It has the look of many farmers markets, but the Farm Store in San Juan Capistrano is a permanent fixture of the Ecology Center, open every day year-round. All the produce sold there comes from the fields just yards away on the longest continuously running farm in Orange County.

“For thousands of years, the Acjachemen tribal members farmed this land, and we feel that we are just stewards caring for it,” said Jonathan Zaidman, the center’s vice president of community.

Executive Director Evan Marks, who had created ecological projects in Central America and Africa, brought his passion for the land to this area when he founded the Ecology Center in 2008.

Six years later, Zaidman joined him to create “our version of a community relationship with the land,” he said.

The pair sought to build and harness a population of people passionate about health and nourishment and zealous about respecting and caring for the land.

“What does that (passion and commitment) look and taste like?” Zaidman asked. “We try to show people what that is like.”

The ecological oasis is filled with trees, drought-tolerant plants, fruits, vegetables and flowers. Since 2019, it has encompassed a 28-acre regenerative organic-certified farm. The land is owned by the city of San Juan Capistrano and leased to the center.

Located on the premises, besides the country store, are a café, a permanent school plus a play area for visiting children, a special events dome, a picnic and eating area, and the working fields beyond. The farm became part of the center when a commercial organic grower whose land surrounded the original center went belly-up and it was offered to the center for lease by the city.

Also on the grounds sits the 1878 Congdon House, the oldest wooden structure in the city.

The city does not provide funds for the nonprofit center, which relies on donations, admission to special events, and proceeds from the sale of produce and branded merchandise sold in the store,

“Everything we grow is sold in the Farm Store, used in the café or reinvested in the center,” Zaidman said.

Many local chefs and restaurants source ingredients from the farm, which has grown foodstuffs requested by area chefs for special preparations.

“The farm is the beating heart of our operation,” he said.

On any given day, the center is bustling with shoppers, visiting families, hungry guests, and workers running to and fro servicing the various activities. The café is open for breakfast and lunch from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday, with a farm brunch offered Saturdays and Sundays. Wednesday dinners from 5 to 9 p.m. feature pizza, while on Thursday and Friday nights, farm dinners are served. Outdoor tables offer an inviting place to chow down.

Newly opened on the grounds is Zaidman’s favorite locale, the Peace Dome, designed to house special events, lectures, and happenings like movies and concerts.

From inside the meditative space, you can gaze through clear wall panels toward the colorful fields of flowers and food.

“The surroundings are vibrant, dynamic and beautiful,” Zaidman said with a large dose of pride.

On the Wednesday I visited, I asked Zaidman if the bustling crowd represented a particularly busy day. His answer was that it was “a slow day.” Weekends see the most visitors, he added.

The center boasts a staff of 125, many of whom work there full-time. It prides itself on offering employees a living wage, including the field workers.

“We develop a relationship between the food and the grower,” Zaidman said.

More than 100 plantings, such as strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant and fava beans, are grown. Crops are rotated seasonally, with fields allowed to regenerate in turn. Tree plantings encompass Mediterranean, stone fruits, apples and pears, and citrus in appropriate quadrants of the land.

Much of the center’s core beliefs were inspired by the farm-to-table movement spearheaded by Berkeley chef Alice Waters in the 1970s. The center operates with care for the food and reverence for the land, Zaidman said.

“Our goal was to bring the space to life and offer a model of community,” he said.

Programming includes specialty dinners, educational offerings, school field trips and field demonstrations.

Among the premiere offerings at the center are its Community Table dinners set outdoors on Saturday nights through November. Area chefs with particular strengths cook their specially themed dinners using ingredients from the farm or foraged within a distance of 25 miles.

“The chef will bring 75 people together to tell his or her story and celebrate the local culture,” Zaidman said.

Featured chefs are listed on the center’s website.

“Our values are driven by the ingredients, and we believe in wrapping our arms around our value system,” he said. “Our hope and goal is to bring back the agricultural atmosphere that the O.C. once had and to bring healing to the community and the culture.”

The Ecology Center is located at 32701 Alipaz St. in San Juan Capistrano. It is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. For information, call 949-443-4223 or visit theecologycenter.org.

Whether a pastrami sandwich or a lox-topped bagel represents comfort food or culinary outreach, the event will offer an opportunity to indulge in the traditional foods that define Jewish deli cuisine.

The fourth annual festival returns to Clubhouse 1 on Sunday, June 22, from 5 to 8 p.m., sponsored by the Reform Temple of Laguna Woods. Admission and entertainment are free, with food for sale.

Deli delicacies available will include pastrami and brisket sandwiches, lox and cream cheese on bagels, barbecued jumbo all-beef hot dogs, noodle kugel (pudding), hummus and pita bread, small challahs (egg breads), chicken soup with matzah balls, jelly doughnuts and home-baked treats such as rugelach, mandelbrot and coffee cake. Dr. Brown’s sodas, popular back East, will also be available for the first time in several years.

While the focus may be on the food, community and camaraderie top the menu for festival Chair Lynne Rosenstein.

“An event like this brings the community together,” she said. “People of every ethnic group and background in the Village can come and have a chance to sample and enjoy Jewish foods.”

Many may have eaten the foods before, while for others, the tastes will be new and different, she said.

Foods identified with Jewish culinary culture derive from two main traditions. Immigrants from the Germanic and Eastern European countries who came to this country in the mid- to late-1800s brought with them the delicatessen staples of frankfurters, sauerkraut, pickles and cold cuts like pastrami and corned beef.

These transplants came from the Ashkenazi tradition, while Jewish immigrants from southern Europe and northern Africa came from the Sephardic tradition and brought with them foods like hummus that were associated with the Middle East.

Cold cuts, bread, pickles and meats will be sourced from local purveyors, as they have in the past.

While lox from Costco has been a festival staple, this year the smoked salmon being served has been made by temple member Rebecca Weinstein.

Her Seattle cousins have owned and operated a deli grocery store since the 1940s, and she borrowed their recipe for the home-made lox, she said.

