BY CHRIS SMITH/The Press Democrat

The San Francisco Giants and Tim Lincecum lost to the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night but one of their greatest fans, 9-year-old Gabe Henschel of Santa Rosa, left the park feeling triumphant.

Gabe

The team treated the Whited School third-grader and his family like VIPs to acknowledge the Lincecum lookalike for taking action on the playground in early April when classmate Anthony Brester was choking on a bite of food.

To recognize his saving a life, the Giants gave Gabe’s family of five free tickets to Tuesday night’s game and let them mingle with the team during batting practice.

Gabe said it was a  thrill to meet manager Bruce Bochy, who talked with him about how he slapped his choking classmate on the back several times until the bite of food came up. Bochy and several Giants signed autographs for Gabe and his twin brother, Joey, and older brother, Kai.

A newcaster from KTVU was there to interview Gabe on camera.  A snippet on his action at school and his night at the ballpark appeared on the 10 O’clock News.

Of course, Gabe hoped to meet Lincecum. He idolizes him, wears his hair like him and emulates him when he pitches for the Giants of the Rincon Valley Little League.

But Gabe understood that because Lincecum pitched that night, he wasn’t doing any visiting.

Gabe did get to see his hero in action on the mound. And before he and his brothers and their folks, Mark and Adi, left AT&T Park, the front office’s Bobby Baksa presented Gabe a Lincecum jersey signed, “To Gabe, from Tim.”

“It definitely wouldn’t fit me,” Gabe said, but he’d probably never wear it anyway. He said he’ll preserve the treasure inside a frame.

The long night at the park – the Henschels arrived hours before the game and didn’t get home until about 1 a.m. – could have been better only had the Giants won.

“But still it was really fun,” said Gabe.

Piner High School science teacher Kristi Erickson, middle, gives advice to juniors Allison Lopez, left and Caitlin Hays on their end-of-year project, Wednesday, May 15, 2012 in Santa Rosa. (Kent Porter / PD)

Construction set to begin on Santa Rosa high school’s Science and Technology Center

By KERRY BENEFIELD
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

The $3.6 million Science and Technology Center just approved for Piner High School in west Santa Rosa is greater than the sum of its parts, says principal Sally Bimrose.

More than a laboratory, an observatory or a classroom, it is a beacon for the Fulton Road campus moving forward, she said.

“I think it’s really a symbol of rebirth for the school,” she said. “It gives me hope for what public education can be and should be for today’s students.”

The 4,000-square-foot building will house a planetarium, observatory and computer lab. It will be headquarters for the school’s award-winning Geospatial Technology Pathway but will be open to science, math and other classes that need high-tech presentation space.

“It’ll be a place where kids can do science instead of sitting around and listening to Mr. Kruger talk about it all day,” said Piner science teacher Kurt Kruger, who along with fellow teacher Kristi Erickson, was instrumental in shepherding the project to fruition.

The Geospatial Technology Pathway won the California School Boards Association Golden Bell Award in 2011.

The project is set for groundbreaking May 29 and scheduled to open for students in June 2013, according to Jennie Bruneman, director of maintenance and operations for the district.

The facility will be paid for by a $1.6 million state career technical grant, $1.3 million in borrowing against future allocations of property taxes revenues from former redevelopment agencies, $206,000 from already-collected redevelopment fees, $243,000 in developer fees, $195,000 from 1991 bonds and $84,600 from career technical grants. No district general funds will be used, according to the district.

The science center is the first new construction in the Santa Rosa Schools District since the $12 million Desoto Hall was completed at Santa Rosa High School in 2006.

Backers say the state-of-the-art building and cutting-edge equipment students will use for survey and mapping projects have the potential to draw students to Piner who otherwise would have bypassed the school. Piner has long struggled with declining enrollment, sliding from 1,446 students in 2001-02 to 997 this year, according to state figures.

