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  Children are greeted by staff as they trick or treat during Fountain Valley Regional Hospital’s annual Pediatric Halloween parade and party on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Fountain Valley Regional Hospital’s Pediatric Halloween Parade features some scary characters like this police-car driving skeleton on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. Local law enforcement and firefighters were also at the event. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Audrey Hill, 7 weeks, is held by PICU Nurse Sabrina Dela Roca during the Fountain Valley Regional Hospital Pediatric Halloween Parade on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Nurse Melissa Garcia breaks out in song while dressed as Super Mario during Fountain Valley Regional Hospital’s annual Pediatric Halloween party on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Fountain Valley Regional Hospital’s staff gets into the Halloween spirit with a pumpkin-decorating contest on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Fountain Valley Regional Hospital Social Worker Elizabeth Anaya and her leadership group dressed as sweet treats during the annual Pediatric Halloween Parade and party on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Pinocchio, a.k.a. 5-year-old Aiden Ayala, leads the annual Fountain Valley Regional Hospital Pediatric Halloween Parade with rescued dog Hazel the Hobbler on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. Aiden is a former pediatric patient and Hazel was rescued by Georgia and Glenn Bleiweis after she was hit by a car and abandoned. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Fountain Valley Regional Hospital’s 17th annual Pediatric Halloween celebration gave pediatric patients, some of whom spend up to eight months in the hospital, a chance to experience the happiness of Halloween on Tuesday.

Costumed staff, local firefighters and law enforcement and several community organizations passed out candy and other treats to the children who were also in costume.

Great Danes are Teresa’s favorite breed, but around here, nearly all are welcome to pull up a couch cushion and lick their paws.

The 4-acre Modjeska Ranch Rescue is tucked behind a ribbon of road in the breathtakingly beautiful, yet sometimes punishing Orange County canyon. The area has been subject to floods and fires during the animal rescue’s 22-year history. Animals had to be loaded up three times, like a modern-day Noah’s Ark, and evacuated out of harm’s way.

The Taylors’ tidy and sparsely furnished home doubles as the sanctuary. On any given day, 20 dogs, a pig, a few cats and other creatures in need lounge around their living room and property, like clothing strewn in a teenager’s room.

Farm animals — horses, goats and whatever else fate brings the Taylors’ way — sun on the hillside. “I get 20-25 emails and texts a day of sad stories and pleas for us to take their animals,” Teresa says, then jokes about the ridiculousness of some requests: “We don’t take pink, left-handed whales.”

The couple’s passion for pets started with two dogs they plucked from a local shelter. After quickly placing them in new homes, they realized, “Hey, we can do this.”

By Russell’s account, he and Teresa have rescued 12,000 animals since 2001. To do this, Russell changed career paths from a job in international acquisitions for a franchising company to a job as a local Realtor for more flexibility. Teresa worked in a veterinarian’s office before retiring.

“On some days, I look in the mirror and think I’m doing good in the world,” Russell says. “On other days, I look in the mirror and think I’m out of my mind.”

He dabbed green paint on his nose and playfully smudged it on others. He draped his arm around his mother and introduced her as his great-great-great-grandmother. And he told people he was his identical twin brother when they came looking for him.

“Humor is one of those tools to bring morale up,” he said.

But on Sunday, Aug. 6, Nguyen fessed up to being “slightly anxious” as 17 volunteers — including three Medal of Honor recipients — worked to paint the Anaheim home he shares with his mother.

The volunteers, from nonprofit organizations Heroes Linked and Habitat for Humanity Orange County, worked together to transform the one-story home from a shy salmon color to an outgoing juniper-ash green. Nguyen, 41, grew up in the home and remembers being in junior high the last time it was renovated.

“They’re here picking up paint brushes and providing sweat equity,” said Heroes Linked volunteer Chairman Bob Jerome, who traveled from Florida to pitch in on the home, which is owned by Nguyen’s mother. Heroes Linked was founded in 2014 to help veterans and their families. Together with Habitat for Humanity, it selected Nguyen for Habitat’s Home Repair program, which is partially funded through Anaheim’s Community Development Block Grant, for low-income seniors and veterans.

Selecting Nguyen from a large pool of deserving people, was “a no-brainer,” Jerome said. “He defended our country, and his house was falling into disrepair. He doesn’t take what we are doing for granted.”