“I take a slab of salmon flavored with sugar, salt and liquid hickory smoke, cover it with plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator for a week or two,” Weinstein said.

Then she slices the fish with a carving knife and freezes the slices until ready to use.

“Easy!” she said, although she admitted that it took a while to convert 25 pounds of salmon to lox since she could only accommodate two pieces of salmon in her refrigerator at a time.

“Lynne Rosenstein was my taste tester, and she really liked it,” Weinstein said.

Last time, the festival kitchen sold out its entire poundage so organizers are stocking up with more this year.

Baked goods have also been home-made by “talented bakers” under the leadership of Susi Levin.

The festival also offers lively music for dancing along with other entertainment. The Shtetl Menschen Klezmer Band will play on the back patio. Village resident Rebeca Gilad and her troupe will lead participants in Israeli dance moves, and magician Jeff Olds will entertain with close-up magic.

An opportunity drawing with a multitude of gift cards will be a feature of the event.

Besides the Reform Temple, organizations sponsoring the event are ORT America, Friends of the Jewish Federation, the National Council of Jewish Women, Chabad Jewish Center of Aliso Viejo and Laguna Woods, and Hadassah.

Rosenstein touted the cooperative spirit existing among the Jewish organizations in the Village.

“When I moved here in 2016, there was no cooperation among the Jewish groups here at all,” she said. “Now, we work together, because when one is strong it strengthens the others.”

Dozens of volunteers are vital to the success of the event as well.

The first Jewish Food Festival took place in 2018. Rosenstein recalls that it was so well attended, the food ran out.

“That has never happened again,” she emphasized.

For Rosenstein, however, it has never been about the food.

“It’s all about camaraderie and community building,” she said.

Food tickets can be purchased in advance in the Drop-In Lounge at Clubhouse 1 today, June 19, from 10 a.m to 12 p.m. or at the door the day of the festival. Prices will range from $4 for pita bread with hummus to $15 for sandwiches.

Parking will be at a premium. So an Age Well bus will shuttle attendees from the Clubhouse 4 parking lot to Clubhouse 1 at no cost to riders. The bus will begin a continuous loop from the Clubhouse 4 lot beginning at 4:30 p.m., with the final return run leaving Clubhouse 1 at 8 p.m.

Village residents who have a Laguna Woods Senior Mobility card can request a free taxi from their home to Clubhouse 1 and return.

From bagels to brisket: Food festival united community

By Penny E. Schwartz

Correspondent

Partying on the Clubhouse 1 patio was in full swing Sunday night, June 22, as revelers clapped to the sounds of  klezmer music and followed the lead of a spirited group of Village dancers.

That was after many in the crowd had chowed down on pastrami and brisket sandwiches, bagels and lox, hot dogs and sweet baked treats at the fourth Jewish Food Festival, sponsored by the Reform Temple of Laguna Woods.

Deemed a resounding success by event chair Lynne Rosenstein, the festival attracted about 1,000 hungry guests. She based that estimate on the number of sandwiches – 850 – that were sold.

Business was lively at all of the food stations, including the outdoor grill for hot dogs and inside tables for sandwiches and baked goods – home-baked treats like rugelach, mandelbrot, cakes and cookies that sold out quickly.

Two tables of opportunity raffle drawings offered certificates for everything from candy treats to haircuts, nail treatments, restaurant and grocery fare, and even an initial visit to a local dentist.

The feeding frenzy started early as long lines waited impatiently for doors to open at 5 p.m. Guests dined and danced on the patio until festivities wound down a couple of hours later.

“This was a huge success,” said temple member Rachel Forman, who has participated in all four festivals sponsored by the congregation. “People seemed to enjoy eating and schmoozing.”

Temple member Avima Yaffe, attending her first food festival, contributed baked goods and said she especially loved the Israeli dancing.

Member Susan Abelson found the food delicious, especially the pastrami, but she enjoyed the camaraderie even more.

“I loved the feeling of being together,” she said.

Several other Jewish organizations offered baked goods, matzo ball soup and kugel for sale.

Rosenstein credited the volunteer work of about 150 temple members, nearly half the congregation. They wore their yellow Jewish Food Festival T-shirts as a badge of honor, she said.

“The event’s success gave the members a feeling of accomplishment and it served all the purposes set out beforehand.”

If the annual show Saturday, June 7, had a theme, it might have been “found, formed and fashioned.” More than 40 Village artisans offered their handmade work for sale at Clubhouse 2 while attendees shopped, then schmoozed and noshed on the patio to the music of Midnight Martini.

Several presenters repurposed found objects into works of art. Participating in her first Village show, Susan Stocker has turned her passion for “old stuff” into newly minted wooden stand-alone pieces dubbed “Alley Art.”

She fashions the backings and stands from old wooden pallets found in alleys along with old wire, screens, rusty nails and metal.

“I find beauty in the aging metals and woods,” said Stocker, who at one time was a fused glass artist. Mounted on the pieces of old wood are small glass vases that can hold artificial or real flowers. The decorations are recycled bits of metal and other found objects.

Garbage nights in the Village offer Stocker great opportunities for foraging junk from residents’ throw-aways. She admits to being a “senior citizen dumpster diver,” searching for materials on the ground rather than climbing into dumpsters.

“Where others see junk, I see art,” Stocker said.

A pair of artists who also create formidable forms from found objects are Linda Gibboney and Tracey James with their breathtaking birdhouses.

During the pandemic, they walked through the Village picking up sticks, bark and pine cones. The idea of turning the raw natural materials into birdhouses soon took flight.

“We each have slightly different styles,” said Gibboney, although all their bird-sized domiciles feature natural wood grain and adornments. Many are full-sized, but several are dubbed “bookshelf birdhouses,” meant to be displayed indoors in smaller spaces.

Many of the larger houses, which can require about 40 hours of workmanship, are built to specification for birds to inhabit as well as being pieces of art.

“Each has a trap door underneath for cleaning them out each season, and on the inside wall is a ladder of sticks that helps the baby birds climb up to the opening,” James said.