“What you have done is change the tide at Piner,” trustee Donna Jeye said before the board voted to approve the construction contract last week. “I can’t tell you how impressive it is to see the unity of purpose for Piner High School.”

In Erickson’s second-year geographic information systems class Tuesday, students were tasked with developing a scientific question focused on nearby Peterson Creek, mapping what they found and presenting conclusions.

With $1,500 hand-held global positioning system devices, students recorded debris, blockages, trail access and other features along the creek.

Lawrance Whitt, a senior, went a step further, taking acidity samples along the creek to determine whether garbage in the waterway was affecting the creek’s health.

“The technology is really interesting,” he said. “It’s kind of interesting to work with these kinds of things. It’s new; it’s not for everybody else.”

Erickson and Kruger are quick to note the the facility will be open and available to all Piner students, as well as the wider community.

The school has begun outreach to neighboring elementary and middle school campuses to host field trips to the facility, as well as deepening the connection with Santa Rosa Junior College to create joint projects with that school’s geographic information system program.

“The link between the two of us, it’s only going to make things better,” said Jerry Miller, program coordinator of the SRJC Civil Engineering, Surveying & Geospatial Technology department.

“I’ve been very pleased with the students who come from Piner. They are very prepared,” he said.

Sophomore Brian Chung, who spent Tuesday graphing blockages along Peterson Creek, said the facility will draw students to both Piner and the geospatial pathway.

“I think Piner is sort of a small school compared to Santa Rosa and everybody else, but with a science center, it could grow into a bigger school,” he said. “It’s going to really help.”

Staff Writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@ pressdemocrat.com.

Greg Ellisen

But he also was a man whose affections ran deep, especially where family was concerned, his wife and son said Tuesday.

Ellisen died Saturday after a long bout with cancer. He was 74.

A master craftsman, Ellisen taught woodworking and later math at Piner High for 20 years, moving there after stints at Slater and Rincon Valley middle schools that totaled 12 years. He also taught metal shop and mechanical drawing, his wife of 48 years, Dixie Ellisen, said.

Greg Ellisen was born and raised in San Francisco and, at age 17, joined the U.S. Navy, serving aboard the USS Rochester.

He later decided to try teaching, at the suggestion of a friend, and attended San Francisco State University, graduating in 1966.

In the midst of his studies, he transferred for a time to the University of Nevada at Reno. He and his older brother, Bill, who lived year-round at Lake Tahoe, had been managing a north shore resort purchased by their father, making Reno a convenient place for him to enroll.

While there, he met his future wife, who finished her teaching studies in 1964, allowing the couple to move back to California, she said.

They lived in Novato for two years while he finished school in San Francisco and she taught in Sebastopol. He landed his first job at Slater and they moved to Santa Rosa, where they raised two sons and a daughter.

Ellisen loved the outdoors and was a deer hunter and abalone diver in his younger years, as well as a cook and gardener.

After his 1998 retirement, he continued his wood working and specialized in cutting boards of dark and deep-grained woods that he and his wife would sell at craft fairs.

Ellisen lost his father shortly after his Navy service ended and always felt that he’d been cheated out of that time, his son said.

“That’s why he always wanted us to be close,” his sone Scott Ellisen of Napa said.

In addition to his wife and son, Ellisen s survived by son, Stephen Ellisen of Santa Rosa; daughter, Shawn Ellisen of Minden-Gardnerville, Nev.; brother, Bill Ellisen, of Reno, Nev.; and five grandchildren.

A celebration of his life will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Daniels Chapel of the Roses, 1225 Sonoma Ave., in Santa Rosa.

Donations in Ellisen’s memory may be made to Memorial Hospice, 821 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401, or to the American Cancer Society, either through the Sonoma County Unit, 1451 Guerneville Road, Suite 220, Santa Rosa 95403, or through www.cancer.org.

– Mary Callahan

Now that the amazing Amgen has come and gone, we can turn our attention to the Rose Parade that on Saturday will roll through downtown Santa Rosa at a somewhat more leisurely pace than the peleton.

