By Laurie Hanson

Students experience death without dying in the “Every 15 Minutes” event recently at Los Alamitos High School (LAHS). With life-like lessons, they learn the consequences of drunk and distracted driving in a community-wide effort through The Youth Center’s bi-annual event and the local community.

Their day began on Jan. 31, with students being pulled from their classes as part of the “living dead,” while their classmates hear their obituaries, and see their empty desks with only a photo and rose in their place.

Students witness the crash scene with Orange County Fire Department, California Highway Patrol (CHP), Los Alamitos and Seal Beach Police onsite. Heavy rains and thunder do not stop students from witnessing the accident scene. Ambulances and Forest Lawn hearses standby as fire personnel extricate casualties. The remaining victims standby, helplessly watching their friends and waiting to see the outcome before being taken away from campus to an undisclosed location for 24 hours. There they write goodbye letters to their parents, as their parents write their farewells at another location. They do not see each other until gathering at a school-wide assembly the next morning at the LAHS Gym.

Student Danny Bird, the drunk driver, was arrested, taken to jail, and then appeared in Orange County Municipal Court before a judge. Parents gather for the proceedings, hoping the judge will grant leniency due to the defendant’s young age and him having killed his best friend passengers. For a time, accused drivers remain in a holding tank, isolated and away from family. It’s their first real taste of life behind bars.

“I never want to put my parents through this experience”, shared Los Alamitos High School student Danny Bird, who was the drunk driver. “It’s definitely puts things into prospective and makes you think twice before making this choice [to drive intoxicated or not].”

On the other side of town, personnel at Los Alamitos Medical Center’s emergency room work feverishly to save two other LAHS students Amber DeMarco and Anika Piburn, victims of this senseless tragedy.  Later that day, funeral arrangements carried out for the 27 victims by Forest Lawn Mortuary in Cypress, where family and classmates gather to say their last goodbyes. Many can be heard outwardly weeping because their loved ones are no longer with us.

Day passes into night, and night into the next day where the entire LAHS student body gathers for an assembly in the high school gym, watching a powerful film of the entire day proceeding. Joshua Jahn, a speaker at the assembly, shared the story about losing his wife, young son, and an 11-months old baby girl to a drunk driver who hit his wife’s car. Jahn shares his story with students around the world in hopes that it will save lives. He asked the students to think of his family when they are faced with the choice of driving intoxicated or not. Not a dry eye

in the entire place remained.

The power of experiencing the consequences of driving under the influence or distracted driving hits like a ton of bricks by the end of the “Every 15 Minutes” event on the second day. The event is named “Every 15 Minutes” from a statistic that every 15 minutes someone is killed by drunk drivers in the United States. And, it’s a lesson not likely forgotten by the 3,600 students at LAHS.

‘We cannot bring this program to our community alone”, shared Youth Center Executive Director Lina Lumme. “Los Alamitos Police Department, Seal Beach Lions, and Los Alamitos High School planned this two-day program for the entire year. To help us bring the reality to students, more than 27 community partners joined in to bring this powerful life-changing experience to local students.”

This program is mainly funded by the CHP and The Youth Center with a big help from Lion’s Club and Los Alamitos High School, said Lumme.

By Laurie Hanson

Husband and wife co-chairs Robert and Janice Dominguez of Long Beach team up to bring a passion for service and diverse experience to this year’s Community Support Campaign, which kicks off on Feb. 12th at 6 p.m. at The Youth Center in Los Alamitos.

With 35 years in public service throughout Southern California and Fresno County, 8 ½ years spent as city manager for Los Alamitos and 4 years as city manager for Placentia, Robert has seen the value of youth programs directly within the community.

“Cities and law enforcement have learned to encourage youth programs in their cities,” said Robert, who has taught in the Graduate Center for Public Policy at Cal State Long Beach for the last 30 years to present. At one time he served for 8 years on The Youth Center Board of Directors, and he has been active in the Rotary for 37 years.  For the last 10 years he’s been on the board of directors for Music Theatre West and Business Consumer Alliance. He is Senior Advisor for city managers in the Gateway Cities and South Bay areas in Los Angeles County.

Janice met Robert while he was an intern in the City of Lakewood, where she ran their printing department. They married and she was a stay at home mother to their two sons, Joel and Jared, during which time she volunteered in the local schools. Both she and Robert were active for more than 15 years in the Cub and Boys Scouts while their sons were growing up.  One of their sons, Joel, is now a psychologist for Kaiser Permanente, and their other son, Jared, is a mechanical engineer.

After raising her sons, Janice went back to school and got her Registered Veterinarian Technician license, later volunteering at the Wetlands and Wildlife Center in Huntington Beach caring for animals affected by oil spills. Her license is the equivalent to being a registered nurse. She has also volunteered at the Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty (SPCA), and has been a foster mother to kittens for two years. She currently is a member of the Women’s Club in Seal Beach, and now travels in her retirement.

“It’s not just babysitting,” said Janice. “Youth programs teach life skills and are a vital part of the community.”

“We want to educate people about what The Youth Center does and speak about the children who have been raised with it,” said Bob. “The longevity of The Youth Center says a lot about their programs, and how they successfully engage young people. They have been around before the city was here.”

Bob has read when someone does fundraise, they have to ask at least 10 people to contribute. He feels the other part of fundraising is to simply outline what The Youth Center does for children and their families.

“I want to inform people exactly where their contributions are going and it’s 100 percent for services and not administration,” he added.

While he was on The Youth Center Board of Directors, Bob saw programs grow, thought it was a lot of fun and felt it was very fulfilling. Both he and Janice were asked by Youth Center Executive Director Lina Lumme to be this year’s campaign chair-people. They have known Lumme from the time she started as an after-school program staff member under former Executive Director Tom Stretz, feeling she enthusiastically embodies the very spirt of The Youth Center.

“We couldn’t turn her down,” said Bob.

“Lina is amazing,” added Janice. “She’s come a long way in her life. We both definitely feel inspired by her.”

Bob and Janice hope to improve and top what was fundraised in last year’s Community Support Campaign.

At the closing of this year’s Community Support Campaign, The Youth Center will be holding their inaugural A Night of Inspiration Gala celebrating 1 million hours of service to youth since 1952 on March 16 at the Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach. If you are interested in raising or contributing funds for their award-winning programs and/or attending the gala, please go online to www.theyouthcenter.org or call the office at 562-493-4043.