The pair made a study of fowl necessities when designing the residences for their artistic endeavor, which they call “Sticks & Cones.”

Turning trash of a different sort into treasure is Bonnie Wolf, who repurposes vintage product cans and tins into whimsical figures that feature doll or teddy bear parts. She titles her work “Kick the Can.”

Wolf has fun combining objects based on a theme or a color or just a fanciful idea in her head, she said. Animal heads, doll heads, Cream of Wheat boxes and Cadbury tins come into play when her imagination gets going.

“When I find something I like, I look for pieces that might go with it,” Wolf said.

“I do lie awake thinking about these things and how they might be connected,” she added with a laugh.

Combining words in an artful or whimsical way are the stock in trade of Georgie Hackford, who goes by the artist name Gigi.

“I like to laugh and get others to do the same,” said Hackford, who is also a poet and slips some bits of verse into the pockets of her handmade dolls.

A series of her paintings features a group of “saints,” such as “St. Ew, patron saint for cooks,” and “St.  Ir, patron saint for bakers.”

Then there’s the painting of a bunny on a brush titled “Hare Brush” and the woman with bare arms demonstrating the “Right to Bear Arms.”

“Gigi’s unique gift is to put words together,” said bystander Rick Takagaki.

He said her works resemble New Yorker cartoons and sometimes it takes people a while to “get it” when they look at her pieces. They have to take the time to let the words sink in, he said.

Glass art was well represented at the show. Relatively new to the craft is Cheryl Dillard, who started fusing glass just a year ago after years of doing ceramic work

“I love the look and feel of fused glass and the fact that each piece looks different when it comes out of the kiln,” she said from behind her table filled with colorful necklaces, bracelets and rings. “You never know what a piece will look like.”

Scraps from previous stained glass work inspired Diana Sherrod to design and decorate the sides of table lanterns with fused glass panels.

With twinkling lights placed inside, the lanterns require four different sides of glass, a fact that makes for more work but more chances to be creative, she said.

Annie Hartfeld did an about-face after working as a professional chef for years. She turned her skills at creating colors and textures to enamel work, which she often does in the Clubhouse 4 jewelry studio.

As a supervisor there, she indulges her passion with other artists, who have become like family, she said.

Woodworker Steve Neuburger also gave a shout-out to Clubhouse 4, where he creates his serving boards, tables and boxes in the woodshop.

“Along with skills, other woodworkers have taught me patience,” he said with a laugh.

Often there are seven to 10 things going on at one time with his projects and he has to wait for each part of the process to be done before starting another, he said.

Painters of every subject and style made their presence known at the art show.

Eye-catching in terms of color and subject matter was the work of Carolyn Moore, an inveterate traveler.

“I love to take photos of Indigenous people to use later when I paint my watercolors,” she said.

Sometimes she will sketch on site, but travelers in her tour groups usually like to stay on the move, she said. Her paintings resemble photographs, featuring the colorful denizens of the Inca and Maya worlds of Peru and Central America as well as Australia and other far-flung locales.

Perusing the show’s cornucopia of booths were Steve O’Neil and Olivia Batchelder.

The Village Art Affair was one of the first events they attended when they moved to the Village three years ago and they’ve made a point of coming back every year, O’Neil said.

“The range of items, from beautiful paintings by professional artists to craft items by residents taking classes, are all wonderful to see,” he said.

Batchelder, an artist herself, agreed.

“This has been an afternoon delight with one-of-a-kind discoveries,” she said.

Glass artist Monica Berg also perused the booths as a shopper for this show, which she termed “fabulous.”

“There is so much diversity and talent in the Village, and there are so many unique things to see,” she said. “ I just love days like this!”

The Moulton Museum celebrates May 6 each year as “Arrival Day,” when a young Lewis Moulton first set foot in South Orange County from the East Coast in 1874. He went on to become a pivotal figure in the development of the region from grasslands to today’s lands.

This year, the museum handed out silver key chains with cowboy charms to honor the area’s past. In other years, a larger event was held in commemoration of May 6.

The unassuming museum opened its doors in 2022 in a small strip mall in Laguna Hills. A permanent exhibit is housed in the 2,500-square foot main hall and features a wealth of items from the Moulton family collection.

“Many of these had been stored at the family ranch in Santa Barbara,” said Jacquelyn Sharga, events coordinator and assistant to museum executive director Elisabeth Lange.

An adjacent gallery of 1,000 square feet displays fine art related to the area’s past. The display changes every three months.

The main exhibit, titled “1874: Into the West,” celebrates the arrival of Lewis Moulton to the area from Boston and offers a snapshot of the region in the late 1800s.

The first eye-catcher in the display is an 1880s-era ranch buggy that was used until 1962, when Nellie Gail Moulton and her sister Carrie rode it in the Swallows Day Parade in San Juan Capistrano. An old blanket and a metal foot warmer that held coal indicate how the buggy riders kept warm.

The Moulton family hailed from Boston, where Moulton Hill sat near Bunker Hill. Early family members knew George Washington, who presented them with a flag featuring 13 stripes and a Union Jack symbol. A replica of that flag is prominent in the museum space.

Later family members were friends with Abraham Lincoln, who visited with Lewis Moulton’s parents and met him as a boy.

Moulton spent five weeks traveling by steamship, train and stagecoach to Santa Ana, arriving on May 6, 1874.

After his arrival, he got a job working on the Irvine Ranch. At the store run by John Gail on El Toro Road, he met the owner’s daughter, Nellie, resulting in the union of the two families in 1908.

In 1895, Moulton purchased what became the Moulton Ranch with the help and support of his mother’s family, the Fennos of Boston. Rancho Niguel, detailed on several maps in the museum, was at first Indigenous land, then a Spanish land grant, a Mexican land grant and finally an American-owned ranch. It eventually became the communities of Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods and Aliso Viejo.

With partner Jean Pierre Daguerre, Moulton raised sheep and cattle, but when the sheep part of the enterprise did not go well, the two parted ways and Moulton concentrated on cattle ranching.