Eric Lee, the "Food Network Star" finalist

Among the attractions of this year’s Luther Burbank Rose Parade & Festival:

* The Grand Marshals are members of Sonoma County’s civic-minded Gong family, owners of G&G Supermarkets.

* The theme, Rockin’ Round the Roses, will inspire much toe-tapping and head-bobbing throughout the parade. And afterward, the Unauthorized Rolling Stones will play in the Festival that will occupy the west side of Old Courthouse Square and spill onto Fourth Street.

* Eric Lee, the chef from Petaluma who’s a finalist on “Food Network Star,” will ride in the parade and emcee the High School Culinary Showcase at the square. Read a Press Democrat story about Lee  here.

The Balloon Platoon

* One of several promising new out-of-town entries joining the parade this year is the madcap Balloon Platoon from Pleasanton, a flotilla of men wearing inflated truck intertubes beneath sailor costumes made of  large, white sheets.   They’ve marched all around the world – in London’s Christmas Parade, Singapore’s Chinese New Year’s Parade, the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in D.C.  and elsewhere.

* Also traveling to join in the Rose Parade are the Keystone Cop Patrol from Citrus Heights and the Century High School Band, 150 strong, from Hillsboro, Ore. From Santa Rosa, the band will continue on to a performance at Disneyland.

* Among the local entries to watch for are the Rotary Club float carrying a live rock band, the all-natural Exchange Bank float with its Fifties jukebox, the hand-pushed Native Sons of the Golden West float with an Elvis and Graceland theme, the zombie marching band and Hansel Ford’s “Grease” float.

Parade organizer Judy Groverman Walker said it’s going to be a great year for a parade that first stepped off in Santa Rosa in 1894. She said there are still volunteer positions available and she encourages anyone who might be interested to contact her through  roseparadefestival.com or call her at 523-3728.

Larry Bertolini (PD FILE, 2008)

public is invited to celebrate Bertolini, who served on the Sonoma County Junior College District Board of Trustees from 1977 to 1994. He was 85 when he died.

Read the Press Democrat’s story on Bertolini’s death here

Bertolini was known as the “Voice of the Bear Cubs,” and announced for the SRJC basketball and football teams for more than 40 years.

Bertolini and his brother, Louis, founded Western Farm Center in Santa Rosa. He was active in the agriculture community, served as an announcer for the Sonoma County Fair junior livestock auction, and received many honors for his agriculture-related contributions.

Complimentary parking will be available on the SRJC campus for the memorial service.

The foreclosed Sebastopol woman frantic to find a home for a pair of tall, stained glass windows salvaged long ago from Santa Rosa’s quake-wrecked Roxy Theater fielded a flurry of offers and requests.

The fine old windows Amy Tocchini purchased.

The one most pleasing to Patricia Anderson Di Ruocco came from Amy Tocchini, co-owner of several Sonoma County moviehouses, among them the current Roxy in downtown Santa Rosa, Healdsburg’s historic Raven and the Airport, near Windsor.

Tocchini purchased both windows, which stand nearly 13 feet tall. She told Di Ruocco she’s not sure where she and the Santa Rosa Entertainment Group will place them, but she believes that wherever they go they they’ll be crowd-pleasers.

Di Ruocco said, “She bought herself some history and they’re no longer in my cellar, and that makes me happy.”

Di Ruocco had feared she might have to leave or dump the windows when she moves soon from the upside-down house she has lost. She and her late restaurateur husband, Luigi, bought the windows a decade ago intending to place them in a home never built due to Luigi’s death in 2005.

Di Ruocco said the windows came from the old Roxy Theater at 5th and B, which started out early in the 20th Century as a vaudeville house called The Cline Theater.

Now Amy Tocchini looks around her family’s Roxy and their other theaters and ponders the perfect spot for a touch of glass.

Erasto Jacinto, owner of the new Jacinto's Kitchen on Oakmont Drive.

