Richmond Roundup

Celebration at Laurel Village

Laurel Village merchants have teamed up with several entities to brighten the holiday season for those in need.
The merchants have joined with The Children's Book Project, SF Food Bank and SF Firefighters Toy Program to collect books, toys and food. Collection barrels are located throughout the Laurel Village shopping center, located on California Street between Spruce and Laurel streets.
There will be a holiday celebration at the shopping center on Saturday, Dec. 14, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Festivities include the Young Peoples Teen Musical Choir, balloon animals, magic shows and picture taking with Santa Claus.
For more information, call Tricia Tong at (415) 860-0231.

YMCA Reaches Fundraising Goals
Richmond District YMCA programs for kids, teens and seniors are the beneficiaries of this year's Community Support Campaign, which reached its goal of $45,000. The campaign was led by the Richmond District YMCA's board of managers and included dozens of volunteers. Programs include social and fitness activities for seniors, Friday Night Teen Center, on and off campus programming for middle and high school students, and scholarships for childcare. Traditionally, the YMCA campaign has been run in two parts: one in the fall and one in the spring. This year, however, the board decided to do one big push from Sept. 16 through Nov. 13. This change, combined with the current state of the economy, had a few people in the fundraising campaign nervous, but the Richmond District demonstrated its support of the YMCA's programs. After the successful fundraising effort, volunteers were feted at a thank you dinner held at Gaspare's Restaurant on Geary Boulevard.

Casals Enters Hall of Fame
International tennis great and San Francisco's own Rosie Casals was recently inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. Casals, who played regularly in Golden Gate Park, began her international career at age 16. That year, she was also ranked in the top five in the country. Before her competition years were over, however, Casal recorded 528 wins, 309 losses and a .631 winning percentage. She is a 12-time Grand Slam winner, was ranked number one 10 times on the United State's doubles teams and was US Fed Cup team captain. She is also the co-founder of the Women's Tennis Association, in which she won 112 doubles titles.