The ranch extended from the present-day I-5 and El Toro on the north to Dana Point on the south and west to the ocean. Laguna Woods Village, originally called Leisure World, sits in the northwest corner of the ranch, whose headquarters were located where the demolished mall sits.

Other portions of the main exhibit feature ranch equipment, mining equipment and many artifacts from the cattle ranching era.

Two of Moulton’s desks, one a traveling variety, are on display. David Nichols, one of 10 volunteer docents who serve the museum, pointed out how meticulous Moulton was in his record-keeping.

“He had ledger books that recorded expenses as well as rainfall totals, and he stored them all in large binders,” Nichols said as he donned white gloves and leafed through handwritten ledger pages. Books Moulton read, or at least kept on his desk, include early American Western classics such as the novels of James Fenimore Cooper.

One display mentions the fact that author Helen Hunt Jackson came to the ranch to do research for her memorable novel “Ramona,” reenacted each year at the pageant of the same name.

In the adjoining art gallery, the current exhibit, titled “Canyon Colors,” features the botanical paintings and drawings of Silverado Canyon by Clara Mason Fox, a friend of Nellie Gail. Gail was a photographer who maintained friendships with many area artists. The exhibit will end June 26 with a closing reception from 4 to 6 p.m.

The Moulton Museum is at 25256 Cabot Rd. in Laguna Hills. It’s open to the public free of charge every Tuesday and Thursday and the first Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The family foundation of Lewis and Nellie Gail Moulton has its offices there as well. For more information, visit moultonmuseum.org.

“The museum enriches the culture of this area,” said docent James Proett.

The museum constantly seeks docents, educators, community ambassadors and researchers for archival work. For information, call 949-8-MUSEUM ((949) 868-7386) or email info@moultonmuseum.org.

It was a simple trick, shown to him by his grandfather back home in Kentucky, but it ignited what would become a lifelong passion.

King was directed to place a wooden matchstick inside a handkerchief and snap it in two. He remembers feeling and hearing it break, but when his grandfather opened the handkerchief, the matchstick was whole.

“To me it was a miracle, and when he showed me how the trick was done, it was a big moment for me, and it remains a big memory,” King said.

In fact, the award-winning comedy magician, who will be on stage at the Performing Arts Center in Laguna Woods on Saturday, May 3, has passed on the illusion to children via classes and the magic kits he puts together.

King’s other grandfather also was an aficionado of magic and kept a library of books on the subject. While researching one illusion, King would read about others, increasing his bag of tricks exponentially.

“My two grandfathers were the town eccentrics, and for me it was the perfect storm,” King said in a recent phone interview.

The two older men remained among his mentors and biggest supporters as his career unfolded, but they did not live long enough to see him perform in Las Vegas.

King started his show there in 1998 and is now the entertainer with the longest-running one-man show in the town’s history.

As an up and coming magician, King tried the standard persona of “sorcerer with a top hat,” but he found that the closer he kept to his own personality, the more successful he was.

He started to add comedy to his magic act, acknowledging that he comes from a family of comedians.

“All of them are funnier than me, and there was always a big competition at dinner,” he said.

He enjoys both aspects of his act.

“Usually the trick comes first, and then I try to make it humorous,” he said.

King has been ranked the number one comedy magician in the world by Magic Magazine and was named Magician of the Year by the Magic Castle in Hollywood. He was inducted into the Las Vegas Hall of Fame as well.

Through the years of performing on the road and then making a professional home for himself in Las Vegas, King has developed several trademarks, such as an iconic suit and a trick with goldfish. He wouldn’t reveal the details of either during the interview, but they will be part of his show at the PAC, he said.

King tries to avoid the classic tricks of the trade, preferring to perform magic that is his own style. Sometimes he’ll revive an old trick and modernize it.

He does come up with original gimmicks, occasionally incorporating them into his routine immediately. Other tricks take months or even years to practice and perfect.

“I’ve been working on one for five or six years now, and it’s getting close,” he said with a laugh. “You need to do a trick in front of an audience to know if it really works.”

King has appeared on the TV show “Penn and Teller Fool Us” four times, with one more episode taped and yet to be aired. He has managed to earn one trophy for fooling the iconic pair but says it is hard to do because they are Las Vegas colleagues and friends and often see each other’s shows.

Over many years of successfully performing hundreds of tricks, he has encountered some disasters, claiming that they “keep it fun.”

“Anything bad that could happen has happened,” King said. “I have to figure out how to cover it up if I can.”

Once he cut off the tip of his thumb doing a cut-the-rope trick and bled so much he asked if there was a nurse or doctor in the audience. A nurse responded and bandaged his finger so that he could continue his show and do the following one.

“Afterward, as I was leaving to go to the emergency room, an audience member who’d seen both shows said he was disappointed with the second one because I hadn’t cut my finger,” King said with a laugh. “I had managed to make it look like part of the show.”

Many people think of magicians as nerdy, quiet types, he said, admitting that the characterization has truth to it. And when people find out that he is a magician, they often want him to immediately show them a trick.

“They think I always want to be doing magic, but I get enough attention already during my shows,” he said.

Sometimes people think he can’t be trusted not to cheat at cards or some other game because of his talents at sleight-of-hand and visual deception.

“Still, there’s no other career I would want,” King said.

Doing two shows a day in the afternoon and none at night has allowed him to live a normal family life, home in the mornings and evenings to spend time with his wife and daughter. He has been happily following this routine for  25 years and calls  himself “the luckiest boy on Earth.”

He does manage to do about 12 to 15 shows a year away from his Las Vegas home base.

“My show is family-friendly and I love audiences of all ages,” King said. “It’s a treat to get away from home and into a different environment.”

He said he is looking forward to performing in the Village.

“Magic is something I do that audiences can’t explain,” King said. “When I perform, I want to be delightful as well as inexplicable.”

