News - Local - South County

Wednesday, Aug. 06, 2008

South County Beat: Descendant of Captain Dana to speak

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Joe Dana, local author and great-great-grandson of Nipomo pioneer Captain William Dana, will present an overview of Capt. Dana’s life based on his

new biography, “To Discourage Me Is No Easy Matter: The Life of California Pioneer William Goodwin Dana,” at 1 p. m. Saturday at the Dana Adobe.

Following the talk, Dana will be available to sign copies of his book, which are available at the Adobe. Free house tours will take place after the presentation.

The public is also invited to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy the setting before the talk as well as bring small carrots and apples to feed the adobe burros, Darlene and Polly.

Additional Saturday Talks at the Adobe include the following:

• Aug. 23, 1 p. m.; Barbara Watson, researcher and volunteer docent, will speak on “Mi Casa es Su Casa; Visitors at the Dana,” highlighting some of the famous visitors to the Dana Adobe.

• Sept. 13, 1 p. m.; Samantha McTighe, speaking on “Herbs of the Chumash,” will focus on herbs and natural remedies which may have been grown and gathered on the Rancho Nipomo.

• Sept. 27, 1 p. m.; Helen Daurio, adobe Education Committee chairwoman and lead docent, will speak on “The Silent Women of Alta California,” focusing on the lives of women who helped settle Alta California.

For information, call 929-5679 or go to the Web site www.danaadobe.org.

Youngster off to capital

Twelve-year-old Jamieson O’Marr of Arroyo Grande was recently given $450 from the Pismo Beach-Five Cities Rotary Club to help him attend the Junior Na-

tional Youth Leadership Conference in Washington D. C. from Nov. 1 to 6.

The money will help the Paulding Middle School seventh grader offset travel and program expenses.

O’Marr was nominated by one of his school teachers to be able to attend the conference, which is sponsored by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council. It is intended to educate, inspire and motivate young future leaders.

O’Marr will have the opportunity to visit Congress, the White House, numerous national monuments, battlefields and attend sessions on leadership and government.

He is also lucky to be at the nation’s capital during the highly-anticipated presidential elections, said his mother, Bethany O’Marr.

Thespian gets scholarship

Nipomo High School graduate Stephanie Leatham is the recent recipient of the 2008 Alan D. and Penny Lu Engelsman Scholarship.

The scholarship was announced at the 2008 Thespian Festival at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

Leatham, who maintained a grade-point average above 4.0 throughout high school, had a theatre resume that included performance roles in the “Diary of Anne Frank,” “Urinetown” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

She was also president of the Thespian troupe 6686 and worked with the Great American Melodrama and the Vaudeville theater company in Oceano.

The scholarship is a renewable $500 annual scholarship awarded to members of the International Thespian Society.