Starts July 15th – Applications accepted through April

By Diane Aguinaga, Antioch Police Department

The Antioch Police Department is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for our very first Citizens Academy.

The Citizens Academy provides an opportunity for community members to meet the police officers who protect and serve our city. The intent is to educate the community on the duties, training, investigation techniques and situations police officers and other members of the police department may encounter.

Those who attend the academy will be given the opportunity to participate in some of the activities police officers perform as part of their every day duties. Hands on experiences include fingerprinting, defensive tactics, interacting with a K-9 and handler, and riding along with an officer.

Join us for a unique learning experience. The Antioch Police Department Citizens Academy affords “Knowledge through Exposure and Experience.”

– Applications will be accepted during the month of April.

– Class space is limited to 20 students.

– Classes start July 15th.

– Classes are Wednesday evenings and two Saturdays

QUALIFICATIONS

– Minimum age of 18 years old

– Resident of Antioch

– No felony convictions

– No misdemeanor convictions within 1 year of applying

– Must commit to attend all 10 sessions

To download the application, click here: Citizens-Academy-App

Applications due April 15

Chichibu, Japan is Antioch’s Sister City. The Antioch-Chichibu Sister City Committe is looking for adults and high school students who are good representatives of our community and would like to travel there for two weeks this summer, July 14 – 28.

The delegation members will stay with host families and their only cost is plane fare.

Attached are both adult and student applications, which are due April 15.

Please call Patty Chan at 925 683-3972 if any questions.

2015 Application Adult 2015 Application-Student

By Shirley Kalinowski

REadingADvantage, Inc.(READ), hosted a lovely Grandma’s Tea on March 21, 2015 in the community building at Buchanan Park in Pittsburg. We want to publicly thank the generous sponsors who were instrumental in contributing to this event: Assemblymember Jim Frazier, Dow CAP, CostCo, and Stewart Memorial CME Church. Our Grandma’s Tea was attended by over 50 local grandmothers and was centered around a workshop put on by READ entitled (Grand) “Parent Power! Learn the ABCs of Early Literacy.”

Over warm tea, cookies, candies, and pizza, our grandmothers learned about the many benefits of reading daily with their grandchildren. On the surface our workshop message to our grandmothers was simple: read to your grandchild every day for 20 minutes and we’ll give you several free books for your daily reading. Beneath our message lay a multitude of benefits that daily reading can bring to a grandchild, including vocabulary development, reading comprehension, language development, grandparent-child bonding, early identification of potential health issues, grandparent-child conversational techniques, and, even, help with a grandparent’s own difficulty in reading. We also suggested easy ways grandmothers could use books as a relationship-building tool even when not physically present in her grandchild’s life. We provided our Grandma’s Tea message in both English and Spanish.

At the conclusion of our Grandma’s Tea, Karen Tedford, Senior Staff Assistant to Assemblymember Jim Frazier, presented California Legislature Assembly Certificates of Recognition to Delbra Gibbs, Deborah Polk, and Lorraine Manly, our Grandma’s Tea Planning Committee

“For your outstanding service and unwavering dedication to provide children of Contra Costa County with books that educate and entertain. On behalf of the 11th Assembly District of California, I commend and thank you for your inspired work and dedication to the joy of reading and lifelong learning,” the certificates read.

Incorporated in 2014, REadingADvantage, Inc. is a relatively new nonprofit in Contra Costa County. Over the last 18 months we have given our workshop to over 800 parents and have given out over 7,000 free children’s books and dictionaries.

For more information visit www.reading-advantage.org.

Kalinowski is President of the Brentwood-based ReadingADvantage, Inc.

Join the fun and make a difference in your community on Saturday, April 18th; volunteer for 6th Annual Antioch’s Keep Antioch Beautiful event, from 8:30 – 11 AM. Following the cleanup, there will be a free volunteer lunch at East Bay Regional Contra Loma Park from 11:30AM – 1 PM.

Hundreds of volunteers will be out in mass on the fifth anniversary of Keep Antioch Beautiful. During the city’s economic downturn and as a result of the reduction of the hours of public services employees the city was in need of a good cleaning. The Keep Antioch Beautiful event was created to encourage residents to help clean up litter and garbage in their neighborhoods. In 2010, over 900 volunteers turned out for the first all-volunteer event. Over 11,740 pounds of trash was collected and deposited in Republic Services dumpsters, located at Antioch schools. Over 600 volunteers attended lunch provided by Honeywell. Sponsors, such as PG&E, Walmart, Target and others, provided funding so that city resources were fully funded.

The effort continues on Saturday, April 18th, with 12 check-in locations. Schools and students will be competing for participation prize money for their schools. There are 3 prizes, $500 for 1st Place, $300 for 2nd Place and $200 for 3rd Place, with prizes awarded to each level of high, middle and elementary schools – that’s $3,000 in participation prizes! Participation is not limited to students to count towards prizes; parents, grandparents, friends, etc. can register their efforts for an individual school. We count everyone who is working if they state a school to credit – not just students! Volunteers who check in at a school site will be cleaning up the neighborhoods surrounding their campuses as well as their campuses.