The Mac King Comedy Magic Show will be at the Laguna Woods Performing Arts Center on Saturday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for $20, $25 and $30 and are on sale at tickets.lagunawoodsvillage.com or at the PAC box office, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Credit/debit card fees apply. The GRF no-host bar will be available. For more information, call 949-597-4288 or email recreation@vmsinc.org.

The extravaganza at the Performing Arts Center on March 19 offered Village residents a chance to experience “the essence of Korean culture,” according to its organizers.

Performances of song and dance featured two Village groups along with professional entertainers who volunteer their talents in the area.

For years, the Korean American group has sponsored an Arirang Festival with participants from the Village and audience members drawn from its own membership. The Korean population of the Village has grown to about 2,500, according to program moderator SangKeun Park.

Pearl Lee is a former association board member and the first Korean to serve on the Laguna Woods City Council.

“Since the Korean community has been growing rapidly, we felt the need to promote the rich tapestry of Korean culture and tradition to the rest of the Village,” Lee said.

The association wanted to create a program that would be entertaining to a local audience by inviting performers from outside the Village to demonstrate both traditional and contemporary song and dance numbers. Colorful costumes, powerful voices and elegant dance moves characterized the performances.

Before the show began, audience members stood for the Korean and U.S. national anthems, led by professional singers with spellbinding voices.

The Goreu Korean Drum Nanta opened the show with a robust performance that was spirited and well-choreographed. Audience members responded enthusiastically to the group, whose name, “Nanta,” means “beat hard.”

Two groups of Village residents exhibited their talents. The Korean Men’s Choir offered musical harmonies while the Korean Women’s Line Dance members presented energetic and spirited dance numbers.

A professional troupe offered the Korean traditional dance called Crown Flower Dance, performed at royal banquets since the 1400s. Slow-moving and precise, the dancers waved the sleeves of their flowing white robes with elegant movements.

Another traditional dance, the Fan Dance, was first performed at the 1954 Olympics in Mexico City. The dancers manipulated their fans with grace and delicacy, calling to mind fluttering butterflies as they traversed the stage.

Before intermission, a high-energy group of youngsters demonstrated Taekwondo moves, complete with loud shouts, dramatic music and the breaking of boards with feet. Taekwondo is the national sport of Korea. The group members are students in the martial arts school of Village resident Dae Kwon Park.

The second part of the program was filled with the soaring operatic voices of HyunSook Yang, tenor HoJin Hwang and soprano YeaonHwa Na. The final song, “Arirang,” expressed the longing for unity and reunification of the Korean people. It is part of their shared heritage and is sung by residents of both North and South Korea.

“Arirang, which is one of the most popular songs in Korea, symbolizes the Korean spirit of resilience,” Lee said. “One of the most important goals of this festival was not only to honor our differences but to recognize the inclusivity and the power of unity.”

More than 10 languages are spoken in the Village, said one of the moderators.

“We are all cousins here, living in harmony and peace,” he said.

Pat Kenefick, director of activities and programs, came to her new duties as an outgrowth of time spent at the center’s front desk. Ellen Dupuy, the new community relations manager, became a volunteer after coming into the center to drop off flyers for a gem and mineralogy society.

Kenefick began with a Meals on Wheels route, then worked at the front desk of the senior center, becoming its coordinator.

When former center director Aimee Roberts left last June, Kenefick stepped into the breach. She was offered the job as director of activities and programs as a permanent part-time position.

Her appreciation and care for seniors, however, have been part of her life for much longer.

“My grandmother and great-grandmother were influential women while I was growing up, and my mother taught me to always do something good for others and the world,” Kenefick said.

During her teen years and as a young adult, she volunteered at senior living communities, visiting older adults and helping them participate in activities.

Kenefick sees herself as a member of the “sandwich generation,” one who was taking care of her ailing mother while working and raising her daughter.

“I was a caregiver for my mother for almost 10 years,” she said. “My mother came to live with me when I was pregnant with her first and only grandchild, while she was recovering from lung cancer.”

The three spent many days together negotiating doctors’ appointments along with physical therapy, pulmonary therapy and cardiac rehab sessions.

“I knew it was important to spend as much time doing fun things with Mom as she was on borrowed time,” Kenefick said.

They attended story readings for her daughter, events at the Mission Viejo senior center, art classes, dances and many musical theater shows in addition to tea house outings.

“These activities were so important to help Mom physically and mentally that even the doctors said they extended my mom’s life,” she said. “This is when I knew I wanted to work with our senior community.”

Volunteering for Meals on Wheels at Florence Sylvester was her entry into the center.

“When I had the opportunity to become an employee and to work with our previous director, I took it and learned a lot,” she said.

Then came her advancement to director of activities and programs.

“I want to do things that hopefully affect someone daily, bringing them joy, companionship, health and purpose, which is so important for all of us to have in our lives,” she said.

Filling in the other half of the center’s new leadership is Dupuy.

“My career in Texas was helping nonprofits with their marketing, public relations and fundraising,” she said.

She later worked to put a spotlight on the art and cultural events in her city.

Serving as communications director for colleges sharpened her skills at disseminating information to the public. A consulting job in Santa Monica in 1996 led to a love affair with California and the decision to relocate permanently.

“I migrated to San Jose, where I worked for two different nonprofits, and an organization that helped nonprofits save money on unemployment costs,” Dupuy said. “That’s where I met the founder of Age Well, Marilyn Ditty, in the early 2000s.” Age Well Senior Services owns and operates the Florence Sylvester Senior Center as well as other senior centers throughout South Orange County.

After retiring in 2015 to help her aging parents, who lived in Florida, Dupuy moved to Aliso Viejo to be near her daughter and grandchildren. She volunteered as a docent at the Bowers Museum and served as president of the South Orange County Gem and Mineral Society.

“I walked into Florence Sylvester Senior Center in early September 2024 to check on other volunteer opportunities and met Pat Kenefick,” she said.

After a short time, Kenefick asked if Dupuy was interested in working part-time as the community relations manager.

