Around & About: Happenings around the Peninsula April 2023
+Pageant of Our Lord
by Deborah Paul
Over 300,000 people have enjoyed the Pageant of Our Lord since its first presentation over the Easter holidays in 1986, at Rolling Hills Covenant Church. Each presentation has included at least 14 reenactments of classical religious art, and a 60-voice choir in a recounting of Christ’s life. Over 400 volunteers donate hundreds of hours each year to bring this unique gospel presentation to believers and non-believers alike. This year, because the church is undergoing a major renovation, the “Living Art Experience: Inspired by the Life of Christ” will be presented at the more spacious and more easily accessed Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Sowers International to help save young girls from human trafficking.
What: Living Art Experience
When: Friday April 7 at 7 p.m., and Saturday April 8 at 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Where: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach
Cost: Tickets range from $35 to $100.
Call: (310)-521-2520 or visit tickets.livingartexperience.com
+Peninsula High Student Wins Essay Contest
The Point Vicente Chapter NSDAR honored local students for their efforts in its annual Essay and Art Contests on January 16. Approximately 150 members, guests and student winners were welcomed to the awards from schools including Saints Peter & Paul, Mary Star of the Sea High School, Peninsula High School, Palos Verdes High School and St. John Fisher School. Poetry Contest chairs Diana Starr and Jeanine Hoffman presented the award. This year’s Patriot Essay winner, 11th grader David Lee of Peninsula High School, has now won the California State contest. He will proceed to the next level, competing in a 7-star contest. If he wins that, he will move onto the National contest.
Lincoln Elementary librarian Cynthia Melara, Phund president Barbara Saltzman, Phund Read-A-Thon’s Pam Sich, Miller Children’s Hospital’s Rita Goshert, and Phund executive director Amy Hastings. Photo courtesy of The Jester & Pharley Phund Foundation
+Jester & Pharley Read-A-Thon
Lincoln Elementary fourth grader Angelic Rosas Gomez read 5, 432 pages in three weeks to win this year’s Palos Verdes Read-A-Thon benefiting Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach. Gomez was recognized at a January 17 awards ceremony, marking the 21st anniversary of the Jester & Pharley Phund nonprofit’s literacy program. Since the first Jester read-a-thon at Lincoln, elementary students in 347 Jester & Pharley Read-A-Thong have read over 53 million pages.
The Jester Read-A-Thon is sponsored by Farmers & Merchants Bank and the Long Beach Rotary Charitable Foundation. “The Jester Has Lost His Jingle” was written by Chadwick School graduate David Saltzman shortly before he died of cancer in 1990, when he was 22 and a student at Yale Universtiy. For more information visit TheJester.org.