Monique Davis, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Orange County, has been at the job for just over a year. She’s hoping to expand the Repair Program from 40 to 60 homes annually.

“Home ownership is self-sustaining and provides generational wealth,” Davis said. “The challenge is there is so much need. It can be overwhelming.”

Nguyen served two combat tours — Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and the troop surge in Kuwait in 2007 and 2008.

The latter deployment eventually led to a Purple Heart for “wounds received as a result of hostile actions.” It’s the nation’s oldest military award, dating to the American Revolution. In August 2010, after serving more than nine years and reaching the rank of specialist, his military career was over. “Any chances of continuing to serve my country in the U.S. Army were no longer an option.” His physical and mental injuries caught up to him and he was medically retired.

No one knows better than Nguyen how plans don’t always go as expected.

On July 22, 2007, Nguyen’s up-armored Humvee and two other gun trucks were protecting a 30-vehicle convoy. They were hauling supplies from Baghdad to Kuwait under cover of darkness to avoid detection.

Two other soldiers were in his truck and they were last in line. For safety, Nguyen was supposed to follow the exact tracks of the vehicle in front of him to avoid hitting an improvised explosive device. Maybe it was fatigue, Nguyen wondered out loud as he recalled the event. Maybe it was complacency. But he veered the Humvee “a little off course.”

The concussion boom reverberated through his body. His head hit the top of the truck. “I saw a flash going out and upward from the passenger hood and then experienced a delay in senses.”

His mind was slow to register what his eyes were seeing. Everything became a slow-motion blur. Before that evening, Nguyen said he didn’t know the meaning of seeing stars.

All three survived the IED explosion. Nguyen attributes this to the bomb being “planted incorrectly, blasting upward instead of blasting toward us.”

As trained, the soldiers in the convoy continued their journey until they reached safety. Once back in Kuwait, Nguyen was given the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation and determined he could return to duty after taking three days off. On Nguyen’s first day back, he was in the front half of a 40-truck convoy. The lead vehicle hit an explosively formed projectile. “In the distance, I saw a puff of smoke and a black mushroom cloud. Imagine the feeling you would get. This is not a video game,” he said. “This is someone who just got (messed) up.”

If coming home from his first tour was “mentally challenging,” now he knew life would be even more difficult.

“My heart was crying,” Nguyen said, “because I knew this (expletive) would catch up to me.”

Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, post-concussion syndrome and a herniated disk with sciatica running down his left leg, he spent two-and-a-half years in Warrior Transition Units before the Medical Evaluation Board retired him.

He came back to a life he could no longer understand and people he could no longer relate to. They seemed petty in their concerns and he now believed, “good doesn’t always triumph over evil.”

After almost 19 years of counseling and learning to readjust to a non-life-or-death existence, Nguyen declared himself 60 percent better than he was after combat. “It’s like breaking a bone,” he explained. “You can strengthen it but it will never be like it was before it snapped.”

Sharing stories at the house-painting event with Medal of Honor recipients Col. Jack H. Jacobs, Spc. James C. McCloughan, and Lt. Col. William D. Swenson, “really touched my heart,” Nguyen said.  “Chatting can be very intimate and painful at times.”

When President Barack Obama issued Swenson the Medal of Honor on Oct.16, 2013, he described a remarkable and unexpected act captured on grainy and shaky video from the combat helmet cameras of a MedEvac crew: “(Swenson) is without his helmet, standing in the open, exposing himself to enemy fire, standing watch over a severely wounded soldier. He helps carry that wounded soldier to the helicopter, and places him inside. … Amidst the whipping wind and deafening roar of the blades … he leans in and kisses the wounded soldier on the head – a simple act of compassion and loyalty to a brother in arms. … Will reminds us what our country can be at its best. A nation of citizens who look out for one another.”

On Sunday, Swenson, still in active duty, stood on the second step of a ladder leaning against Nguyen’s home. His outstretched arm painted around the eaves.

“As we cross paths we find similarities and common stories,” he said. “It’s all about us staying part of a team.”

He feigned annoyance when he was asked to come down and join the group of volunteers for a photo.

“I just don’t want to get paint on me,” he joked. “I hate to be dirty.”

Then a departing visitor thanked Nguyen for his service.

Nguyen paused for two seconds. “You are well worth it,” he said.