Dupuy felt that her background and interests matched her new job at the senior center. In earlier years, she volunteered at another senior center and serviced its Meals on Wheels program and a drop-in Alzheimer’s facility.

“Since becoming a senior myself, I’ve grown more aware of some of the challenges and opportunities that face older people,” she said. “What I love about the Florence Sylvester Senior Center is the daily interaction our seniors receive from each other and from the staff.”

In her new job, she handles networking with Laguna Woods clubs as well as coordinating speakers and raising funds for the senior center.

The two new directors have many irons in the fire as they ramp up the services and offerings of the busy center.

One start-up will be a book club at 1 p.m. on Mondays.

“We are working with the Orange County Public Library to lend books and provide discussion questions,” Kenefick said.

Among continuing classes or new ones in the offing are card-making, laughter yoga, Zentangles, guided autobiography writing, game sessions, Bingo Tuesdays, tai chi and yoga for Parkinson’s. Knit and Crochet on Tuesdays will teach technique and offer help with projects.

Tie-ins with Laguna Woods are many, the directors said. The center serves many people in the retirement community with Meals on Wheels, which can be used on a temporary basis for people recovering from surgery or illness or in a permanent capacity.

The directors see the center as “an alternative to and enhancement for” the community.

For example, the Foundation of Laguna Woods Village offers transportation and free lunch at the center for 30 days to its residents, Dupuy said. Buses run to and from the Village all day so that residents can take advantage of center programs.

Low-cost lunches are provided daily at the center, often accompanied by entertainment. Local singing and dance groups make lunch-time appearances in the dining room on a regular basis.

Technology help is available along with legal aid appointments and low-cost transportation to medical appointments.

A former worker in the technology sector, Kenefick helped with disaster recovery services in former jobs.

“Working as a project manager gave me the skills to do the planning that’s needed here,” she said.

“I love my job because of the helpful employees and customers,” she said. “They are all so welcoming.”

The directors are always looking for volunteers to lead classes or activities.

“Direct contact is so fulfilling,” Kenefick said, remembering how much it meant to her to hand meals directly to those who needed them. “You can directly affect someone’s life.”

“The center is such a busy place,” said Dupuy. “It feels like a club, with a coffee klatch enjoying free doughnuts and beverages in the morning.”

She especially enjoys communing with groups of various nationalities that congregate in the early hours of the day.

“It’s a home away from home, where you can be comfortable and meet people,” Dupuy added.

“Just come and check us out,” Kenefick urged.

The Florence Sylvester Senior Center is at 23721 Moulton Pkwy. in Laguna Hills. For more information, call the  center at 949-380-0155 or visit agewellseniorservices.org.

They were the winners of the Laguna Woods Video Club’s 14th annual Goldie Awards, voted the top three short videos by fellow club members at their annual banquet in February in Clubhouse 7.

Lucy Parker took the top award for her philosophical and artistic piece titled “About Time – A Senior Meditation.” Second prize went to Tom Nash for his humorous take on “Found Treasures,” and Katharine Holland won third place for her exploration of true devotion in “Two Loves, Five Questions.”

The competition offered 10 club members’ video productions of under four minutes each for judging by the general membership. Criteria included content (story, creativity and originality), technical quality, and special factors such as emotional response, enjoyment and deeper meaning.

“Video is everywhere,” club President Jonathan Williams said in his introductory remarks. He referred to all of the club’s video makers as “stars.”

The 10 competing videos were shown in one presentation lasting just under 40 minutes. Subject matter ran the gamut from travel tales to history, from light-hearted looks at local life to philosophical meditations with deeper meaning.

First up was “Celebrating the Journey of Taro Okamoto,” by Suzanne Savlov. It tells the story of her reunion with her Japanese exchange student 34 years later during her visit to Japan. The former student takes her on outings to Sendai, Nara and Tokyo, along with a virtual reality experience and meals at a variety of local restaurants.

Second to be shown was Parker’s winning meditation on time, which she put together on her computer from free offerings available on the internet. It featured meditative segments, pithy quotations and a variety of artistic images.

“I’ve always been fascinated by time,” said Parker, who serves as the club’s webmaster. “It’s a theme that’s important to me, especially since I have a history of being late,” she added with a laugh.

“Time is so central to our lives, especially as we get older,” she said.

Parker had submitted an earlier version of her video a few years ago, but it wasn’t accepted for the competition. Since then, she edited and focused the production, with some professional critiques from her children.

When she came to the Village more than a decade ago, she was mainly concerned with the print medium.

“I learned everything I know about video here in the club,” she said, attributing much of her knowledge to club instructor Nash.

The third video to be shown was the third place winner, an interview with two loving couples living in the Village. They individually answer questions about how they met, what they enjoy most about each other and what their last words to each other would be.

Holland made the video on her iPhone 14 Pro Max around Valentine’s Day.

“I just wanted to ask two couples I knew how they met and have them make a few short and snappy remarks,” Holland said. “It turned out different than I expected, with longer sound bites that drew people into the story more.” And unexpected humor came out as well with the unscripted remarks, she said.

The fourth video, “Enjoying a Taste of New Orleans,” by Marsha Berman, offered a travelogue through that Southern city, featuring a swamp tour, a visit to Preservation Hall, a stroll up Bourbon Street and a ghost tour.

“An Ethnographic Tour of Transylvania,” by Williams, the club president, was shown next, featuring villagers hosting visitors with food, cultural dancing and the playing of traditional long horns.

One of the more serious subjects to be dealt with in the videos was war, explored in “Two Gama Stories in Okinawa,” by Eric Kuramoto. It dealt in a moving way with the citizens of Japanese Okinawa who feared the American soldiers who captured their island during World War II. Members of one group committed suicide in fear while members of another surrendered and were given safe passage by their American captors.

Switching gears abruptly to the light-hearted subject of dumpster diving, the second place winner by vice president Nash, came next. It focused on discarded items found in or near the Village dumpsters that were rejuvenated and restored to life in his own and friends’ homes in the Village.

