Sanger Herald 12-21-17 e-edition

Looking for
a Christmas tree
Apaches dominate Hoover tournament
Looking for a home
page 7A
Lifestyles 3B
Sports 1B
Weekly Newspaper
Sanger (Fresno County) CA 93657
50¢ (tax included)
Dick Sheppard editor
Random thoughts
about our little town
of Sanger at Christmas time
Best wishes for a very merry Christmas from all of us at the Sanger Herald.
Thanks for letting us come into your home every week to share news and opinions about the goings on in our great little town.
This is our Christmas edition of the Sanger Herald and, yes Virginia, we can publish a newspaper with absolutely no mention anywhere, except right here, about our always interesting and frequently controversial city hall and its peculiar habit of attracting grand juries who poke and pry into its now notorious municipal governance idiosyn- crasies. We can't really take pride in what is undoubtedly a record number of four grand jury investigations in less than 10 years. But we can take an enormous amount of pride in how we behave toward each other outside of city hall.
Weareindeedonetown,oneteamandonetribe. We take care of each other, especially at Christmas time.
Sanger is famous for its community task force, for HOPE Sanger, for the food giveaways by Time in Destiny Christian Center, for its other caring churches, its Rotary and Lions clubs and its wonderful people. But today we'd like to tell you about other Sanger Santas in disguise you may not know about, military veterans who are making a difference in the lives of people in need at Christmas.
Did you know that members of AMVETS Post 98 here in Sanger provided a holiday meal for 125 families in need last weekend? Did you know that Vietnam veteran Richard Leahy is going to be serving holiday meals in Sanger Park on Christmas day to homeless and hungry people?
Clayton Diltz
Photo on the left above: AMVETS Post 98 members Ralph Davila, Mike Ochoa, Tony Castillo, Danny Soto and Joey Rivera loading pickups with holiday meals for 125 Sanger area families. The military like operation is under the direction of Beverly Grabel, far right, with the red hat and clipboard. Above right, Richard Leahy at Sanger Park where he handed out 60 free meals to homeless and hungry people. He'll be back in the park with holiday meals on Christmas day.
Helping people in need in Jeanne's
The AMVETS have been doing this for 35 years, not making a big deal about it. There have been no selfies, no social media posts praising themselves during all those years. Most people don't even know about the project.
It started with delivering meals to fewer than 40 families. Now it's more than 100 families and growing every year, said Willhoite.
Mike Viar loaded his car and one of the stops he made was for Bob in Min- kler, an Air Force veteran who has been living in a small mobile home since his wife and son died.
"We deliver to families - mostly in Sanger - but some in Del Rey, Centerville and even in Fresno," said Willhoite.
The morning's good work started be- fore the sun was up and was completed - with military precision - by noon.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerherald@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald during business hours at (559) 875-2511.
Mike Nemeth and Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
AMVETS stands for American Veter- ans. That's pretty easy to figure out.
Jeanne's Kitchen?
"Jeanne was my mother's name," said Richard Leahy.
"She wasn't that good a cook," Leahy said, then cracked a slight smile.
He was in Sanger Park handing out free lunches to homeless and hungry people. He does that every Tuesday. He plans to be there on Christmas Day with more free lunches. This time holiday meals with all the trimmings.
Why does he do it? "Somebody has to," said Leahy. "And I guess I'm somebody."
The Vietnam veteran from Worcester, MA, wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball cap, has been Sanger's "somebody" for the past several years. He recently regis- tered "Jeanne's Kitchen" as a nonprofit.
He's lived in the Sanger area for years and has done well enough that he wants to help others.
Could he use help with his project? Absolutely.
If you'd like to find out more about
what Leahy does and how he does it, maybe offer to help, contact us by email at the Herald, sangerherald@gmail.com, and we'll put you in touch.
Other veterans, members of Sanger's AMVETS Post 98, fueled by hot coffee and the promise of donuts after the job was done, moved with military precision early last Saturday morning.
Pickup after pickup backed up, dropped its tailgate and was quickly loaded with dozens of boxes - complete holiday meals - for families in need, 125 of them.
The operation was directed with drill Sgt. precision by Beverly Grabel, judge advocate with the California Department of AMVETS, a member of Post 98.
Post commander George Willhoite, coffee cup in hand, watched from the sidelines, occasionally stepping in for a word with Beverly who had the clip- board and was obviously in charge.
Our Christmas story this year is told by chaplain Clayton Diltz of the Air National Guard's 144th Fighter Wing. That's on page 6A. It's the text of his presentation at the Trek to the Nation's Christmas Tree a couple
of Sunday's ago. It's an interesting blend of history, religion and politics.
our wonderful little town
Kitchen
Those feel good stories are on the front page.
Firefighters coming home for the holidays
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
They're coming home for the holidays.
Fire chief Greg Tarascou got word early Wednesday morning that the engine crew
and the firefighter/paramedic from Sanger had just been released by CalFire to come home for the holidays.
They had been in southern California helping fight the Thomas Fire for 15 days.
The fire, which began near
Santa Paula in the foothills above Thomas Aquinas Col- lege on Dec. 4, had burned through 272,000 acres as of Tuesday evening, making it the second-largest wildfire
in modern California history, according to a story in the Los
Angeles Times.
The reporter can be con- tacted by email at sangerher- ald@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald during business hours at (559) 875-2511.
We hope you take time to check out the shelter dogs on page 7A. A Christmas adoption might be the greatest gift you and a shelter dog will ever have.
Mike Nemeth will tell you where you can get a good deal on a last minute Christmas tree in today's Lifestyles section and, in the sports section, how the Apache basket- ball team dominated at a holiday tournament.
The Herald is a little different today.
We decided to leave out all the bad and just focus on the good this week.
We wish we could do that every week. But, if we did, we wouldn't be doing our jobs and, while petty politicians might be happy with us, you wouldn't be.
We hope this is your best Christmas so far and we hope it won't be even half as good as the one next year.
THURSDAY
DECEMBER 21, 2017
VOL 128 NO. 51
2 sections, 16 pages CLASSIFIED 4-6B LIFE STYLES 3B
OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 3A SPORTS 1B POLICE LOG 2A WEATHER 8A
SANGER HERALD: A MID VALLEY PUBLISHING NEWSPAPER • (559) 875-2511 • www.thesangerherald.com