Foster parents introduced their spring-loaded fuzzballs, hoping to pierce hearts and find permanent homes for Bosley, Annabelle, Gage and Gordy as the comical and curious creatures ricocheted off the sides of their pop-up kennels at the shelter in Tustin.

“We have a very robust program,” said Susan Westover, who has fostered about 500 cats and kittens in her 11 years as a volunteer. “But we can’t keep up.”

OC Animal Care took in more than 6,000 cats and kittens last year, said spokesperson Jackie Tran.

She said 4,490 were adopted, returned to their owners or successfully transferred to another agency, and 2,200 of the most vulnerable were placed in foster homes. According to the shelter’s statistics, 1,345 cats and kittens were euthanized.

As kitty mayhem played out at the July 23 event, a pair of Girl Scouts paid close attention to the two dozen or so animals, and learned kitten handling 101 from veteran volunteers. Ariana Alvarez, 10, of La Habra and Paloma Greene, 11, of Orange had observed first-hand the mind-numbing amount of stray cats in their community and resolved to do something.

Five months ago, the friends were seeking ideas for an action-based local project to earn them their Bronze Award — the highest honor for a Junior Girl Scout.

Ariana and Paloma — who soon will begin fifth and sixth grade, respectively — took Paloma’s mother’s advice and strolled her neighborhood in Orange to get a sense of the community’s needs.

“I saw a pack of cats in the bushes,” Ariana said. “They didn’t have food or water and were just wandering around.”

After brainstorming sessions using red, yellow and green color codes to rate each other’s proposals, the two rejected the idea of a pamphlet and settled on creating a website to promote kitten foster programs.

“We wanted something bigger (than a pamphlet) to influence more people,”  Ariana said.

Their Fostering Friends informational website has rolled out. It features embedded YouTube videos about preparing for a foster animal, links to fostering sites in Orange and surrounding counties and the girls’ mission statement that reads in part: “to make a difference in the world” by encouraging fostering animals “because animals need to be loved and have a home so they don’t have to live on the street.”

“It’s also a good idea to try out an animal before adopting,” Ariana said. “You don’t even know if you like the pet.”

Paloma was already a cat person before starting the project. But Ariana, who has been friends with Paloma since kindergarten, preferred dogs, based on her perception that cats are boring.

“I discovered some cats are actually playful,”  Ariana said after visiting OC Animal Care two times with Paloma.

The girls learned about “kitten season” when “free-range cats” breed at a higher-than-normal rate, often leaving litters of orphaned kittens that flood into the shelters and rescues. Many need to be bottle-fed.

On one visit they spoke to long-time foster mother Julie Nelson, who offered advice about getting a kitty playpen and making sure the animals are well-socialized so they are good with their new families, Paloma said.

“If you’re not ready to foster or adopt, you can donate money and supplies,” Ariana added. “The most needed stuff is rice socks and kitten toys.”

The Scouts already have started on the rice socks, which are heated in the microwave and placed next to the kittens to help keep them warm. Soon they will deliver a dozen to the shelter.

The girls plan on continuing their journey of helping the community.

“I think anything can come true as long as you believe in it,” Ariana said. “We started from scratch, and then we accomplished a website.”

Paloma will be getting two foster kittens so she will know first-hand the time and the patience it takes to help the cause.

Ariana’s mother, Yesenia Alvarez, a school principal in L.A. County, said being a Girl Scout has helped her daughter become more aware of her surroundings, “which allows her to be more empathetic and kind and make the world a better place.

“It gives her an outlook that it’s not just about her,” she said.

“And that’s the mindset I love for her.”

OC Animal Care will hold fostering orientation sessions for those who may not be quite ready to adopt. The kitten fostering session will be Aug. 14 at 5 p.m., and dog fostering sessions are scheduled for Aug. 12 at 1 p.m. and Aug. 22 at 5 p.m. All sessions will be at OC Animal Care at 1630 Victory Rd. in Tustin.

Chang was 21 and almost home, excited to surprise her mother with Coco’s visit on Mother’s Day weekend in 2021. The UC Santa Barbara graduate had taken the family’s beloved 8-year-old feline up north so she could have company during the pandemic.

As the sound persisted, Chang said she pulled up on the power window buttons to try to make the noise stop. When she turned around and looked where Coco had been perched, the cat wasn’t there.

