TehachapiNews.com

Rotoract raises nearly $4,000 for local groups

Tehachapi News

Tehachapi Rotaract has announced the successful completion of its inaugural fundraiser, the New Year's Eve Gala.

Attendees enjoyed live Big Band music, and foods of the world catered by The Culinary Studio, Don Juan's, Kasagiri and Pacino's Spagetti Factory.

Indian Talk: traditional names for Tehachapi birds

By Jon Hammond, Contributing Writer

The Nüwa (Kawaiisu) Indian people of the Tehachapi Mountains and surrounding region often named the creatures with whom they shared the Earth in the most logical way: the name itself would be an approximation of the sound that animal made. The term used to describe this type of name is onomatopoeia, that strange word that is used to weed out the less gifted competitors in spelling bees across the English-speaking world.

English has many onomatopoeias of its own, like "ribbit" for the call of a frog, "quack" for the sound a duck makes or "meow" for the speech of a cat. Using terms like these as the proper names of animals is particularly useful for languages like Nüwa, which were traditionally unwritten. It was easy for a Nüwa child to remember that Wogita was the name of a Pacific Chorus Frog, because in the evenings you could hear the male frogs saying their name over and over: "wog-it, wog-it, wog-it."

Lions Club honors students

Tehachapi News

The Tehachapi Lions Club honored three local girls as "students of the month" for January.

Baylee Garland was selected as student of the month for Tehachapi High. As a junior, Baylee is an outstanding student and possesses excellent organizational skills such as finishing tasks long before they are due.

Tehachapi youth design innovative apron

By Shirley Given, Community Reporter

Locals in international competition

The Tehachapi Turbines are a home school team from Valley Oaks Charter School that have designed a hand-sanitizing apron as part of the First Lego League (FLL)'s competition. The FLL Global Innovation Award is designed to encourage and assist FLL teams to further develop their innovative solutions to real-world problems. This year, the FLL Food Factor season challenged kids around the world to solve a food safety problem. The Turbines are one of five California teams involved in the international competition.

'Sunshine Boys' continues at Beekay

By Karl Schuck, Contributing Writer

Dedicated to the memory of Royce Cox

"The Sunshine Boys" is the comic highlight of the season in Tehachapi Community Theatre's lively production now playing at the Beekay Theatre.

Let's celebrate incredible!

By Shirley Given, Community Reporter

More often than not, according to what we read and see on TV, today's youth appear to be uninterested, uncaring and unwilling to learn. It is refreshing to know, that here in Tehachapi not all of the youth fall in that category. This is the story of a young lady who exemplifies the youth of Tehachapi. Principal Nachbar of Golden Hills Elementary describes her as "an incredible young lady."

Meet Bailey Veiga, a fourth grade student at Golden Hills Elementary School. She won the Tehachapi Unified School District Spelling Bee, going head to head with 5th through 8th grade students, and is in the GATE program at Golden Hills Elementary.

Old time contra dance Feb. 11

Tehachapi News

Take your Valentine dancing to the Sweetheart Contra Dance hosted by the California State Old Time Fiddlers Association District #3 (CSOTFA #3) on Saturday, Feb. 11. The dance will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. at the activity hall of the Community Congregational Church, which is on the corner of East "E" and Green Street in Tehachapi.

Any person or couple new to contra dancing can come at 6:30 p.m. as there will be lessons for beginners until 7 p.m. There is an admission charge of $5 for adults, $2 for children, and any current member of CSOTFA #3 will receive a $1 off of their admission, as all proceeds will go to support COSTFA #3, which is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization.

Art is in the air for February

Shirley Given, Community Reporter

The downtown “First Friday”, Art Walk is Feb. 3, from 5 to 8 p.m. A number of downtown shops and restaurants will be open for your shopping and browsing pleasure.

The desert giant — a tree that towers over time

Jon Hammond, Contributing Writer

There is a Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) growing near California City that fits this description.

Public invited to Tomo-Kahni volunteer awards and anthropology speaker

Renowned anthropologist Dr. John Johnson will speak and state park volunteers will be honored at the 19th Annual Tomo-Kahni Volunteer Awards, Saturday, Jan. 28, at 1 p.m. in Tehachapi.

Natural Sightings: Pogonip means brrrr!

Jon Hammond

Erica Maier took this photo of pogonip clinging to dead branches on a ridge at the Sky River wind farm in the hills above Sand Canyon, near the Pacific Crest Trail.