Longtime volunteers named Tustin Area Man and Woman of the Year
Longtime Tustin community volunteers Roger Carlson and Sheryl Franke were recently announced as the Tustin Area Man and Woman of the Year.
The TAMWY program has been held for more than 60 years. Tustin individuals are recognized for their dedicated work, leadership and outstanding volunteerism in the community. Nominations for the award come from previous winners or local nonprofit organizations. This year, five men and six women were nominated for the award.
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“When I started my business in November of 2000, my goal was to be part of the Tustin community as I built my accounting practice,” Carlson said. “Through my volunteerism I have met many people who are now friends through Tustin Rotary and my PB&J Ministries. I am honored to be included with the past recipients of TAMWY.”
Carlson has been involved in the Rotary Club of Tustin-Santa Ana for more than 24 years and has served as a board member since 2010, president (2018-19 and 2022-23) and treasurer. His dedication to serving others is exemplified in everything he does, including chairing Rotary’s Arbor Day for the past two years, volunteering in Rotary’s Chili Cook-Off booth, serving as security with fellow Rotarians during summer evenings at Concerts in the Park and reading to elementary school students in Rotary’s Read Across America program.
Since creating PB&J Ministries in 2010, Carlson has annually organized the gathering of food for distribution to needy families in the Tustin community through food drives with the OC Rescue Mission, Families Forward, and the Tustin Family and Youth Center.
In 2016, Carlson, with the assistance of the Tustin Community Center, created and ran the Birthday Ice Cream Social event through 2019, which celebrated Tustin residents 90 and older by providing a birthday cake and ice cream, averaging 18 to 20 honorees at each event.
Carlson enjoys quality time with his wife, Karen, and their adult children, daughter Haley and son Jeffrey. He was nominated by the Rotary Club of Tustin-Santa Ana.
Franke can best be described as a multitalented dynamo when it comes to her involvement as an active volunteer in the Tustin community.
“I am so honored to receive this special award,” she said. “It is with gratitude that I reflect on the volunteer activities that I have participated in over the years in the Tustin community. I am proud to support these wonderful organizations and help make the Tustin area the amazing place that we know and cherish. I am looking forward to continuing to volunteer for many, many years to come.”
Whether she is heading up an activity for Tustin Area Woman’s Club (TAWC), Santa Ana Elks Lodge #794, Tustin Area Republican Women Federated (TARWF) or Assistance League of Tustin, where she chaired Operation School Bell for five years, Franke’s positive impact has been profound. A highly organized perfectionist, she works nonstop until the job is done.
Franke has been on the board of TAWC from 2015 through 2023, serving as its president, vice president/dean, treasurer, hospitality chair, past-presidents’ club chair and publicity chair, as well as co-chair of two successful fundraisers. Steering TAWC’s philanthropic events, she currently is the Scholarship Committee chair and TAWC’s Young Woman of the Month Program chair. Her overall involvement has helped provide more than $50,000 over the years for TAWC-generated fundraisers to a variety of causes.
Franke has been treasurer of the Santa Ana Elks Lodge #794 Scholarship Committee since 2020, helping to raise over $140,000 in scholarships for the lodge’s service area of Tustin, Santa Ana and Irvine.
In addition, under her guidance as president for the past three years, TARWF has been recognized as Orange County’s 2023 Republican Club of the Year.
In her spare time, Franke is an avid tennis player on three competitive teams, enjoys line dancing, and most of all treasures time with her family — husband Nathan and adult children Aaron and Jenny. She was nominated by the Tustin Area Woman’s Club.
Carlson and Franke will become lifetime members of the TAMWY organization. They will also ride in the Tustin Tiller Days Parade as guests of honor on Oct. 5 and have their names permanently etched on a brick walkway in the plaza between the Tustin Library and Clifton C. Miller Community Center at the Tustin Civic Center.
– Submitted by Mark Eliot
Local teen looks to influence future generations
A senior at Troy High School in Fullerton is taking a small step in solving a global issue as she works toward earning her Girl Scout Gold Award.
Anisha Aluwihare is focusing on environmental problems, specifically in regards to oceans. To raise awareness, she created a two-day lesson for fifth graders on ocean acidification and algal blooms with presentations, work packets and an experiment.
Aluwihare has implemented and spread these lessons across 12 Orange County schools in the Fullerton, Brea, Placentia and Yorba Linda areas, reaching more than 400 kids so far.
“I think spreading awareness about these issues is really important, especially for the younger generation,” she said. “They’re the ones who will go out into the world to make changes, and if I can inspire even one of them, I think that’s really powerful.”
Aluwihare says she’s open to connecting with teachers interested in using her lesson. They can reach her at [email protected].
Anaheim kids explore career paths in industrialized construction
Middle school Anaheim students got a chance to discover the joy of building at a camp hosted by The Rosendin Foundation. The free one-day co-ed TRF Camp Build hosted 16 students who took on hands-on projects with instruction from industry professionals and access to construction tools and materials.
Students in sixth through eighth grades learned essential skills, including using power tools safely, wiring and building a lamp that they took home, exploring potential career paths in the growing industrialized construction industry, bending conduit, and using Building Information Modeling (BIM) to virtually build under the guidance of skilled professionals.
Each participant received a free bag of tools to take home courtesy of Milwaukee Tools.
TRF Camp Build offers students a safe environment to investigate career paths in industrialized construction and acquire hands-on learning experience.
Orange County physician worked to prepare USA Volleyball teams for Summer Olympics
As more than 500 U.S. Olympic athletes vied for their chance at glory and gold in the 2024 Summer Olympics, hundreds of medical personnel worked in the background to help them fulfill their dreams.
One of them was ActiveKidMD’s Chris Koutures, MD, FAAP, who was selected by USA Volleyball to be a part of the support staff preparing the athletes for the Summer Olympics in Paris.
“It is an honor to support these athletes in achieving their athletic goals,” Koutures said.
U.S. team physicians must have a strong sports medicine background. With USA Volleyball and other national teams/governing bodies, there are multiple specialists, such as certified athletic trainers, sports dieticians, strength and condition specialists, chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists, mental health specialists and team physicians prepared to offer expertise.
This was Koutures’ fifth Olympics. One of his most memorable experiences was supporting the U.S. Volleyball teams at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The Bravo! section highlights achievements of our residents and groups. Send news of achievements for consideration to [email protected].
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