“I quickly pulled to the side of the freeway,” she said. “I couldn’t find her. I was in panic mode.”

Chang called her younger sister, Sarah, who helped search along the freeway in the dark. The sisters said they half expected to find the cat alive in the bushes and half expected to see her dead on the freeway.

After weeks of the family searching — driving along the freeway and along Manchester Avenue where Coco most likely went missing, posting signs and checking the county’s deceased animal site  — the cat with striking blue eyes and white mitten feet, was nowhere to be found. Chang surmised Coco stepped on the window button and “flew out” of the car.

Kim Taylor, their mother, said each Mother’s Day has been bittersweet since. Her eccentric, smart, gentle cat who she taught to sit on command; who liked her ears scratched, but not her belly; and who hated people food, but loved kibble, was gone.

***

For two years Mercedes and Oscar Chavez of Grants Pass, Oregon, saved up money to take a family trip to Disneyland for their son Gabriel’s 15th birthday. They brought along their three other children, ages 16, 13 and 7, and one of Gabriel’s friends.

After arriving July 1 for their week-long vacation, the tribe of cat lovers noticed a paper plate on the ground at the Anaheim hotel they were staying at with remnants of dried cat food and then spied a cat “hunkered down, laying on her side near the air-conditioning unit,” Mercedes Chavez said. “She was panting because it was so hot.”

Chavez gave the cat water and inquired with hotel staff about the curious creature. She was given conflicting information. The cat lived at a trailer park next door. The cat was fine and being cared for by hotel guests who fed her eggs off the breakfast buffet. The cat was a stray and no one could catch her.

“But this didn’t sit right with me,” Chavez said. “I kept badgering workers trying to piece together the story. A real stray is apprehensive, but I could tell at one point she had a family because she was super gentle — meowing, rolling over, rubbing against our legs and letting us pick her up.

“She wanted help. She wanted love,” Chavez said.

When the cat tried to follow the family into their hotel room on their second night, Chavez said she burst into tears. “I told my husband that we need to get her to a safe place.”

In the meantime, Chavez went to Target and bought kibble and wet food, she said. “She went crazy and devoured it.”

Chavez then looked up cat rescue organizations. The first one she contacted told her they only spayed, neutered and released cats. But they provided a “huge list” of other places in Orange County that could possibly help.

Chavez contacted each of the approximately 20 organizations through email “any time I had the chance” between theme park fun, she said.

“They either auto replied saying they aren’t taking any more animals because they are at full capacity, or they wanted me to call at a specific time and then wouldn’t answer or I got busy signals,” she said. “It was almost impossible to get a live person to answer.”

Chavez’s logical sense thought, “I already have two cats and we can’t travel back to Oregon with five kids and a new cat.”

But her heart decided, “If we can’t get help, the cat will go home with us.”

***

On July 4, “by the grace of God,” Chavez said, Kindness2Cats contacted her. The organization run by Jenifer Brooks and Ed Michalek assured Chavez the animal would go to a good home. Chavez tearfully scooped up the kitty and put her in the portable crate Brooks had brought to the hotel.

“She didn’t fight it,” Chavez said. “I know she knew we were going to help her.”

A full checkup revealed the cat was microchipped. Her health was good, save for one broken tooth, and she was estimated to be 2 years old (She is actually 10).

Taylor was at work when the call came that her favorite pet was alive and well and found in the area the family had searched so many times. She showed the cat’s picture to co-workers and took the rest of the day off.

“I was stunned. I was over the moon. I had a happiness in me,” Taylor said after Coco was reunited with her daughters in Michelle Chang’s Irvine apartment.

At Saturday’s reunion, Coco slinked out of the same baby blue kennel that Chavez tearfully placed her in before saying goodbye.

Before acknowledging the sisters, Coco opened a closet and sat inside, hid behind a TV,  and jumped on the same gray couch she years ago had clawed. Then she found Alice, Chang’s other cat, hiding in a bedroom.

Michalek wondered if Coco might have dashed out of the SUV when Chang stopped and opened the door to search for her. He emphasized the importance of never letting a cat travel in a car without being in a carrier, and microchipping and spaying and neutering them.

Taylor said she is forever grateful to Chavez for all she did in reuniting the family and hinted that bake goods may be in Chavez’s future.

Taylor will soon be flying back from North Carolina to California for a reunion.

