Even though we are in the midst of the holiday season, plenty of soccer was enjoyed this past weekend.  A local AYSO Los Alamitos Extra Boys U9 team from Region 159 topped off their fall season in style.

St. Hedwig Church Cub Scout Pack 620, in partnership with the non-profit group Words of Comfort, Hope and Promise, sent 100 Christmas stockings directly to troops in Afghanistan.
Cubmaster Nate Morrissey said “This is the third year that our scouts have participated in this event. It is a great way for us to directly impact our troops who may be in harm’s way over the holidays. Each stocking contains a handwritten card from a scout that starts with “Dear Hero-” along with yummy treats from home.”

The Los Alamitos Education Foundation (LAEF) recently announced the start of the fourth annual King & Queen of Hearts Campaign and released the date for the campaign’s Royal Court debut and Coronation Gala.  
LAEF’ fundraising efforts through this signature event, the “King & Queen of Hearts,” which has a connection to the popular “I Heart Los Al” district campaign, provides resources to the school district.

Being born in 1923, life for me during the Great Depression years of the 1920’s and 30’s was no jolt to me.  Everything seemed normal. I knew nothing of my life that compared with anything I heard from others except I knew many people were hungry with many inadequacies, suffering from lack of food, unemployment, illnesses, and miseries of all sorts, etc.

Oxford Academy Girls Basketball Tournament kicks off the season for 16 teams but for Oxford Academy and Cypress High, their sights are set on the title.
Winning the tournament was a legitimate goal as both teams were coming off strong campaigns last year where Oxford finished with a record of 25-5 and Cypress was 19-10.  

The Blue Lightning U10 AYSO girls soccer team of Los Alamitos finished with an undefeated record of 13-0 (including the regular season and playoffs), as both the U10 girls League Champions and Playoff Champions. They will continue to play as a U10 travel team representing Los Al in early December in La Habra battling other regional top placed teams.

A Los Al student with a keen interest in video game programming recently won a video game contest and was recognized at the Nation’s capitol.
Los Al High School senior Brent VanZant was recently announced as the winner of the High School Game Maker category in the 2016 National STEM Video Game Challenge for his game called Orbit Arena.
Brent said he entered the video game design competition “for fun,” and said he did it because “he likes programming.”

In a recent press release, Boeing said its transfering half of its  employees because they believe “President-elect Donald Trump” is “promising a huge military expansion” so  “Boeing is moving half the jobs out of its Huntington Beach facility as the company streamlines in preparation for huge manufacturing orders coming to Southern California.”
Though the move is speculative, the company looks to believe a huge expansion is on the horizon and is preparing itself for it.
For the rest of the press release, see below.

When the Los Alamitos High football team scored with 7:32 left in the game to potentially pull within one score of tying the game, it ignited the Griffins and seemed to swing momentum to their side.
But a botched extra point conversion left them trailing 29-20 and that would be as close as the Griffins would get. La Mirada would tack on a late touchdown to gain the final edge, 36-20, as the Griffins’ season ended one game short of a CIF-SS, Division 3 finals appearance.

The FC Premier Boys 2001 ended the season undefeated SCDSL league Champs.
FC Premier (formerly known a Cypress FC) plays under the Southern California Development Soccer League and will be applying to move to Tier 1 in the fall 2017.
The team is comprised with players from our local cities of Rossmoor, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Cypress, and Long Beach.
The team had an outstanding season together and although the majority of the kids had only been together for a short period of time, they quickly adapted to the coaching style and philosophy of Coach Kenny Hodge.

Editor's note: This article appeared in the Nov. 23, 2016 issue of the News Enterprise.

Both McAuliffe Middle School  and Los Al Elementary scored higher in state math and English Language Arts tests this year than in the previous year.
Data was reported at the Los Alamitos Unified School District board meeting on Nov.1 during an annual report on academic programs and gains in performance.
As part of McAuliffe Principal Ann Allen’s  annual report to the board on school progress, Allen spelled out the following levels of students meeting or exceeding state standards:

Recently, I went to Toronto to sightsee and visit two of my best friends who I have not seen for over 40 years.  I had known my friends since our college days at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and have been best of friends ever since.
I scheduled this trip to Toronto to depart on November 8 so that I could tell others here that I was leaving the United States on Election Day and getting out of the country due to the turmoil of the campaigning.  But the main reason for the trip was to see my friends and tour Toronto again.

National Charity League’s  South Coast Chapter hosted its 43rd annual Tournament Day Luncheon at The Centre At Sycamore Plaza in Lakewood on Sunday, Oct. 23.
With 350 guests in attendance, the Kentucky Derby themed event raised $95,000 to benefit 21 local charities and local senior high school girls in need of scholarships in Long Beach, Los Alamitos, Lakewood and Cypress.
The afternoon affair was chaired this year by Cecilia Killeen, Emily Ledterman and Marni Rice and attended by all members of the South Coast Chapter.  

Principal Amy Laughlin challenged the Lee School community to surpass their goal of 525 members joining P.T.A. If they did, they’d get to duct tape her to a wall.
Students, community members, families and teachers were up for the challenge. After only eight weeks of selling raffle tickets and signing up members they beat their goal with 537 members joining the P.T.A. The P.T.A. is the oldest and largest child advocacy association in America.

Union members, community partners and veterans organizations collected a record 5.6 tons of food and supplies for veterans in need on Nov. 11 in an effort to say “thanks a ton” to those who serve.

Traffic worries for the Village 605 project
Dear Editor,

Millions of people all over America have been (and still are) thanking millions of Military Veterans for their active participation and service in saving our great country from the vicious onslaught from enemy countries.
We Veterans, in turn, are pleased and happy to receive each and every thank you we receive.  We are proud to have served, and glad to have returned home one way or another.