ROCKIN FOR CHOC

By Corky Carroll

There are three things that I love that are all coming together for a great night.  The first is kids.  I love kids.  They are the best people because they are all innocent and hopeful and just waiting to live.  The second is the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, a fantastic facility that we are so, so, sooooooo lucky to have here.  The third is one of my favorite bands of all time, HONK.  I love getting to tell you about an event coming up that is so worthwhile and will be so much fun to attend at the same time.


The first ROCK FOR CHOC, sponsored by CHOC Padrinos is scheduled to be held on the evening of Friday, November 3, 2006 at the Harborside Pavilion Restaurant in Newport Beach. This fun surf-themed event will include music by the legendary HONK band, a local band from the 1970’s that made their mark by being part of what is referred to as the best surf movie ever, Five Summer Stories.

The event will be held at the historic Harborside Restaurant at the Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach, this waterfront location overlooking the Newport Bay will create a casual, fun filled atmosphere. The evening will be a celebration for CHOC. A cocktail reception and silent auction with music provided by “The Girls” will kick off the event followed by a performance by HONK and dinner. Guests will have an opportunity to learn more about Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the life saving medicine that takes place there everyday. The evening will proceed with music by HONK.

The money raised by the Padrinos helps provide services and equipment for Children’s Hospital of Orange County and CHOC at Mission. The group’s primary philanthropic interest is to raise funds for programs at CHOC.

Let me tell you about one CHOC success story.  One of many.

Scott Pichard’s life was saved by CHOC when he was born in 1988.

He was born prematurely, with severe respiratory distress. After various methods of ventilation proved unsuccessful in supporting him, CHOC placed him on ECMO, a heart/lung bypass system.  CHOC was one of the pioneering centers for the use of ECMO in children.  Only eight hospitals in the nation had this capability that requires a specially trained medical team around the clock.  For a week the ECMO equipment took over most of Scott’s heart and lung functions, allowing the organs to rest and heal.  Scott was in the NICU for 6 weeks before coming home, and required supplementary oxygen and a lot of support from CHOC for the next two years. 

The Pichards’ experience has turned them all into avid supporters of CHOC.  They knew that Scott had the very best treatment at CHOC, and appreciated the expertise and loving care of the staff.

Doug became close with Ragnar Amlie, one of Scott’s neonatal doctors, and asked him how he could give back to CHOC.  Ragnar told Doug about the CHOC Padrinos, a support group for the hospital. Doug joined before Scott was one month old and has now spent several years on the board of directors.

Scott is now 18 and an active, healthy senior at Santa Margarita Catholic High School (SMCH).
He loves his school and is on the varsity volleyball team.  Away from school, his favorite sport is surfing.  He started surfing with his older brothers when he was about 9 years old and has been hooked ever since. 

Scott is a leader of the Eagles for CHOC service club at SMCHS, whose mission is to help the kids at CHOC.  The club is part of the CHOC Padrinos and was founded by the Pichards in 2000 with their older sons.  The club has over 100 members who can become trained volunteers at CHOC at Mission.  They participate in many CHOC events and projects.  They volunteer at CHOC Padrinos events, such as the CHOC Ride, CHOC Golf Tournament, the Academy Awards Gala, and the Rock for CHOC concert.   Their Eagles for CHOC walk team raised over $11,000 each of the last two years at the CHOC Walk. Scott was in a stroller for the 1st CHOC Walk in 1991, and has been a part of it every year.  He has raised thousands of dollars and has volunteered countless hours over the years at the hospital and at Padrinos events. 

Scott continues to give back to CHOC every year!  Scott did not learn how to walk until he was 3, yet by 9 he was surfing!

For more information on this event and about CHOC please contact:

CHOC Padrinos -
455 S. Main Street
Orange, California 92968
www.choc.org

Co-Chairs -
Mary Lynn Gaddis: mlgaddis@gaddisconsults.com

Eileen Coe:
escoe@adelphia.net

 

I HATE STINGRAYS ~ THE WAVE

by Corky Carroll

 

When I heard the news about that Crocodile dude getting killed by a stingray it really bummed me out.  First off, I liked that dude.  His shows were always really entertaining and I liked his spirit and his nerve to do some of the stuff he did with some of the nasty biting beastie things that he did them with.   I was a fan.  Secondly because I hate stingrays and to think one of them did in this really cool person who was also a father and husband.  