“I’m going to order pizza and sit with that cat.”

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  Ethan Ma, 7, walks through a display of 248 American flags in Irvine’s William R. Mason Regional Park on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. The flags recognize the U.S. Army’s 248th birthday and also commemorates Flag Day. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Leslie Woz marvels at the 248 American flags at Irvine’s William R. Mason Regional Park on Wednesday, June 14, 2023 while walking with her husband, Tom. The flags celebrate Flag Day and the Army’s 248th birthday. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Allison Ma, 8, finds a dandelion under a display of 248 American flags in Irvine’s William R. Mason Regional Park on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. The flags recognize the U.S. Army’s 248th birthday and also commemorates Flag Day. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Catalyst Kids campers get treated to a display of flags while walking through Irvine’s William R. Mason Regional Park on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. The 248 American flags are in honor of Flag Day and also commemorates the Army’s 248-year existence. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Ethan Ma, 7, walks through a display of 248 American flags in Irvine’s William R. Mason Regional Park on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. The flags recognize the U.S. Army’s 248th birthday and also commemorates Flag Day. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Ethan Ma, 7, walks through a display of 248 American flags in Irvine’s William R. Mason Regional Park on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. The flags recognize the U.S. Army’s 248th birthday and also commemorates Flag Day. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A field of red, white and blue celebrated Flag Day in an Irvine park on Wednesday, June 14.

Fifth District Supervisor arranged the display of the 248 American flags in William R. Mason Regional Park – the number was a nod to the 248th birthday of the U.S. Army, which was also Wednesday.

Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the stars and stripes flag in 1777, though the original 13 stars have since grown to 50.

Infinite Flow is a nonprofit, professional dance company that employs dancers with and without disabilities, where dismantling stereotypes is as important as the performances.

A recent workshop at the Atomic Ballroom in Irvine had about three dozen participants, young and old, rotating through partners as they learn various swing dances for about two hours. This workshop was organized in conjunction with Global Accessibility Awareness Day, but the dance company will host other events and workshops throughout the year.

Founded in 2015, Infinite Flow has a dozen dancers and counting, who have performed at more than 180 events, from school assemblies to corporate gatherings at Apple, Facebook and Kaiser Permanente.

Alfredo Aviles, 52, danced salsa and bachata at local dance halls, including Atomic Ballroom, until a 2016 car accident put him into a month-long coma and left him with limited mobility and using a wheelchair. During his six-month hospital stay, a friend put Aviles in touch with Marisa Hamamoto, founder of Infinite Flow.

“She told me not to worry,” Aviles said. “That I could continue to dance and it would help my balance.”

The day Aviles was discharged, he said he headed immediately to OC Salsa, a dance hall in Costa Mesa where he was welcomed with open arms and cake.

“I was dancing until 2 a.m.,” he said. “My family was so mad at me.”

He continued going three times a week.

When Aviles dances he feels the music, he said. “It’s like I get an electric shock from head to toe. Is that bad?”

Hamamoto understands the feelings dancing can bring.

When she saw a performance by the New York City Ballet as a young girl, she said she was inspired to dedicate her teenage years to becoming a ballerina.

“As a young girl who just loved to dance, I couldn’t help but think to myself, ‘Wow, I want to do that one day,’” Hamamoto said. “By the time the performance ended, I had made up my mind that I wanted to become a professional ballerina. What didn’t connect was that no one on that stage looked like me. There were no Asians. There were barely any people of color. But I never thought at that time that my ethnicity would be kind of a hindrance to building a dance career.”

As much as Hamamoto was driven to become a professional ballerina, the dance industry was anything but welcoming, she said.

“I just kept on being told, ‘No, you don’t have the right body for ballet; you’re not talented enough.’ And as I received these no’s, there was always a part of me that pushed back because even at the age of 6 when I started dancing, I had discovered the fact that I felt like I belonged in dance class,” she said. “I knew that dance was a universal language that belonged to everyone, yet. Yet it seemed like the industry wanted to say that dance is only exclusively for certain dancers. It was this duality that was very painful.”

By the time she was going to college, Hamamoto decided to put dancing aside as a hobby and pursue a career in the medical field to become a doctor for dancers. Attending university in Japan came with its own unique set of challenges.

