7 students from China tour Valley nonprofits
Seven college students from China will be visiting Earlimart today, touring a 51-unit Self-Help Enterprises "sweat-equity" housing project.
The students, in their early 20s, are here on Chan Fellowships, which bring Chinese students to the United States for six months to study nonprofit organizations and how they are managed.
Tuesday, they visited Delano to learn about the history of the United Farm Workers of America.
"We want to expose them to an organized movement in the United States," said program manager Carrie Donovan of Berkeley. "The whole idea of community organizing and nonprofits isn't there yet in China. They can adapt it in a way that works for China."
Donovan saw a farmworkers documentary done by a friend and thought it would be a good subject for the students to study. She contacted Graciela Martinez of the American Friends Service Committee, a source for the documentary who also is chairwoman of the Self-Help Enterprises board and set up today's visit.
It helps that Kern and Tulare counties are halfway between Los Angeles and the Bay Area — three students are at the Cal Corps Public Service Center at the University of California at Berkeley, and four are with Bruin Corps Public Service Center at UCLA.
The students are staying at the Friends Meeting House east of Visalia. Thursday, they'll visit Stone Soup Fresno, which helps Asian immigrants.
NEW PIO: Sgt. Chris Douglass, 31, has been named public information officer of the the Tulare County Sheriff's Department. She starts Tuesday. Her job is to field calls from reporters about crime news.
Douglass, promoted to sergeant last year, has served as correctional officer, patrol officer, crime lab officer and correctional sergeant.
APPLEBEE'S: Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar at Mooney Boulevard and Caldwell Avenue opened this week.
This is the second Applebee's in Visalia. The first, on Akers, invariably drew a crowd.
TULARE-BOUND: Bob Nance, Visalia's redevelopment director, has accepted the position of director of the Tulare Redevelopment Agency. He starts Jan. 30.
Howard Edson, development services director in Tulare, which includes being redevelopment director, is retiring in July. He has been in Tulare since 1972.
Tulare advertised nationwide and ended up hiring locally.
PRATT HONORED: Glenn O. Pratt of Visalia was honored by the Tulare County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for 51 years of service to Tulare County Levee District No. 1, which maintained the south levee of the St. Johns River.
Pratt said his father, Orval "O.F." Pratt, was on the board of the levee district before him because he had the only team of horses that would go in the water. Pratt joined the board in November 1954 and resigned last year.
The district, created in 1889, maintained levees before Terminus Dam was built.
Lewis Griswold's column appears on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. He can be reached at lgriswold@fresnobee.comor (559) 622-2416.
