Around Town: Auction.com chairman to be honored
Auction.com chairman to be honored
Newport Beach resident Rob Friedman, chairman of Irvine-based Auction.com, will be honored at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County’s 50th annual gourmet dinner gala on Oct. 23 at the Balboa Bay Resort.
Friedman has been a county Big Brothers Big Sisters board member for 25 years. He will receive the Joel K. Rubenstein Award, which is presented to those who have demonstrated passion and had a lasting impact on the organization.
Through Auction.com, Friedman donated $750,000 for a new building that will enable the organization to increase its mentorship services.
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Blessing of the animals Sunday in Newport
You can take your pets to St. James the Great Episcopal Church in Newport Beach on Sunday for a blessing of the animals in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.
The event begins at 10 a.m. at 3209 Via Lido.
St. Francis was an Italian Catholic friar known as the founder of the Franciscan Order and the patron saint of animals and the environment. It is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals to celebrate his feast day, Oct. 4.
For more information about the blessing at St. James, call (949) 675-0210.
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As part of Fire Prevention Week, the Newport Beach Fire Department and the Newport Beach Firefighters Assn. will host an open house Sunday Oct. 12, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Members of the public will be able to tour Fire Station No. 7 in Santa Ana Heights, see live demonstrations and check out the department’s antique engine.
In a news release, Asst. Fire Chief Kevin Kitch stressed the importance of fire alarms — particularly in the case of a late night or early-morning fire, when residents of a home are likely to be asleep.
“In a fire, seconds count,” he said.
The first 100 families at the free event will each get a new smoke alarm with batteries. The association will be serving free hot dogs and hamburgers, as well as beverages and snacks.
For more information, call Debbie Alcaraz at (949)644-3106 or email her at dalcaraz@nbfd.net.
Festival nets 74,000 cans, boxes of food
More than 74,000 cans and boxes of food were donated to the Orange County Food Bank from the Festival of Children Foundation and Canstruction OC, according to South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, which hosted the Festival of Children last month.
In Canstruction, local architectural, engineering, planning and design firms mentored students in building structures entirely from canned foods. At the end of the exhibition, all the food used in the structures was donated to the food bank for distribution to shelters, soup kitchens and other programs for the needy.