The Visalia Family Newsletter 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

Just thought I'd take this holiday opportunity to catch you up on what Visalia has been up to this past year.

It has been freezing cold here! Well, sometimes it's gotten down to 32 degrees . . . Actually, it's frosty on some mornings, but of course the afternoons are sunny and 60. Maybe all our friends in the icy Midwest and snowed-under Northeast should disregard this paragraph.

Let's see; what have we accomplished in 2007?

The kids are doing better in school. Test scores continue to improve. Visalia Unified School District's Special Education Department earned an Honorable Mention from School Matters' America's Best Schools.

Our schools excel in the fine and performing arts at a time when most of the country is lucky to have any arts program at all.

And we did very well in sports this year. In boys cross-country, Mt. Whitney and Central Valley Christian (CVC) each earned their division championship, as did Exeter in girls cross-country, and El Diamante in both boys and girls water polo. El D was Division II champs in football, and almost got to go to state. CVC volleyball did go.

Our kids got a new sports park and a really wonderful playground. The children got to suggest and choose features for it and everyone pitched in to build it. It turned out really nice.

Uncle Brian (Kempf) has had us out planting even more trees. We are gradually becoming that urban forest he's told us about.

People come from all over the world to see our trees. If you come out for a visit between May and September we could catch the new shuttle to the park—Sequoia National Park, that is.

Planting, painting, cleaning: a lot of us came out and worked hard on Make a Difference Day. This year we worked on around 20 projects.

Generous community members stepped up to the plate and helped fill someone else's by filling FoodLink's empty freezers with turkeys and trimmings just before Thanksgiving.

After a good season, the Visalia Oaks don't even mind the growing pains from phase two of their renovations at Recreation Park. And this year Kaweah Delta Hospital has been expanding as fast as I did in my last month of pregnancy.

And with all the north/south building going on, I guess you could say we're in the middle of a vertical growth spurt. Our local Boy Scout Office and one of our two new police stations made their home in our North Visalia Community Campus. The other new station is in the south part of town near Target Greatland. I still call that the “new” Target, near the new Lowe's, and the new Costco. Now we have a new Home Depot, newer Lowe's, and yet another new Target coming soon. I'm having a hard time keeping up!

2007 was a great year for visitors. Quite a few famous friends came to visit. Bill Cosby, Pat Benatar, and Kenny G all came and showed support for good causes. NFL Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, Apollo 11 astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin and Ollie Cantos, the associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, all came to support the Miracle League. Even “Designing Woman” Jean Smart and the BYU Ballet came calling. And many of us got to go see Clint Black and Brian Regan when they came to visit our cousins in Hanford.

Visalia is getting bigger and there is more and more to do, but we still have that small town feel. It's a nice combination. You can always come visit and see for yourself.

We hope your Chanukah was happy and bright. We hope you'll have the very merriest of Christmases. And whatever holiday you celebrate, we wish you only the best in the New Year. Who knows what news we'll have to share at the close of 2008!