LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dion top volunteer
Editor: Small towns rely entirely upon volunteer effort to
accomplish virtually everything that has to do with community
events. On March 27, the Forestville Chamber of Commerce hosted our
annual Easter Egg Hunt where winners of the Easter Coloring Contest
were awarded prizes for their artistic accomplishments. This annual
event has been organized from start to finish by a handful of
people under the direction of Karen Dion of Bank of the West in
Forestville for the past 13 years. Karen starts working on next
year’s Easter hunt and contest right after she completes this
year’s event. This project is one of the many reasons she was
recognized as Forestville’s Volunteer of the Year for 2010. Your
wonderful coverage of our event left out recognition for Karen’s
efforts, so I want to make sure your readers know that she is the
primary person responsible and gets the credit she deserves. Thank
you Karen Dion.
Vesta Copestakes
Forestville
Thanks to LL supporters
Editor: This year marks 53 years of Little League Baseball in
Sebastopol.
We have 30 teams, 340 players, 90 managers and coaches, and 21
Board Members.
We are so thankful for all of the community support. The 30
local businesses that sponsor our teams, businesses that support
our billboard program, and all the special donors for field
improvements. The Dutra Group gave us funds to buy a new scoreboard
at Laguna Field and Lunardi Electric donated their time for the
installation. We also received a grant from Sunrise Rotary to
purchase a new pitching machine. We look forward to a refurbished
scoreboard donated by the Ballenger Family later this season for
Clahan Field.
This season we replaced all the Major and Junior uniforms. These
teams will look sharp in the new jerseys.
It means so much for the all the players ages 5-16 that have the
support of our community. Without the support of the community, it
would not allow for all the field improvements, and improvements to
our facilities and equipment upgrades.
Last season Sebastopol Little League brought home five All Star
Pennant flags.
The 12-year-olds and juniors won both Area and District 35
Championship Flags and the 10-year-olds won Area. It was the first
time in league history that the 12 year olds won a District
Championship Game.
Our goal is to create a baseball culture of support on and off
the fields. To give life skills to the youth in our program that
will give them the confidence to become great leaders and great
people and a respect for America’s favorite pastime.
Thanks to all the people who give freely all their time to our
youth development program.
We look forward to another great year of Little League Baseball
and making new friends and memories that will last a lifetime.
We invited Mike Brady to throw out the first pitch of the
season. Mike starting coaching with us during Fall Ball three years
ago and coached the Major Cardinals team last year to an almost
perfect season with only one loss. He also helped coach the
12-year-old All Star team Mike helped the boys with their hitting
and he brought a competitive edge to the team. The 12 year olds won
for the first time in League History the District 35 Championship
game Mike gave of himself selfishly while he is fighting his own
personal battle with cancer. He did not let the cancer get in his
way and we wanted to show our support as a league. Sebastopol
Little League presented his son Jacob Brady with a new bat. Thank
you to everyone who contributed to this project and especially to
Patti Hermsmeyer of District 35 for her donation of catcher
equipment for Jacob.
Opening Day 2010 was a great success we had great weather, great
food, good friends and a great Community thank you to everyone who
contributed their time.
Michelle Carreras
President, Sebastopol Little League
Yes on 15
Editor: Next Saturday, April 10, will be the local kickoff for
one of the most important propositions before the electorate in
years — the California Fair Elections Act — Proposition 15. Passage
of this measure, which is before the voters in the June 8 election,
would begin the process of public funding of campaigns and removing
the corrupting influence of money in our politics. Speakers at the
kickoff will include Senator Mark Leno, Santa Rosa Mayor Susan
Gorin, and Cloverdale Mayor Carol Russell.
We all know that the out-of-control spending in politics is
eroding our democracy. We see the Supreme Court granting unlimited
spending rights in our political process to corporations. We see a
billionaire trying to buy the governorship of California.
The antidote is Yes on Prop 15.
Similar public funding laws are in effect in other states,
including Arizona and Maine. They have garnered support across
party lines and close to 100 percent participation. To learn more,
join us at the Santa Rosa Senior Center 704 Bennett Valley Road at
3 p.m. And check us out on the Web at yesfairelections.org .
Deborah Dobish
Sebastopol
Save the Rite Aid trees
Editor: It is too bad that nobody takes care of those “once
beautiful trees” in front of Rite Aid. They are full of mistletoe
and by now may be beyond saving.
There are still a couple of trees not affected or infected by
the mistletoe but may go soon by the wayside if they are also
ignored.
Ruth Hansen
Sebastopol
Regulate big banks
Editor: Reckless behavior by big banks, mortgage lenders and
credit card companies have cost millions of Americans their jobs,
their retirement savings, and their financial well-being. Even
while their reckless behavior brought us financially to the brink
of disaster and we, the taxpayers, had to bail them out, they
seemed not to have learned any lessons and have now seemed to
return to the same business-as-usual financial behavior that
brought us to the brink. Is this the kind of financial environment
we want to live with and pass along to our kids?
Let’s make sure that any final bill requires that investment
institutions have strong regulation, strong oversight, and be based
on the needs of us, the taxpayers, and not the financial
institution. We now know that deregulation does not work. Let’s do
something about it now.
Thomas Trainum
Windsor