Members of the La Palma Neighborhood Watch gathered in the Royal Palm Room of the La Palma Community Center at 7792 Walker Street in La Palma, on Thursday, July 13 at 5:00 p.m., for the 37th Annual Appreciation Banquet. Neighborhood Watch Board members recognized and thanked the past and present District Coordinators and Block Captains who volunteered hours every month to distribute the Neighborhood Watch newsletter in conjunction with the La Palma Police Department
Current President Dee Vincenti served as Master of Ceremonies. She introduced Colonel Eric McCall, of John F. Kennedy High School ROTC. Colonel McCall led everyone in saying the Pledge of Allegiance after his ROTC members presented and saluted the flag. Colonel McCall also prayed an invocation thanking veterans for their service and asking God for blessings for everyone.
M.C. Dee introduced La Palma’s Mayor Debbie Baker who acknowledged City of La Palma representatives who were present, including City Manager Conan McNamara and City Council members. Mayor Baker then introduced La Palma Police Captain Ron Wilkerson who thanked the Neighborhood Watch volunteers for helping to distribute the newsletters with information about the activities that the Police Department worked on each month.
Secretary Noella Lew thanked Captain Wilkerson for always assisting the Neighborhood Watch members. Noella took the time at this time to inform everyone and thank Walmart for the donations of bottles of water and vanilla and chocolate cookies on each table. She also thanked EDCO for sponsoring and donating many raffle prizes for the evening.
As part of the meeting, Dee introduced the nominated slate of new officers for 2023-2024 as follows: Karen Oliver for President, Dee Vincenti for Vice-President, Noella Lew for Secretary, Dickson Lew for Treasurer, and Sally Hawkins for Communications and Membership. A vote by members present was taken and the board was unanimously approved by members present. New President Karen Oliver thanked Dee for her service as President and her continued service as Vice-President. She also thanked the other board members who also are continuing to serve as board members.
Dee continued as M.C. for the evening and introduced the retired District Coordinators and Block Captains, some of whom had served in their positions since Neighborhood Watch first started in 1986. The retirees stood and were applauded. The current District Coordinators and Block Captains were asked to stand and were thanked for their service on behalf of the community.
Dee then directed people by tables to get their Tacos for dinner which were prepared by Mary’s Tacos, a Taco Cart Catering business. She started by choosing the table near the podium that had four retired volunteers seated to go first to get their taco dinners. One of the retired volunteers was Grace Izuhara, who said she lived in La Palma since 1957, before it became known as La Palma in 1965. Taco Mary’s workers must have prepared many tacos because people were told they could go for seconds after all table members were called to get their tacos. Police officers who came later also had taco dinners.
After everyone had finished their dinners, M.C. Dee announced the winner of the 50/50 Raffle as District 22 Coordinator Cyrus Urbiztondo. Cyrus donated part of his winnings back to Neighborhood Watch. Dee also announced the winners of all the raffle prizes which were donated by La Palma businesses and individuals. Some of the many donations included a scholarship, cash gifts, and large trash containers by EDCO, gift cards by In-n-Out Burgers, items from Infinity Beauty Supply, donuts from Yum Yum Donuts, and donations from District Coordinators and Block Captains including Monte and La Palma Mayor Debbie Baker, and Realtor Sally Hawkins. M.C. Dee thanked everyone for their raffle prize donations.
Proceeds from the funds raised by the raffles will be used to help defray the cost of printing the monthly Neighborhood Watch newsletter that is delivered to each La Palma resident by volunteer and other Neighborhood Watch programs and activities.
Neighborhood Watch invites everyone to come to the monthly Neighborhood Watch meeting on the second Wednesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. at the La Palma City Council Chambers. For more information, contact Sally Hawkins, regarding Communications/Membership, at lapalmanw@gmail.com.