Bruno Ferrandis was joined onstage by his brother Jean on flute. Their parents came from France to watch the concert. (Crista Jeremiason / Press Democrat)

By DIANE PETERSON / The Press Democrat

A nearly full house greeted the Santa Rosa Symphony Saturday night as the orchestra wrapped up its 84th season with an invigorating, French program while bidding farewell to the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.

The historic moment was marked by a champagne toast at the end of the evening in anticipation of the symphony’s move to the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University this fall.

“We are family, as we celebrate not only the end of the season but the end of an era, of 30 years of music-making at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts,” said Alan Silow, executive director of the symphony.

Familial ties emerged as a theme of the evening, providing a natural segue into Mother’s Day.

With an extra bounce in his step, Music Director Bruno Ferrandis welcomed his younger brother, flutist Jean Ferrandis, to the stage before intermission to perform Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2, which the soloist tossed off from memory with understated élan.

But the conductor inadvertently stole the show when he asked his parents, Georges and Therese Ferrandis, to stand up. The couple had flown from their home in southwest France to see their sons perform together in a rare, joint performance.

“For all their years of hardships,” Ferrandis said. “Merci, merci (thanks, thanks).”

While most musicians and audience members are excited about the move to the new hall — modeled after the Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts — a few of the symphony’s 90-some volunteer ushers waxed nostalgic. That’s because their jobs will be outsourced to SSU students.

“There is a certain sadness in not being here anymore,” said Marilyn Scott of Santa Rosa, an usher for more than 10 years. “I will subscribe, but I’ve really enjoyed being behind the scenes.”

The music itself underscored the ebb and flow of this transitional moment. In the curtain-opener, Debussy’s densely textured “Jeux,” melodies quickly dissolved and reformed, creating the impression of standing on shifting ground.

In Ravel’s “La Valse,” which closed the concert, the sensuous waltz rhythms climaxed into a nightmarish delirium, which has been described as “dancing on a volcano.”

In Jacques Ibert’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra after intermission, the ensemble was a little rocky in spots but the flutist carried the day with his glowing tone and top-notch technique.

The orchestra lent solid support to the Mozart Flute Concerto No. 2, but the delicate cadenzas were marred by a mysterious clatter. That made the farewell a little more sweet than bitter.

The concert will be repeated at 8 p.m. Monday, May 14, at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.

Learn how to dance to every decade’s popular music from swing and fox trot to rumba and two-step 7-8 p.m. Friday, May 18, at Friday Night at Finley Ballroom Dances at the Finley Community Center, 2060 West College Avenue. Then strut your newfound
skills 8:30-10:30 p.m. to an in-house D.J. Tix: $10 for lesson and dance; $7 for dance. Information: 543-3737.

Celebrate the arrival of spring with the whole family 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday, May 19, at Family Day, a gala of activities, hands-on crafts, demonstrations and performances at the Sonoma County Museum’s sculpture garden, 425 Seventh Street. The event will include complimentary Russian tea, paper flower making, felt pin flower making and a Sumi-e Japanese brush painting demonstration by Michael Hofmann. Tix: $7. Free for children 12 and under. Information: www.sonomacountymuseum.org.

Mythologist Valerie Estelle Frankel examines the heroine’s journey through classical and modern literature 3-5 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at The Herstory of Literature, a lecture sponsored by the Redwood Writers at the Flamingo Hotel, 2777 4th Street.  Tix: $8. Information: www.redwriters.org.

Pugs and pug owners join for an unleashed canine corral 3-5 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at Santa Rosa Pug Play Day at the De Turk Round Barn dog park, 819 Donahue Street. Fenced in and leash-free, the park includes shaded areas and fresh water for tired or thirsty dogs. Free. Information: lhoward@sonic.net.

