Karen Vipperman has been involved with the La Habra Heights chapter of America Supporting Americans (ASA).

America Supporting Americans, ASA
P.O. Box 574
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
310.459.5625
http://www.asa-usa.org/

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About America Supporting Americans, ASA

History

America Supporting Americans (ASA) started in 1967 when Sergeant Joe Artavia wrote his big sister from Vietnam asking her to do something to help raise the morale of his unit. Linda Patterson, as a young woman living in San Mateo, California, convinced her hometown to “adopt” her brother Joe’s unit in Vietnam. Believing that the individual soldiers charged with fighting an unpopular war desperately needed to feel the interest and concern of communities back home, San Mateo agreed to Linda’s request. As a result, the morale of Joe’s fellow soldiers was, in Joe’s own words, “raised as high as the clouds.” Tragically, Joe who was just nineteen was killed in a firefight trying to aid a fallen trooper three weeks after the adoption took place. To this day the men in his unit gratefully remember him and Linda each time they look at a cherished medallion that reads, “City of San Mateo, Adopted Son.” After Joe’s death, Linda traveled to Vietnam to personally deliver the medallions San Mateo had issued in honor of Joe and the men in his unit. Many of the men carry those medallions to this day.

Having geared up the adoption program again during Desert Storm and now for a third time in the wake of September 11, ASA has facilitated the adoption of many units by towns and cities across the country. Through these adoptions, both soldiers and civilians are discovering the unique and crucial link that exists between the men and women of our Armed Services and the American citizens they are charged to protect.

Mission

Adopt-A-Unit Program

The centerpiece of ASA’s work is the Adopt-A-Unit Program. Believing that a strong, supportive connection between young men and women of our armed forces and the civilian communities they are ready and willing to serve is crucial to morale, ASA has committed itself to building and strengthening this link.

Foster-A-Unit Program

The ASA Foster-A-Unit Program provides the opportunity for business and organizations not involved in the Adopt-a-Unit Program to support the morale of troops serving in military units both at home and overseas while they wait for adoption through the ASA Adopt-a-Unit Program. A business, community group, or school group not involved with local adoption activities, can foster a military unit by sending one or two rounds of letters and/or care packages to troops who are serving in harms way.

Youth Civic Action and Awareness Program (YCAP)

ASA encourages adoptive communities to use their adoption programs to expand young people’s understanding of America’s role in global affairs, of the role the military plays in the American political system, and of the experience of American servicemen and women. With this in mind, YCAP enables teachers to use their community’s participation in the Adopt-a-Unit Program to enrich their curriculums and to add new dimensions to the learning that goes on in their classrooms.

What is America Supporting Americans (ASA) Video, La Habra Heights

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La Habra Heights Avocado Festival
1885 Hacienda Rd
La Habra Heights, CA 90631
https://www.facebook.com/lhhavofest

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Each year in mid-May the city of La Habra Heights celebrates the Hass avocado at its Annual La Habra Heights Avocado Festival – an avocado-focused, agricultural and community festival held in mid-May every year. All commercial, fruit-bearing Hass avocado trees have been grown from grafted seedlings propagated from a single tree which was grown from a seed bought by Rudolph Hass in 1926 from A. R. Rideout of Whittier, California. In 1926, at his 1.5-acre grove at 430 West Road, La Habra Heights, California, Hass planted three seeds he had bought from Rideout, which yielded one strong seedling. When the tree began bearing odd, bumpy fruit, his children liked the taste. Hass patented the tree in 1935 (the first US patent on a tree). The mother tree stood for many years in front of a residence in La Habra Heights. The tree died when it was 76 years old and was cut down on September 11, 2002. Two plaques by the private residence at 426 West Road mark the spot where it grew.

Hass Avocado History

All commercial, fruit-bearing Hass avocado trees have been grown from grafted seedlings propagated from a single tree which was grown from a seed bought by Rudolph Hass in 1926 from A. R. Rideout of Whittier, California. At the time, Rideout was getting seeds from any source he could find, even restaurant food scraps. The subspecies of this seed is not known and may already have been cross-pollinated when Hass bought it.

In 1926, at his 1.5-acre grove at 430 West Road, La Habra Heights, California, Hass planted three seeds he had bought from Rideout, which yielded one strong seedling. After trying and failing at least twice to graft the seedling with branches from Fuerte avocado trees (the leading commercial cultivar at the time), Hass thought of cutting it down but a professional grafter named Caulkins told him the young tree was sound and strong, so he let it be. When the tree began bearing odd, bumpy fruit, his children liked the taste. As the tree’s yields grew bigger, Hass easily sold what his family didn’t eat to co-workers at the post office. The Hass avocado had one of its first commercial successes at the Model Grocery Store on Colorado Street in Pasadena, California, where chefs working for some of the town’s wealthy residents bought the new cultivar’s big, nutty-tasting fruit for $1 each, a very high price at the time (more than US$15.00 of inflation adjusted value by 2007).

Hass patented the tree in 1935 (the first US patent on a tree) and made a contract with Whittier nurseryman Harold Brokaw to grow and sell grafted seedlings propagated from its cuttings with Brokaw getting 75% of the proceeds. Brokaw then specialized in the Hass and often sold out of grafted seedlings since, unlike the Fuerte, Hass yields are year-round and also more plentiful, with bigger fruit, a longer shelf life and richer flavor owing to higher oil content. However, Hass made a profit of less than US$5,000 through the patent because cuttings from single trees sold by Brokaw were then propagated to graft whole orchards.

Rudolph Hass carried on as a postman throughout his life and died of a heart attack at Fallbrook Hospital in Fallbrook, California in 1952, the same year his patent expired and not long after he had established a new 80-acre (320,000 m2) orchard.

By the early 21st century the US avocado industry took in over $1 billion a year from the heavy-bearing, high quality Hass cultivar, which accounted for around 80% of all avocados grown worldwide.

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Karen Vipperman has been a Board Member for Pet Prescription Team, La Habra Heights.

Pet Prescription Team
1404 Dorothea Road
La Habra Heights, CA 90631
562.694.8090
http://www.petprescriptionteam.com/

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About Pet Prescription Team

Pet Prescription Team was founded in 2003 for one purpose: to help pet owners train and certify their family pets for assisted therapy. There is a lack of information and hands on training for those that desired to train and certify their personal family dog for therapy work. PPT instructs, trains, evaluates, certifies, insures and supports dog assisted therapy.

What is Pet Prescription Team Video, La Habra Heights

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