Coming&going

Dance

Jeanne Christopherson has joined the Chico Creek Dance Center summer faculty. She will be teaching dance and theater for children. She has experience in modern and Pan-African dance and choreography. Christopherson also has a bachelor of fine arts degree in drama/dance and a master’s in performance, culture and education. She will also be teaching a Birth Dance for pregnant women, Haitian and Cuban music at the Women’s Club and yoga/dance at In-Motion Fitness. She also has a class lined up to teach at Chico State University for teachers and a dance class for Butte College during the fall semester.

Medicine

Feather River Hospital received its Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) survey results. The hospital scored a 96 and met the requirements for the JCAHO. The national average was 86 percent. “We’re pleased that our JCAHO survey went so well,” said Wayne Ferch, president and CEO of Feather River Hospital. “Our score represents a continual and focused effort toward providing excellence in health care, demonstrating that our facility is a leading competitor in the health care industry.”

Enloe Medical Center also received accreditation from the JCAHO. Dan Neumeister, chief of operations officer, called the accreditation “proof of our collective commitment to provide quality care on an ongoing basis.”

Donation

Long’s Drugs and its local store manager, Bob Baty, just donated a new Accucheck Glucometer to the Jesus Center. Diabetics use the device to evaluate and treat variations in blood sugar levels. The new Glucometer is smaller, easier, faster and more accurate than the center’s current unit.

“We are basically running the project on a shoestring. Most of our supplies and equipment are donated to us. When Bob Baty learned of our needs, he wasted little time getting involved,” said Nip Boyes, one of the nursing students involved in the Jesus Center’s Free Healthcare Screening Project. The project was started a couple years ago by a group of Chico State University nursing students.

Awards

The Butte County Regional Occupational Program (ROP) honored Pam Baldwin (pictured, top) and Janet Guile (bottom) for their work in ROP field programs. Baldwin was presented with the ROP Teacher of the Year award, and Guile received the ROP Classified Employee of the Year award. Baldwin has taught the ROP Registered Dental Assistant Program for 18 years. After extensive classroom instruction, Baldwin places her students in internships in dental offices throughout Butte County. The program boasts a 93-percent job placement rate for its graduates.

Guile has been with ROP for three years and has efficiently and flawlessly managed the intricate and critical attendance function at ROP, says Paul Watters, director of the ROP. Oroville Hospital was named Outstanding Business Partner of the Year and Rafael Calvillo was honored with Outstanding ROP Student of the Year.

Sarah Cook, a student at Marigold Elementary School, won first place in the 8- to 9-year-old category for a poster contest sponsored by the American Bird Conservatory’s Campaign for Safer Birds and Cats program. The students are asked to draw about ideas on how to keep cats indoors. Sarah will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Wild Bird Centers of America.

Grants

On June 19, the Paradise Community Foundation donated $40,000 in grants to various groups and people. The grants were presented to Julie Shaw, an artist and art instructor at Butte College for the volunteer Art Angels project; Officer Phil Serna of the Paradise Police Department for the department’s K-9 Program “Shop with a Cop"; Paul Weber, PUSD principal of Mountain Ridge Middle School in Magalia for the new state-of-the-art scoreboard for the Mountain Ridge Middle School gymnasium; and Andrew Boone, a cellist and recent graduate of Paradise High School, who received a $2,000 music scholarship from the foundation.

Donation

Chico State’s Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Program just received $274,938 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for students in the field of science and/or mathematics. Forty of the university’s students will receive $3,125 for two years.

“This is especially important to these students in technical fields that often demand an extra year of work in order to graduate," stated Paul Villegas, director of the MESA program, in a press release. "Financial aid designed for four-year programs leaves students in their last few years scrambling to support themselves and to continue with their challenging academic programs."