten all about mine.  But a few years ago, Mark Perlman told me that I had at one point given my biology notebook to him and that he had kept it over all the intervening years.  He asked me if I would like to have it back, and then he mailed it to me.  It was so amazing to see the notebook for the first time again after all those years.  The amount of work I had put into it was incredible, and the biology drawings that I had made in it were beautiful.  The notebook remains today the primary example of my handwriting in the 1960s that I have in hand today.  Thanks, Mark, for making this memory possible for me.

 

From Amy Lieberman:  Billy Valentine will soon have a new CD coming out, his first in 5 years.  I'll let you all know when it's available to order online.  Meanwhile, on Wednesday, March 12th, Billy will be previewing some of the new material at The Baked Potato in Studio City, California.  The set starts at 7:00, and the new material starts around 8:00.  If you live in Los Angeles or happen to be visiting here, it would be great to see you.

 

And from Zelda White Nichols:  I get bragging rights on this -- Dr. Terry Bauch is my nephew.  This article may be of interest to anyone who has or knows someone who has cardiac concerns.

    Terry Bauch, M.D, a cardiologist at the Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center who created a device for patients to monitor their own heart failure, was recently named the Colonel Rank Winner for third place in the 2013 national microMedic Contest.  Dr. Bauch created his device along with Raymond Allen, M.D.

    Entrants in the national competition sponsored by the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology, and Parallax Inc. were challenged to use microcontroller and sensor systems to create medical applications and products for possible use in the health care industry, medical simulation training, and the battlefield.

    “Creating this device was not just about winning a competition," said Dr. Bauch.  "It was about introducing something to help everyday patients more efficiently detect heart failure at any place and any time.  Heart failure affects about 6 million Americans, and we saw an unquestionable need for a low-cost device.”

    Dr. Bauch’s device, known as the Valsalva Test Device, involves a patient blowing for 15 seconds into a high-resistance tube while a doctor monitors the oxygen saturation or pulse-ox.  Low pulse-ox levels can indicate potential kidney failure, while high levels can signal pulmonary edema (water in the lungs).  Dr. Bauch’s VTD also can display, record, and analyze readings on an external computer.

    “For more than 60 years, this vital test needed to be performed at a physician’s office," Dr. Bauch said, "while, conversely, doctors struggled with daily monitoring of pulse-ox readings.  These can be the first signals of serious heart or organ failure.  With the VTD, we feel we have created a device that can help patients monitor their health daily and prevent serious health problems before they happen.”

 

The class of '65  50th Reunion dates:  April 24 through April 26, 2015

 

The South '65 e-mail addresses: reunionclass65 . blogspot . com  (remove the spaces)

 

The South '65 photo site: picasaweb . google . com/SouthHS65    (ditto)

 

 

Rich