By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
The Lake Arrowhead Communities Chamber of Commerce held a mixer for its members at the Lake Arrowhead Country Club. It was co-sponsored by Mountains Community Hospital, located on the opposite side of Lake Arrowhead. During the late afternoon gathering, the county club put on a delicious buffet of fine charcuterie items of smoked salmon and cheeses and smoked brie, plus more with champagne, all greatly enjoyed by the chamber members.
Gina Richardson thanked the chamber for coming and explained the various levels of country club membership and the many fun activities for the whole family, including bounce houses on Sundays, tennis and events, with memberships with and without golf course play.
Mountains Community Hospital has a fundraiser each year, held in recent years in their rose garden on a bluff overlooking Lake Arrowhead. This year the hospital is celebrating its 75th anniversary; the theme for the Le Grand Picnic will be “The 75 Years of Our Lives,” a soap opera parody. But like all good soap operas, there is a twist on the events.
Because of a massive construction project the hospital is undertaking, Le Grand Picnic will be at a different venue this year; part of the twist is the location is yet to be announced. Their previous fundraisers have been successful enough, last year raising over $1million, that the needed earthquake retrofit for the hospital will begin soon. They will be using the parking lots and rose garden for construction equipment and materials so it will not be available for the picnic to use, Susan Sparks explained.
The construction will make the hospital into a California seismic medical center, which will be a self-sustaining island after an earthquake with its own water, sewer and power plus other necessities to continue to provide emergency help after a quake or other disaster.
The hospital will also be building a new emergency room and acute care wing. Patient rooms will also have windows and individual air conditioning controls, plus more privacy in the emergency room. This $73 million construction project is funded through the fundraisers, grants and the hospital foundation and should be completed by 2028.
Because of the construction, new parking lots for 200 cars have been created for employees and workers next to MacKay Park, as the lots near the hospital itself, which will continue operating during the construction, will be redesignated.
The hospital needed to undertake this massive construction project or it would have been closed by 2029 as inadequate, since some current parts are still from the 1950s (75 years ago) and, although quaint, are considered by the state to be inadequate for current hospital standards.
The chamber gave out many door prizes and honored their new members as it is membership month. Their first “Luncheon Mob” at The Lake Arrowhead Pizza Deli was considered successful so they are holding another one on Monday, March 30 at the Sports Grille in Blue Jay from 12 to 1 p.m. Come buy your lunch and network while supporting a local business.
The Lake Arrowhead chamber’s next big event will be the awards breakfast at the Lake Arrowhead Resort on April 19 from 7 to 9 a.m. The theme is “Step into Success” and will feature a build your own breakfast bowl plus a pastry bar and gourmet coffees and teas. RSVP through the chamber office at (909) 336-1547. The guest speaker will be dance enthusiast Ms. Meredith from “Got Rythm, Ventura.”
Robert Bock from Rebuilding Together Mountain Communities was invited to tell about the successes that RTMC has had making homes warm, dry and safe over the past 30 years. He reminded everyone that Rebuilding Day is upcoming on the last Saturday in April when they will be working on three homes and painting the interior of the Crest Forest Senior Citizens Center with their volunteers.
Numerous raffles were drawn with prizes from numerous local businesses, including Mountain Coffee, Logan Construction, Mountains Community Hospital, a mini facial, plus other gifts.
Chamber President Scott Rindenow ended the two-hour mixer with the challenge to “get involved in our community, in all ways you can, to promote success in all businesses.”
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