“As a Japanese American that grew up in the states and going to school in Japan, even though I looked Japanese and I spoke Japanese fluently, I felt like an outcast all over,” Hamamoto said, adding that once again she turned to the one place she always found belonging – a dance studio.

“Here I am in Japan finding a connection to dance all over, and that reignited my desire to pursue dance professionally. So, I secretly pursued a dance career alongside my academics and some part-time work,” she said. “And I had made a decision that after my undergraduate studies, I would go to Europe and audition and try to do this dream all over.”

Then, during her senior year of college, Hamamoto had a stroke during a dance class. At the acute stage, she was paralyzed from the neck down, losing both mobility and sensation. Her time in the hospital was a blur, but two months later, she was able to walk out.

“The stroke had triggered a lot of trauma beyond the stroke. Definitely, when I left the hospital, I was scared that the stroke might happen again because that’s what the doctor said,” Hamamoto said. “But the stroke had triggered a lot of other things, other trauma. Because the stroke happened inside of a dance class, a lot of the trauma that came back was related to that.”

Returning to the United States, Hamamoto began teaching ballroom dancing full-time at a studio.

“I was always on the search of the ideal dance partner whether it’s for competitions, performances or teaching,” Hamamoto said. “My thought process was, ‘Why don’t I find myself a wheelchair dance partner?’”

She reached out to folks in the athletic community, and met Adelfo Cerame. At the time, Cerame was a bodybuilder who uses a wheelchair. Having never danced with someone who used a wheelchair before, Hamamoto said she was at first fearful.

“But after a couple hours, there’s this magical moment where I realized that dancing with Adelfo was not much different from dancing with anyone else. This magical moment was really profound.” Hamamoto said. “That moment of wanting to share this connection was so strong that it led me to create Infinite Flow.”

Her mission for Infinite Flow, is to use dance to promote inclusion.

At her recent workshop, Hamamoto told the varied group to “use whatever you’ve got,” recounting a story of a dancer whose mobility was limited to two fingers.

“The dancer would dance to the choreography with her eyes,” Hamamoto said. “That is actual dancing.”

“For me, the infinity sign represents two people dancing in harmony and eternity. It’s a symbol of inclusion,” she said. “Something about partner dancing reminds us that we’re all human. We all exist on this place called Earth. We are all here to live a good life. And we get to share this incredibly special moment together, dancing.”

Walking across the stage in front of their cheering families and friends, the smiling grads marked the end of their high school careers and the beginning of their bright futures.

Stray pieces of broken glass hint that the underpass used to be a large homeless encampment.

But today, the 185-foot-wide by 29-foot-tall slopes on either side are Poli’s 10,730-square-foot canvas. The vibrant new artwork emerging there, he said, “is based on the mythology of the sun and the moon and how it relates to our current views on housing, shelter and community.”

The transformation began two years ago when the city cleared the area, moving about 90% of the people sheltering there to the Placentia Navigation Center, which opened in March of 2020, Deputy City Administrator Luis Estevez said.

Then, Caltrans officials contacted the city about the Clean California initiative that was launching, part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California Comeback Plan, which commits $1.2 billion toward road and neighborhood beautification projects across California, including hiring more crews, holding cleanup events and supporting public art pieces.

From that, the Placentia Gateway Public Art Project – the creation of two murals and a sculpture – was born. The sculpture, by artist Cliff Garten, will be installed at the southbound 57 Freeway off-ramps at Orangethorpe Avenue.

Estevez said the city wanted to create a dramatic presence at one of the main entrances to the Placentia Packinghouse Transit-Oriented District, a newly renovated neighborhood featuring a mixture of housing, office space, retail and transit in a walking-friendly community.

Poli’s “Good People Under Our Sun and Moon” mural design was selected a year ago by Arts Orange County, an independent nonprofit council. He met the city’s goal for the project by creating a “bold and colorful design,” to drive both foot and car traffic to the neighborhood, Estevez said. Poli beat out 35 other Southern California artists, and was given an all-inclusive $100,000 budget.

The moon side of the underpass, in hues of pink and purple, features an abstract outline of a woman sleeping and dreaming. The sun side hosts shades of blue with a splash of “Solar Energy” yellow.  An abstract man is crouching and holding up the weight of the world, the artist said.

“The everyday person is not going to know, so they’re going to have to figure it out on their own,” he said of his imagery’s meaning. “And that’s OK. Art is subjective.”

