Page 8 - Reedley Exponent 5-16-19 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent PB anorama
The latest news and events in the senior community
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Section | Thursday, May 16, 2019 www.reedleyexponent.com
A family tradition 50 years strong
The View From Here
Photo by Juanita Adame / The Exponent
ABOVE: Family members who attended the reunion enjoyed food and time with other relatives of the Boldt family.
LEFT: LonnieClarkenjoyedlunchwhile"Slim"thedoglookedon.
Boldt family from Reedley hosted annual reunion on May 11
By Juanita Adame
Juanita@midvalleypublishing.com
Just outside of the city of Reedley, down a long country road a celebration took place on the afternoon of May 11.
It was the annual Boldt family re- union that has continued for 50 years. “Well, I think it’s really special for one thing, to have something that has continued on that long,” said David Boldt. “Well, this started in I’m going to say in 1970, when my grandparents, Peter and Margaret Boldt, had their
50th wedding anniversary.”
Boldt said throughout the years family has come and gone and each year he's given the opportunity to meet new family members.
“By now, of course, there are not very many Boldts here because the family has been blended with all kinds of other people,” he said. “There are people that I don’t remember and there are people that haven’t been here for a long time. So they were young children when they were here the last time.”
Sue Clark was also in attendance at the event, she is Boldt's cousin and
said she enjoys seeing her family ev- ery year as well.
“We are just a group of good fami- ly friends, that get together, year after year,” she said. “We all work together, we’ve had baby showers, one year one of our cousins was in the hospital with cancer and didn’t ever make it.”
“We still had the reunion," she con-
tinued. "Because it’s what we wanted to do, we wanted to keep it going, and didn’t want it to stop for any reason. The dedications are important, the memories, it doesn’t happen with just one person.”
The original Boldt family was comprised of John J. and Susanna Go- ertzen Boldt.
The couple found their way from Minnesota to California with their five sons, John, Peter, Cornelius, David and Jacob.
Reedley (Fresno County) CA 93654
My day took an inter- esting turn on the afternoon of May 13. I attended a po- lice K9 train- ing in Kings- burg, thank you to Sgt. Je- sus Rivera of the Reedley Police Depart- ment for the
invite.
I was able
Juanita Adame
to see how handlers and their dogs are trained to work together. I was even given the opportunity to try on a “sleeve” and let one of the K9’s do what’s called a “controlled bite” on me. The sleeve protects the arm against the dog’s teeth, however the sheer strength from K9 “Kona” was enough to let me know that I’d never like to be on his bad side.
Kona is a Reedley police dog and his handler is Officer Montemayor. I also met Jay and Yolanda
Brock, a couple who runs “Top Dog.” It's basically a training academy for police dogs.
Various K9 units from Porter- ville, Tulare County Sheriff, Selma, and Reedley were there.
For those who are not familiar with the local police K9’s in Reedley, there are three; Leo, Kona, and Blue.
Rivera said the dogs go through a variety of training exercises.
“Some of it [the training] begins with obedience to get the dogs back on par for their sitting, their stay- ing, walking with the handler,” said Rivera. “Then we transition over to our second discipline of the training session, which would be the control work.
Rivera also said they will then place someone in a bite suit and have dogs train on their bites.
Blue is Officer Adam Ramirez’s dog. He is still in training and yes- terday he and his handler [Ramirez] also participated in the training.
There were a total of 9 dogs there. It’s interesting how each dog has its own personality. Each dog has its strengths, and weaknesses that handlers need to work on to en- sure their dogs will always perform at the highest standard when out in the field.
Photo by Juanita Adame / The Exponent
ABOVE: Reedly Police K9 "Leo" takes a break following an obedience exer- cise.
Next upgrade meeting for Camacho Park is May 23
Contributed
The public is invited to attend a series of public meetings to dis- cuss grant opportunities for im- provements to Camacho Park.
"We welcome your attendance and input for what you feel the pri- orities should be," said Sarah Reid, the Community Services Director for the city of Reedley.
The next meeting will be on Thursday, May 23, from 6 to 7 p.m., and will be held at the Reed- ley Community Center's Senior Room located at 100 N. East Ave. in Reedley.
The third meeting will be held on Saturday, June 1, from 9 to 10 a.m. That meeting will be held at Camacho Park also.
For more information, contact the City of Reedley's Community Services Department at (559) 637- 4203.
ABOVE: Immediate and extended family members of the Boldt family from Reedley posed for a group photo on the afternoon of May 11.
Photo Contributed
More Photos, page B8
Another successful year for Pet and Storybook parade
Photos Contributed / The Exponent
ABOVE: The Reedley YMCA hostsed their annual Pets and Storybook Parade on May 4. Residents entered several costume competitions and walked the parade route with their pets. Kai Buckley rode in a fire truck during the parade.
LEFT" Piper Buckley dressed as Batgirl during the annual parade.