BLAZING A TRAIL TO ATLANTA : LOCAL HEROES TO CARRY OLYMPIC TORCH.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer Thousands of people whose community spirit made them local heroes in neighborhoods across America will carry the Olympic torch through the nation on an odyssey that begins this morning in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . The first of the torchbearers will begin spreading the spirit of the Olympics along a 15,280-mile zigzag route that will come within a two-hour distance of 90 percent of the country's population. At 82, Agnes Hector of West Hills will be among the oldest runners on the 15,280-mile route from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum For board track racing circuit, see . Present use The Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojan football team. During the recent stretch of its success in football, most of USC's regular home games, especially the alternating games with rivals UCLA and Notre to Atlanta. Hector is a former ballerina who works at Capistrano Avenue Elementary School elementary school: see school. in Canoga Park as a volunteer. There are about 10,000 torchbearers, and about 5,500 of them are citizens chosen as local heroes for their volunteer work, community leadership, generosity, kindness or extraordinary accomplishments. Most runners will carry the torch for one kilometer, or about six-tenths of a mile. The more than 200 torchbearers in the Los Angeles area will include Kristine Kirsten, a 25-year-old Canoga Park woman who lost her left leg to cancer and now volunteers with United Way to help other cancer patients. Another is clinical psychologist Tom Dakoske of Agoura, who found out he had been selected as a torchbearer torch·bear·er n. 1. One that carries a torch. 2. One, such as the leader of a government, who imparts knowledge, truth, or inspiration to others. Noun 1. when his family greeted him at home, with one son playing the Olympic theme on a trumpet and another carrying a candle as if it were a torch. ``It's an incredible dream to be able to carry the flame,'' said Dakoske, chosen because of his work last summer in a refugee camp in Bosnia for children traumatized by war. When Olympic organizers sent Hector an information packet, her husband tossed it in the trash because he thought it was junk mail See spam and junk faxes. . When a representative from the Olympic committee made a follow-up phone call, ``I thought it was a joke, so I hung up on them,'' Hector said. But at 5:17 p.m. today at Sunset Boulevard and Sunset Plaza Drive in West Hollywood, Hector said she will be ready to carry the flame that symbolizes the international goodwill of the Olympic Games. After Hector's jog ends at Sunset and San Vicente boulevards, her torch will light that of Marianne Wolfe of Northridge, a 30-year volunteer at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Wolfe said that because she's still healing from a fall six months ago that broke her kneecap kneecap (patella), saucer-shaped bone at the front of the knee joint; it protects the ends of the femur, or thighbone, and the tibia, the large bone of the foreleg. The kneecap is embedded in the tendon tissue of the quadriceps femoris, a large thigh muscle. , she'll have to walk rather than run her kilometer. As a tour docent for Childrens Hospital, Wolfe shows prospective donors around the medical facility. ``I've raised many millions in 30 years,'' said Wolfe, 67. The donations allow the hospital - which Wolfe described as her second home - to treat any youngster in need of medical care. ``Ever since 1901, we have never turned away a child. If we have an empty bed and the family has no money, we still take them in,'' she said. Wolfe also volunteers for Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times in Idyllwild and for the San Fernando-Santa Clarita chapter of Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity, nonprofit ecumenical Christian organization that enables low-income people to own affordable, livable housing. Headquartered in Americus, Ga., it was founded in 1976 by businessman Millard Fuller and his wife. . The Olympic Games will belong to everyday folks for 84 days as the torch moves across America to the July 19 opening ceremonies of Olympiad XXVI at Atlanta, where the games will run through Aug. 4. More than 10,000 athletes from 197 countries will compete in the latest edition of the games created by the ancient Greeks and revived 100 years ago as an international celebration of athletic prowess. Los Angeles residents remember the emotion generated by the torch relay that heralded the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Torchbearers in this year's relay will travel through 42 states by foot, bicycle, horseback, cable car, steamboat steamboat: see steamship. steamboat or steamship Watercraft propelled by steam; more narrowly, a shallow-draft paddle-wheel steamboat widely used on rivers in the 19th century, particularly the Mississippi River and its tributaries. , canoe and train. ``It goes across the Great Salt Lake, across the Rocky Mountains, up the Mississippi River, to the Rock 'n' Roll rock 'n' roll: see rock music. Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Cape Canaveral in Florida, and across the Golden Gate Bridge Golden Gate Bridge, across the Golden Gate from San Francisco to Marin Co., W Calif.; built 1933–37. Its overall length is 9,266 ft (2,824 m); its main span across the strait, 4,200 ft (1,280 m), is one of the longest bridges in the world. Joseph B. in San Francisco,'' said Christy Salcido, a spokeswoman for the torch relay. The community heroes were selected as torchbearers by local judging panels set up by United Way. Los Angeles County firefighter-paramedic Robert Neill, who works at Fire Station 125 on Las Virgenes Road, said he isn't quite sure why his sister nominated him and why he was chosen to be a torchbearer. ``I'm just kind of a nobody,'' said Neill, 53, of Calabasas. ``I'm just an average person who works for a living.'' But as one who runs six miles a day and has run in the Los Angeles Marathon The Los Angeles Marathon is an annual marathon held in Los Angeles, California since 1986. It was inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. The race starts at about 8:15AM and runs through Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, the Crenshaw district, and four times, Neill said carrying the 3-1/2-pound, 32-inch torch for little more than a half mile should be all play and no work. Neill will start his leg at 12:38 p.m. at Sixth and Mateo streets south of downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or , and he will run across the bridge that spans the Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River is an intermittent river flowing through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, 51 miles (82 km) southeast to its mouth in Long Beach. . This being Southern California, there also will be a sprinkling of celebrities toting those torches. Rafer Johnson, the 1960 gold medalist in the decathlon decathlon (dĭkăth`lŏn), in modern Olympic games, a contest for men held over two days and composed of 10 track-and-field events. , will start the relay. Thousands of former Olympic athletes will participate in the torch run, along with thousands of runners picked by Olympics corporate sponsors. Some of the Olympians who will follow in Johnson's footsteps include swimmer Janet Evans, sprinter Valerie Brisco-Hooks, gymnast Mitch Gaylord, boxers Paul Gonzales Jr. and Sugar Ray Leonard Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956) is a retired American professional boxer. He was one of the leading boxers in the world in the late 1970s and 1980s, winning world titles at multiple weights and engaging in contests with such celebrated opponents as Wilfred Benitez, Thomas , decathlete de·cath·lete n. An athlete who participates in a decathlon. Bruce Jenner, pole vaulter Bob Seagren, and diver Sammy Lee. Some recognizable people, albeit non-Olympians, also will get into the act: ``Forrest Gump'' director Robert Zemeckis, KNBC-TV sportscaster Fred Roggin, KABC-AM radio talk show host Roger Barkley, former Laker Jamaal Wilkes, and the Rev. Gregory Boyle, an activist priest who counsels gang members. LOCAL PEOPLE CARRYING THE OLYMPIC TORCH AGOURA: David Bennett, Tom Dakoske AGOURA HILLS: Keno DeVarney BURBANK: Robert Keene, Ann Bean CALABASAS: Robert Neill, Steven Lewis, Ethel Klein, Maria Stoliar CAMARILLO: Priscilla Partridge de Garcia CANOGA PARK: Liz Giltner, Kristine Kirsten, Craig Lincoln, Raymond Rivera CANYON COUNTRY: James Ferguson, Kelly Lewis LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE: Timothy Smith LANCASTER: Alexander Gonzales, Ruth Moore MALIBU: Jose Garcia, Gene Beisman NORTHRIDGE: Marianne Wolfe, Robert Fischer, Vincent Malizia NORTH HOLLYWOOD: Dixie Henrikson SAN FERNANDO: Walter Mosher A mosher is a person who is crossed between goth/punk/skater they have long hair and listen to music like slipknot and metal music. Some people call them headbangers. At certain music shows they have something called a mosh pit, basically its a fight pit with loads of people bashing each other. SHERMAN OAKS: Bill Schellenberg SIMI VALLEY: James Rardin SUNLAND: Paris Blohm THOUSAND OAKS: Terry Schroeder, Victor Auer, Joe Dillman TOLUCA LAKE: Dusty Chapman TUJUNGA: Patricia Cowden VALENCIA: David Farguson, Michael Cox VAN NUYS: Jim Easton, Lorenzo Izarraraz, Patrick Connelly, Debra Karamin VENTURA: Thomas McBreen, Ryan Duston WESTLAKE VILLAGE: Donna Pierson WEST HILLS: Agnes Hector CAPTION(S): Photo, Box, Map Photo: (color) Firefighter Robert Neill will help carry the Olympic torch. Evan Yee/Daily News Box: LOCAL PEOPLE CARRYING THE OLYMPIC TORCH (see text) Map: OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY |
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