Both sides are meant to represent shelter from Mother Nature’s harsh elements.

The artist said he studied the light beneath the underpass and created geometric shapes that followed the shadows of the sun.

By the time he’s done, Poli will have used 80 gallons of eye-popping paint on his “futuristic-primitive” murals.

Poli said he has only three seconds to catch motorists’ attention as they zip through the tunnel while going about their daily lives.

“They don’t have time to interpret the piece. They’ll see purple and blue and pink, and hopefully they’ll want to come back to walk through,” he said. Each painting needs to be observed from the opposite side of the street to see the whole picture.

Saturday, Sylvia Ortega and others did just that. Ortega walked her bike so she could take in the large-scale art and chat with Poli.

Her father-in-law has lived for 48 years on Crowther Avenue, where Ortega now lives.

“A couple of years ago, I was afraid to walk through the tunnel,” she said. “People had taken over and made it theirs.

“I would go a quarter-mile out of my way to avoid that area,” she said. “And I most definitely would not go there at night.”

Today, with improved lighting and the welcoming colors of pink and blue that “feel like an embrace,” Ortega said she has peace of mind and the confidence to stroll through, even at night.

The backdrop to the ledge at the top of the incline is brightly painted, which she said helps pedestrians clearly see if someone is up there in the dark.

Throughout Poli’s recent painting day, people drove by and waved, gave thumbs-up and even clapped. A man, who identified himself as a resident, put on his hazard lights, jumped out of his car and conducted an impromptu interview with the artist on his cellphone.

A day earlier, Poli said a motorist pulled over and “the guy just sat in his car.” He thought it was odd until the rear window rolled down and a little girl peered out from the back seat and smiled.

Videographer Badir McCleary, a friend of Poli, has been documenting the installation and interviewing locals like Ortega about what shelter and a home mean to them.

A QR code will be painted into the mural so people can learn about the art and watch videos of the artistic process, McCleary said.

“People don’t usually get a chance to talk to an artist, but most people want to be involved,” he said. “When something beautiful is going up, they care even more and they’re going to protect it.”

A two-layered anti-graffiti coating will also be applied.

Poli said he knows graffiti goes with the territory.

As a high-school tagger himself, he signed, “Mantronix,” the name of his favorite hip-hop group, on walls and other public places – partly out of boredom and partly out of a need to express himself, he said. He soon shortened the moniker to Man and added the One as a graffiti trademark.

“In the ’80s there was nothing for graffiti artists,” he said. Today there’s a lot more opportunities. “You can always turn your talents into something positive.”

Help Clean California

Caltrans is celebrating the Clean California initiative this week and has several community events planned on Saturday, March 25, across the state.

In Orange County, there will be a Community Day featuring sustainability and the arts from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Mike Ward Park, 20 Lake Road, Irvine.

The family festival will feature bands and dance performances on a stage as well as presentations and panels with local leaders talking about sustainability. Families can enjoy games, a touch-a-truck demonstration and food trucks and wander among more than two dozen booths featuring local agencies to learn about “sustainability and proper waste management practices.”

Clean California is also accepting adopt-a-highway applications, with up to $250 a month available to volunteers; has created several grant projects; and has job opportunities. Find out more at cleancalifornia.dot.ca.gov.

Fourth- and fifth-grade students made the school’s annual pilgrimage to the market to learn the importance of eating healthy and exercising. They visited six stations for five minutes each, including the physical activity booth, ironically in the bakery department.

They learned the five food groups: fruits, vegetables, proteins, grains and dairy.

They played avocado bingo and learned an avocado is actually a fruit.

Each month, as part of Northgate’s Health and Wellness Initiative, several of the company’s 43 Southern California stores partner with community organizations to target a specific chronic disease, said Teresa Blanco, director of community engagement and wellness.

Last month, the market focused on heart health. This month, as part of National Nutrition Month, it hosted the 155 school children. In May, during National Women’s Health month, mammograms will be provided outside selected stores, Blanco said.

Each child was provided a goodie bag with nutritional advice, including a bilingual coloring book with a healthy foods shopping list, and a Frisbee promoting the “Promise to Talk” mental health website.

Fourth-grade teacher Janet Leslie was impressed by her students. “They know a lot more than I thought,” she said. “It makes me think we do a good job at school.”