Letters to the Editor 12/25

New Christmas lyrics

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas;

Everywhere I go.

People running red lights, and getting into fights;

Bad behavior seems to be all around SLO. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas;

The parking lot is full.

Folks driving like they are in a race, just to get that perfect space;

Not caring if they are acting like a fool. Here’s hoping that everyone can take one deep breath and remember the reason for the season.

Michelle Cobbs

Morro Bay

Walk was a great success

In the aftermath of this year’s successful Walk to End Alzheimer’s, I wish to single out Gus’s Grocery on Osos Street in San Luis Obispo. Owners Mike and Ellen Stanton and their fabulous staff got behind this event in grand ways: each employee asked me for the purple Alzheimer’s wristband, and we provided those. When I asked if I could put a walk poster in their front window, they said, “Yes, and if you can give us five more, we’ll put them up around town.”

They also led the way with the coin can I asked them to put on their front counter. Of the five cans I personally monitored, Gus’s overwhelmed the competition, hands down.

Our two local walks generated $75,000 in San Luis Obispo, and $30,000 in Atascadero (their first-time walk). Finally, despite the miserable economy of today, the national totals for these walks produced a whopping $44,500,000, and money is still coming in, and will continue into next year.

There were 326,140 walkers across the country, comprising 39,060 teams. How can this be bigger next year? It begins with you.

Lee Ferrero

Los Osos

Law office appreciated

The Women’s Community Center of San Luis Obispo County would like to thank the law office of Alton & Allen, and more specifically, attorneys Jennifer Alton and Raymond Allen, for their very generous donation of $500 to the BETTER Supervised Visitation Program. This is a program designed to offer affordable and safe supervised visitation for children in our community when visiting with their noncustodial parent. We thank Alton & Allen for their continued support of our much-needed and important service to the community.

Robin Rinzler

Director, BETTER Supervised Visitation Program of the Women’s Community Center

Honor Ira now

The Arroyo Grande City Council should do the right thing, now. Rename Heritage Square Park in the Village to Ira Hughes Heritage Park in the Village.

Renaming Heritage Square would be right. Ira epitomizes Arroyo Grande’s heritage: He went to Arroyo Grande High, he was a businessman in the Village, a local scoutmaster, father and friend.

Mitch Rust

Arroyo Grande

Ira will be missed

At Oceano Elementary School we like three things: We like learning, we like ice cream and we like riding our bikes. Put all three to together, and you get the Oceano Bike Posse. Once a month we ride our bikes from Oceano to Doc Burnstein’s to get ice cream. Along the way our teachers instruct us on how to ride safely.

We have learned to ride with traffic, not against it, and never ride on the sidewalks (unless it is in front of Arroyo Grande High School where the street is very narrow and dangerous).

We would like to thank some people and organizations that make our rides possible. First, we would like to thank our teachers Mr. Walzer, Mrs. Dreizler and Mrs. Hall for donating their time after school to ride with us. Next we would like to thank PG&E and Rideshare for helping us with our new ultracool shirts that make us more visible to drivers. Finally, we want to thank the driving public for giving us smiles and a wide berth when they drive by.

On a sadder note, we would like to express our condolences to the Hughes family on the passing of Ira Hughes, owner of Ira’s Bike Shop. Ira was a friend and honorary member of the Oceano Bike Posse. Ira was always there for us when we needed to get air in our tires, have a flat fixed, or get our bikes working to let us ride safely home when we had repair problems. He did this for free, no matter how busy he was at the time. Ira will be sorely missed.