Yeah I know what some of you are going to say.  The stingrays are just protecting themselves and all that.  And you are right, for sure.  They are just trying to live and be happy like all the rest of us.  They probably don’t really mean to hurt anybody and I doubt if that one that killed the Croc dude did that intentionally.   But still, I don’t like them at all.  

Getting hit by a ray is one of the least fun things that I know of.  Up until now I had never heard of anyone getting killed by one and never really thought of them as deadly.  But I can tell you from experience that one hit by a ray can ruin your day.

I grew up in Surfside, in-between Bolsa Chica and Seal Beach.  This is the stingray belt.  They love this area.  Especially Seal Beach.  I think Seal Beach is where all the big Sing Ray groups have their annual conventions or something.   They vacation there.  They like warm water and the water coming out of the river at the north end of the beach is very warm.  They call that area “Ray Bay.” 

For some reason I was lucky and never got hit by a stingray in all of the years I was growing up surfing those beaches.  Almost everyone else I knew got hit numerous times, it was part of surfing those beaches. 

 

My favorite stingray story came from when I was playing little league baseball.  Our coach was a man named Mr. Hodge.  His first name was Harry, but at the time it was “Mr. Hodge.” Mr. Hodge was actually a pretty cool kinda dude and was a good baseball coach.  He had a son named Dick.  Dick was sort of one of those spoiled kids, the way I saw it anyway.  When he was in high school his parents gave him a very cool vintage M.G. to drive around. He was always what we used to call a “soch.”  That was short for “socialite.”  Dick was like on student council and all that kind of stuff.   For all I know he was a totally cool dude, but I never really got to know him because we were sort of in different realities at the time.   I was all surf all the time.  He was wearing light blue cashmere sweaters to “sock hops.”  We didn’t groove in the same channel so to speak.  

Well, to get back to the stingray story, Mr. Hodge had a rule that there was no surfing on “game days” during the little league season.   And his son Dick was our third baseman.  I don’t think he was really the best third baseman we had either.  But, he was Mr. Hodge’s son.  So, he was our third baseman.  The only kid who ever got caught surfing on a game day was none other than Dick Hodge.  And the reason he got caught was that he got hit by a stingray while surfing at “Ray Bay.”   I was so delighted.  It was not that I wished Dick any harm, but it just seemed like sort of a small justice.

My own stingray experience did not come until a few years ago.  It was at Bolsa Chica one morning during surf school sessions.  We hardly ever get stingrays there.  But this one week we had a few hits and before going out one morning some of the instructors and myself were talking about it.  I mentioned how I had been surfing those beaches my whole life and had never been hit by a ray even one time.  After that I even knocked on wood, my head, to ward off the bad luck of having said that.  

About fifteen minutes later I was lying across my board in shallow water watching a kid surfing towards me and giving him some instruction.  My foot was sort of dangling and barely scraping along the bottom.  All of a sudden it felt like someone stuck me with a stick or something and I felt the ray swim away under my foot.  

At first it wasn’t all that bad, just a little throb and that was it.  But by the time I walked up to my car to head over to lifeguard headquarters to get it looked at it was really hurting bad.   When I got there they stuck my foot in a bucket of really, really hot water and told me to keep putting hotter water in it.   It was not fun.  Then a little girl, maybe eight years old, came in with a stingray hit and sat next to me with her foot in a bucket just like mine.  She was sitting there trying not to cry but she couldn’t help it and had these huge tears coming out of her poor little eyes.  I felt so bad for her and told her not to cry that it would be over soon.  But the truth was that I wanted to cry too, it really hurt bad. 

Ever since then I have hated stingrays.  Except for the one that nailed Dick Hodge on a game day.