Santa Rosa High School student Jennifer Negoesco works in the school vineyard on Alba Lane. (Jeff Kan Lee / PD)

By MICHAEL SHUFRO / Santa Rosa Correspondent

On a secluded 60-acre parcel between the Old Redwood Highway and Highway 101, Santa Rosa High School students learn from the ground up how to grow pumpkins and raise pigs.

They also tend the grapes for their Vintage Panther Chardonnay, Sonoma County’s only wine produced by teenagers. Even the wine label and emblem on the cork are designed by students in the school’s ArtQuest program.

“This vineyard project may well be one of a kind because it is so multidimensional,” said Alix Shor, a parent volunteer. “We’ve joined together with our community college and a commercial winery, and we’ve also been able to bring in students from a variety of disciplines.”

Early in the morning on school days, farmers and winemakers from the La Crema facility work alongside students in a 6-acre vineyard on Alba Lane, providing guidance and expertise while tying up vines or trimming grape leaves.

Student vintners trestle, prune and clip the vines until the grapes are ready to harvest. Then they are taken to SRJC’s Shone Farm, where they are crushed, barreled and made into a first-class spirit. Once the wine is bottled, the high school’s Ag Booster’s Club takes over, releasing it three to four times a year at fundraisers where locals can purchase glasses, bottles and cases.

Owned by the Santa Rosa School District, the vineyard yields about 13 tons each year, three of which are grown by students in the wine program and purchased through the booster club. The remaining 10 tons, roughly 80 percent of the yield, are sold to Kendell Jackson Wine Estates for its La Crema chardonnay.

All proceeds from grape and wine sales benefit the school farm, the small-scale winery and a few scholarships. It cost SRHS $2,000 to produce 756 bottles of 2009 Vintage Panther Chardonnay, for example. The Boosters Club sold it for $20 a bottle, grossing nearly $17,000.

The third oldest agriculture program of its kind in the state, Santa Rosa’s was started in 1928, and has been reinventing itself ever since.

Several decades ago, SRHS agriculture instructor Leroy Wallace envisioned the possibility of a school farm and vineyard as a way to unite high school students with Santa Rosa’s thriving local industries. When he learned of the Alba Lane property, he took his idea to the Santa Rosa School Board.

The School District purchased the property in the early ’90s, and the vineyard was first planted in 1998. Kendall Jackson quickly came aboard to grow and buy the grapes, while volunteers from throughout the community donated equipment and parts, built wells and installed pumps to get the farm up and running.

Its graduates have gone into a wide range of related disciplines. One is a cooperative agent in Nebraska; another is studying to become a veterinarian in Oklahoma.

The majority go on to study at SRJC’s Shone Farm or other four-year colleges known for their agriculture programs. Many end up working as Sonoma County farmers, ranchers, vintners, educators or agricultural representatives.

Up to 35 students can work on the farm each year. They spend two days a week in the field and supplement that with two days a week in agriculture classes at SRHS that reflect what they’re learning on the farm.

Students from other nearby high schools are welcome to enroll, but are required to work on the farm and take agriculture classes at SRHS. This year, one student each from Cardinal Newman and Maria Carrillo are involved.

“Being a part of the program gives us all a step into the industry,” said Amanda Preutice, a 17-year-old junior who has been enrolled in the program since her freshman year. “People always think of agriculture as an elective, but balancing English and math homework along with this can be a big challenge.”

Most students enroll as juniors and seniors when they are old enough to drive themselves to the farm and back to school. None are old enough to taste the fruits of their labor, but they’re able to sample some grape juice from each vintage before it’s fermented.

Preutice, whose parents work in the wine industry, said, “It’s really cool to see how to prune, how to tie all the vines and know about what my dad does.”

Although Wallace is retired, and Lisa Piehl now heads the school’s agriculture department, the program’s legacy can still be celebrated over a toast of wineglasses filled with Panther chardonnay.

The 2011 Vintage Panther Chardonnay is not quite ready for release, but the 2010 Vintage Panther Chardonnay is still available for $20 a bottle at srhsagboosters.com.