Nash came up with the idea while looking at the recycled chandelier in his own home and branched out to pieces of furniture and rugs that are enjoying a second life nearby.

He shot the piece with a video camera and edited it at home. As video studio manager, he regularly teaches video editing, a holdover from his decades of teaching video production at Biola University.

“Luxor Balloon Adventure,” by Fran Conroy, was the eighth video shown, featuring a hot air balloon view of the landscape surrounding the ancient city along the Nile.

The next-to-last feature focused on the breathtaking surgical transformations performed by orthopedic surgeon and Village resident James Lau on Yazidi refugees. Lau made the video himself, following the case of a man with deformed legs who escaped the claws of ISIS only to live in a refugee camp in Iraq. Lau and his team of volunteers operate on the man, enabling him to be fitted with prosthetic legs and begin to walk again. The moving narrative is titled “Transformed – Let Me Walk.”

The final video, titled “Memories to Keep – Venice,” by Eli Silberger, presented colorful scenes from that Italian treasure of a city, with the building of a three-dimensional image from a photo demonstrated at the end.

The video presentations wrapped with the image of a kitty purring, perhaps an homage to the MGM lion roaring at the end of many movies.

Each club member attending the banquet, catered by the 19 Restaurant, cast three ballots after the presentation. While they enjoyed dessert, votes were counted and the winners announced.

Williams reiterated the fact that everyone has a story.

“We should celebrate and share our life stories,” he said.

He encouraged people to come to the Video Lab, behind Clubhouse 2, on Tuesdays, when he is there to discuss their stories with him.

Head lab supervisor Jim Rohrs, attending the banquet, told his tablemates about the many services performed at the lab. “We have the equipment to turn old analog videos into MP3 files and can digitize people’s old photo albums,” he said,

He views the new AI capabilities as a great help to the job of editing as well and has seen the quality of video submissions improve in the last few years.

New club member Carol Moore, attending the video competition for the first time, found the videos to be “outstanding with wonderful photography.”

She said she was impressed with the creativity and originality of the treatments and subject matter.

“They were well done, thought-provoking and inspirational,” she said.

Again encouraging members to mine their own lives for video material, Williams said, “We all have stories to tell. If it means something to you, it will mean something to somebody else.”

“They were about history and everything else in the world,” he said of the subjects that had caught his fancy.

Through the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society, he worked on excavating Orange County sites in the 1970s and ’80s, gaining field experience that most students never have.

“I learned about the history of Orange County and the Native American people who lived here,” said O’Neil, who moved to Laguna Woods Village two and a half years ago. “It was a source of information for the past and its culture.”

At his current job as cultural resources manager with UltraSystems Environmental consulting firm in Irvine, O’Neil is still delving into the past to study the area’s native inhabitants and their culture.

“I check into current projects to develop roads, buildings and other structures for their impact on the cultural or paleontological resources of native peoples,” he said. The California Environmental Quality Act sets the standards for these studies.

O’Neil studies archaeological records and reports to discover any evidence of prehistoric habitation sites, campsites or workstations. He consults with local tribe members, then performs a field survey to see if anything is visible on the surface.

On a project near Nevada City in Northern California, for example, his assistant found a stone chopper made of jasper on the grounds of a Forest Service office. O’Neil said the chopper could have dated back a couple of thousand years.

The “disturbed context” of the site called for a recommendation for monitoring if new construction took place, he said. A location may be temporarily roped off so that a qualified archaeologist can set up a proper excavation to evaluate the site.

A third-generation Pasadenan who moved to Orange County as a youngster, O’Neil became familiar with the San Juan Capistrano Mission, which he visited with his family.

“In college I would write papers on the local people and got lucky one summer when doing readings for a blind college student,” he said.

The student turned out to be the son of Evelyn Lobo-Villegas, the sister of Clarence Lobo, the last tribal chief of the Acjachemen people. This is the tribe that lived on the land where the Moulton Ranch was later established. Leisure World, renamed Laguna Woods Village, sits in the northwest corner of the ranchland.

“I learned about Evelyn’s life and family, and she became my entrée into the people in her tribe and community,” O’Neil said.

His interest in the tribe grew, and he attended a few of the 1980s meetings dealing with environmental concerns at which band members could have input.

“These people are still active and present and want to preserve their sites,” he said.

O’Neil also visited rock art in the local area and reported on a word list put together by Viola Brown Lobo for the tribe’s language, which has no written form.

“They have extensive oral traditions and songs that are very detailed expressions of their beliefs and religion,” he said.

Juaneño became the colonial term for the people from the San Juan area that extended from Camp Pendleton in the south to the San Joaquin Hills in the north. Their name for themselves, however, was Acjachemen, from the name of their central village.

Aliso Creek in their native language would be called Seveeña, meaning “at the sycamores,” according to O’Neil. The creek is significant because of its connection to the original Rancho Niguel, extending from its northern border to the ocean, and was the main source of water.

In the Village, Aliso Creek crosses through the south end and encompasses all of the sycamores in the park by the creek, including one dating to the 1500s, prior to the European invasion, O’Neil said.

Niguel, now used in so many local city names due to associations with the ranch, is an important legacy of the Acjachemen as it is the only Native American place name in Orange County, according to O’Neil. It derives from “nawil,” the place name associated with the spot where Aliso Creek crosses the original El Camino Real, now Interstate 5.

Missionaries such as those in San Juan Capistrano taught the native tribes farming, cattle ranching and the raising of pigs, sheep and horses, but tried to replace their traditional culture with a European Christian one.

When the Spanish took control of the area, they divided it into ranchos, such as Rancho Niguel, said O’Neil, who studied mission records for his master’s degree work.

By 1800, few local people remained, their numbers having been decimated by venereal and other diseases, he said.

Mexico subsequently secularized the missions, bought up land holdings and created their own ranches. Juan Avila petitioned for Rancho Niguel in the 1840s, but lost it 20 years later to some Americans, who ended up selling most of it to Lewis Moulton in the 1870s.

