News Nuggets June 23

Bookworms rejoice! Summer reading program is underway

The annual Summer Reading Program is on through Aug. 15 at La Jolla’s Riford Library to encourage kids and teens to read a lot for a chance to win prizes.

“There is something called the ‘summer slide’ where students who don’t read over the summer can lose up to half a year’s worth of reading comprehension skills,” said youth services librarian Angie Stava. “So, it’s really important for students to read a lot” through the months of June, July and August.

To participate, those under age 18 (even toddlers) can sign up at lajollalibrary.org or sandiegolibrary.org and log the books they’ve read. “If they read 10 books, they get a backpack full of prizes, such as San Diego Zoo passes, Air and Space Museum passes, Natural History Museum passes, toys and more,” she said. “Plus, they get entered into a raffle to win an iPad and they get to choose a book to keep from this library. The more you read, the more times you’re entered into the raffle and the more books you get to keep.

“So if you read 50 books, you get five books to keep and your name goes into the raffle five times.”

To further the fun, special events will be held at the library, 7555 Draper Ave., through the summer. A highlight includes Symphony Storytime (July 18) when members of the San Diego Symphony come, read and play music, in what Stava calls a “musical storytime mashup.”

Find an event schedule at lajollalibrary.org

Bry, Ellis to square off in November

San Diego’s pivotal District 1 City Council race is headed for a November runoff between Democrat Barbara Bry and Republican Ray Ellis. Bry was just short on June 7 of the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a runoff, but provisional ballots counted in the two weeks since then have pushed her farther away from 50 percent instead of closer.

A Bry win in November would preserve the Democrats’ one-vote majority on the City Council, while an Ellis win would flip the majority to Republicans. With 65,500 provisional ballots left countywide on June 21, Bry had 48.7 percent of the vote less than she had on election night. Ellis had 34.06 percent and three other candidates were splitting the other 17 percent of the votes. There was some hope Bry could avoid a runoff when there were 285,000 uncounted provisional ballots just after election night, but things didn’t trend her way. On Monday, Bry sent an e-mail to supporters saying it was time to move on to the runoff.

Fitness & Beauty Expo set for Saturday in the Village

Explore the fitness and beauty resources available in La Jolla at the Fitness & Beauty Expo, presented by Active Rest (formerly known as Active Rest Chiropractic). Various businesses will showcase ways to stay healthy and beautiful all year round. The free event will take place 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 25 in the courtyard of the Gaines Building (across the street from Vons) at 7590 Fay Ave. (858) 736-4056. activerestchiropractic.com

Northwestern Mutual gives $100,000 for cancer research

To help fund two years of pediatric cancer research, Northwestern Mutual presented a $100,000 check to Dr. Paula Aristizabal’s UCSD La Jolla Research Institution at a ceremony June 8 at Rady Children’s Hospital. Dr. Aristizabal is exploring the cancer disparities among minorities, focusing primarily on Hispanic children and lack of opportunity to participate in trial research.

The grant is being awarded through Northwestern Mutual’s Childhood Cancer program with nonprofit partner Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. To date, Northwestern Mutual and its network nationwide have raised more than $10 million for the cause and helped to fund more than 105,000 hours of research to help discover life-saving treatments for children affected by the disease.

La Jolla artist takes first place at San Diego County Fair

La Jolla artist Katherine Keeling was one of the first place winners of the 2016 San Diego County Fair Exhibition of Fine Art. In the Acrylic — Representational, Landscape category, “Regatta I” received a first place award from more than 1,000 entries. The painting is on display through July 5 by the entrance of ground floor of Turf Club at the Fair.

“I have produced several series of lyrical abstraction of the sea in the last few years,” Keeling said, via e-mail. “I took up sailing again and crewed in the 2016 San Diego Yachting Cup race, and have lots of fun expressing the joy and love of the ocean.” katherinekeeling.com

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