To register for the event or find out more information, visit www.art4antioch.org/Keep-Antioch-Beautiful.asp, email Diane@Art4Antioch.org or call Diane Gibson-Gray at (925) 325-9897.

Local military veterans join American Legion State Commander Janet Wilson, front row in red, and muralist Scott LoBaido, front kneeling, for a photo in front of the new mural at the Antioch Veterans Memorial Building, on Friday, April 3, 2015.

“This is my way of thanking America for my freedom.”

By Allen Payton

A new mural was revealed in Antioch, Friday afternoon, of the American flag. Located on the back wall of the Antioch Veteran’s Memorial Building on West 6^th Street, the mural was painted by Scott LoBaido of Staten Island, as part of his “Painting Flags Across America” 50-state tour.

“I’m doing one veterans post in each state,” LoBaido said.

He contacted American Legion State Commander Janet Wilson, the first female in that position in the organization’s 96-year history, and whose home post is in Antioch. She told him they had a wall, here.

“I’ve been trying for 10 years, but couldn’t get someone to donate their services,” Wilson said. “So when this opened up I said ‘we want it.'”

So, Antioch was chosen as the one place in California for one of LoBaido’s American flag mural.

He started Wednesday about Noon, finished it up, yesterday and did some touch up, today, LoBaido shared.

“I don’t charge for this. It’s a gift,” he stated. “This is my way of thanking America for my freedom.”

The mural can be viewed from either the 7th Street side or E Street.

LoBaido’s tour is sponsored by The Home Depot, Behr Paint, City Quiet Windows and Stephen Stiller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

For more information about the muralist or to follow his tour, visit www.scottlobaido.com. For more information about the American Legion Harding-Noia, CA Post 161 in Antioch, call 925-754-8381 or email post161@aol.com.

See more photos on the Antioch Herald Facebook page, here.

Antioch Rotarians Gloria Martin and Christine O’Brien present dictionaries to third graders at Kimball Elementary, last October. Photos by Minh Nguyen

By Milanka Schneiderman

Every year, the Antioch Rotary Club has had a goal of providing every third grader in Antioch public schools with their own personal dictionary. This year, the club achieved their goal and every third grader will receive a hardbound dictionary that they may keep and use as their own personal reference book throughout their educational years.

“Most children today do not own a personal dictionary and some do not have access to one in their home,” said Bernie Szalej, President of the Antioch Rotary Club. “The Antioch Rotary wants to reach out to these children in this small way to enrich their learning.”

Dr. Stacey Duckett and Club President Bernie Szalaj prepare the dictionaries for distribution on March 19.

The Dictionary Project encourages children to use dictionaries so that they will be able to use the English language effectively during their school years and lifetime.

Last year, the club’s Annual Golf Tournament and its sponsors were a huge part of the success of this year’s Dictionary Project along with recent contributions by Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Higgins Chapel.

Serving the Antioch community since 1947, the Antioch Rotary Club, one of 33,000 clubs throughtout the world is a non-profit service organization. The club has a reputation for excellence in community projects, from its free dictionaries for third-graders, coats for kids, to providing scholarships for our local high school graduates. The club also offers programs for high school students such as Interact and International Youth Exchange.

This year, the 22nd Annual Golf Tournament will be on May 1^st at the Lone Tree Golf Course and Event Center.

“Without our Annual Golf Tournament, we wouldn’t be able provide our programs and scholarships for youths in the Antioch schools; our children are our future and the Rotary couldn’t do these projects without the community support of our tournament,” Szalej stated. “We greatly appreciate the community support for our golf tournament. These sponsors along with Rotarians make our Dictionary Project and other projects and programs throughout the year, possible.”

Club member and Antioch School Board Trustee Barbara Cowan delivers boxes of dictionaries to an Antioch elementary school on March 19.

Entry fee is $140.00 per golfer which includes a golf windbreaker, balls, green fees, cart, tee prizes and lunch.

The Antioch Rotary Club is looking for sponsors for this event, as well as donations of raffle prizes. Sponsorship levels range from: a Platinum membership of $1,500 for your company name on a billboard with 8 golfers, a Gold sponsorship level for $1,000 for your company name on a billboard along with 4 golfers, a Silver sponsorship level for $750 for your company name on a billboard along with 2 golfers and a Bronze sponsorship level for $500 for your company name on a billboard along with 1 golfer and a Copper sponsorship level for $250 for your company name on a billboard. Bernie Szalej, President, Antioch Rotary says that “I am hoping our business community will reach out and give back to our local community by supporting our golf tournament while advertising their business and having a fun day with others.”

Online registration is available for golfers at www.LoneTreeGolfCourse.com under “Upcoming Events.” Businesses or individuals interested in Antioch Rotary or sponsorship in the tournament can contact Milanka Schneiderman at Milanka13@msn.com for more information or visit www.AntiochRotaryClub.com or their Facebook page, under the name Rotary Club of Antioch, California.