O’Neil imagines that there might have been as many as 35 Acjachemen villages on the ranchland.

“There were none on the Village land that I know of, but there probably would have been a couple here,” he surmised. All of this land with its antelope, deer and rabbits would have been used as resources for the natives, he said.

In the current day, members of the Acjachemen tribe have dispersed into local communities but continue to band together to maintain their identity.

Younger, college-educated tribe members carry the study of their past into the future by doing research and writing from the tribal point of  view, O’Neil said.

The Juaneño Band of Mission Indians represents the tribe, which numbers 1,941 members, according to Chris Lobo, nephew of Clarence and a Village resident.

In 1982, the band began seeking federal recognition for the tribe, which does not have a designated reservation of federal land.

“I helped them with their research, but they didn’t get the recognition at that time,” O’Neil said.

Their failure discouraged other California tribes, but attempts by the Juaneño are ongoing, according to Lobo.

“With recognition, we would be treated as a sovereign nation in government to government dealings,” Lobo said.

“Steve is well-informed about cultural sites in the villages and has done a great deal of work with individuals in the tribe,” he said. “He has authored a number of reports about the tribe.”

“It pains me and is stressful for them not to be recognized,” O’Neil said. “They are alive and they exist. They are not dead and gone.”

The Orange County Public Library System has a collection of video recordings of a cross-section of contemporary tribe members. The project was spearheaded by the Laguna Beach Public Library.

The first school named after a Native American leader was Clarence H. Lobo Elementary School in San Clemente, Lobo said.

The tribe also provides monitors to evaluate sites and excavations.

“They want tribal sites left alone, not disturbed, including by archaeologists,” O’Neil said.

Singing and dancing at local festivals, such as the recent Heritage Day Fall Festival in Laguna Hills, by the Tushmaluum Heleqatuum, are their way of saying to local residents, “We’re still here!”

O’Neil recently connected with the Village History Center, which has native artifacts in its exhibit for the Village’s 60th anniversary.

History Center CEO Dean Dixon said he knew about O’Neil.

“Although I only met Stephen recently, I already knew of him by his sterling reputation, comprehensive research, and unique knowledge of local indigenous peoples,” Dixon said.

“What I learned upon meeting him was his warmth, passion and willingness to share his knowledge. Local history needs more researchers of Stephen’s caliber.”

Born in 1968 in San Juan Capistrano, Lobo appeared just as the center was putting together the third of its 60th anniversary celebratory exhibits, titled “Celebrating the Celebrations.”

“He came in out of the blue because he had just moved in here with an older relative and wanted some information,” said Gail Dixon, chief financial officer and organizer of the center’s exhibits. “It was a dream come true to have him arrive when he did.”

Lobo offered a number of photographs of tribe members, including a long rectangular one of the 1930 class at Sherman Institute in Riverside, where an older relative had boarded with hundreds of other Native American children.

The History Center was eager to present information about the people who inhabited the land long before Villagers did, Gail Dixon said.

Displays explain that the area’s geological history can be traced back 65 million years to a time when it was at the bottom of an ocean.

The Acjachemen lived where the Village sits about 16,000 years ago among hundreds of settlements on the west side of the Santa Ana mountains. The Tongva was another hunter/gatherer tribe that inhabited this area, according to History Center research.

The Village’s 60th anniversary has been celebrated throughout 2024 at the History Center, where the third and final exhibit has just been mounted. It will run until December. The first two four-month exhibits covered the history of the land the Village was built on and the construction of the community.

The new exhibit highlights all the milestone years in Village history that have been celebrated in the past, according to the Dixons. Artifacts and mementos fill the display cabinets at the front of the center.

“Ten families moved into their manors on Sept. 10, 1964, when Phase 1 opened,” said Dean Dixon.

The community – founded by Ross Cortese and known at the time as Rossmoor Leisure World – was the first planned community in Orange County. Celebrations of its opening have taken place every 10 years as well as on the  25th and 45th anniversaries. The new exhibit includes artifacts and mementoes that relate to those festive occasions.

The walls around Phase 1 were incomplete when the community opened in 1964, but Gate 1 was ready with its first security officer, Nate Willner.

Another 18 years were needed to complete about 2,500 residential buildings, with close to 13,000 manors, along with all the clubhouses, swimming  pools and other amenities that give life in the Village its pizzazz. The last manor units were built in the 1980s.

The 10th anniversary celebrations included fireworks and a gala party featuring Myron Floren and other personalities from the Lawrence Welk TV show. Grand Marshall Dale Evans led a parade with 63 entries along a 1.8-mile parade route that ran past the reviewing stand situated where the History Center now exists, next to the Village Library.

Ten years later, celebrations included three talent shows, a Grand Promenade of International Costumes and tournaments for lawn bowling, tennis, table tennis and golf. A black-tie Founders Day event honored people who held important positions when the Village opened. Grand Marshall Dr. George Fischbeck, a local TV personality, led a 90-entry parade. Fireworks culminated the week.

For the 25th anniversary in 1989, TV star Art Linkletter headed up a testimonial dinner dance. Parades and fireworks were again part of the festivities.

For the 30th anniversary, a golf tournament and awards dinner led the way, followed by a performance by Patti Page in Clubhouse 3. There was no parade or fireworks display that year.

The 40th anniversary was celebrated in similar style, while the 45th recognized the change of name from Leisure World to Laguna Woods Village after legal battles with the Cortese family.

For the Village’s golden anniversary, celebrations were held throughout 2014. On the actual anniversary, Sept. 10, a black-tie gala dinner was held. The Historical Society of Laguna Woods (as the History Center was then named) raised funds to offset the costs of publishing “Laguna Woods Village at 50 Years 1964-2014” to keep the sales price at $50 per book, rather than the actual cost of $135, and sold out its entire run.

One of the hard-to-acquire books holds pride of place in the cabinets.

The 60th anniversary celebration took place Sept. 9 with a host of festivities in Clubhouse 2. Perhaps mementoes of this celebration will make their way into a future display at the Village History Center.