Corona’s new drone is latest tool to warn rivers’ homeless to storm danger

• April 1, 2023

On New Year’s Eve, 10 Corona firefighters waded into the Rincon Wash, searching in the dark through thick brush for two homeless people who were trapped by rising stormwater.

Finally, after an hour, the people were located and rescued.

“Every time we put one of our guys in the water, especially swift water, it puts them at risk,” Corona firefighter/paramedic Mike Leckliter said.

But now, with the acquisition of a state-of-the-art drone in late January, the Fire Department can more accurately pinpoint the location of the homeless people inhabiting the city’s rivers and washes to alert them to impending storms and use that information to decrease the time to reach them if they require rescue. The drone can even deliver a life vest.

“It’s going to be a game-changer for us,” Deputy Fire Chief Justin McGough said.

Corona firefighter and paramedic, Mike Leckliter demonstrates the new state-of-the-art rescue drone outside the fire station on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

The drone is just one of many ways, high tech, low tech and no tech, that public safety agencies in Southern California warn homeless people to move to higher ground ahead of rising water. The methods often involve person-to-person contact using outreach teams, cell phone alerts and messages broadcast over loudspeakers from police helicopters such as Riverside Police Department’s that flies over encampments in the Santa Ana River ahead of major storms.

The consequences of failing to relocate were spotlighted in November when a surge of water in the Cucamonga Wash in Ontario following a rainstorm swept three homeless people to their deaths. This winter, a seemingly never-ending series of storms has kept water levels — and the danger — high and filled creeks and rivers that can often be dry.

Firefighters look for people trapped in the rain-swollen Cucamonga wash in Ontario on Nov. 8, 2022. Several homeless people were rescued. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“We’re always looking at ways to prevent a tragedy like that from happening,” said Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez, who is assigned to a team of 12 deputies and a clinician in the department’s behavioral health bureau.

Six deputies are assigned to the Santa Ana River, which in OC stretches from the Riverside County border to the Pacific Ocean. When the skies are clear, the deputies offer resources such as housing and food. When rain is coming, the deputies return to urge the homeless to relocate.

A San Bernardino County Fire swift rescue team prepares to cross the Santa Ana River to rescue 8 stranded individuals in 2019. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

“The biggest thing is gaining trust, communication and showing empathy and showing over time that we are genuine. We earn their trust, they know we are empathetic to what they are going through and over time, we are able to gain compliance from a lot of these individuals,” Gonzalez said.

In Los Angeles County, sheriff’s deputies working with the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority talk to homeless people living in rivers personally and make announcements over loudspeakers.

The Ontario deaths spurred change in San Bernardino County.

Before then, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria Huerta, the threat of flood hazards to life was “generally the responsibility of flood control personnel or the jurisdiction where the risk was present.” The county’s homeless outreach team would “sometimes make notifications in major waterways,” and a sheriff’s helicopter crew would make announcements as well.

Members of a San Bernardino County homeless outreach team contact people in a flood control channel in December 2022. The county has been developing a telephone system to alert such homeless people to coming storms that would cause the water level to rise. (Courtesy of San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department)

Now, the county is working toward a more formalized process. The outreach team has been meeting with the county Office of Emergency Services and has proposed using the reverse 911 system to warn homeless people living where dangerous flooding is likely, Huerta said. In the meantime, outreach workers are handing out cards instructing homeless people how to sign up for a county emergency telephone system that sends text messages.

“It is a common misnomer that most folks who are homeless lack cell phones,” Huerta said.

Riverside County officials count on homeless people owning cell phones. The county several times during the winter storms sent alerts to cell phones, accompanied by loud tones, urging people in the Santa Ana River to move to higher ground.

Corona’s new $32,000 drone can’t make phone calls, but that’s about it.

The advantages it has over the Fire Department’s fleet of six smaller drones are that it can fly for an hour vs. 20 minutes on a battery charge, it can fly in rain and high wind, its cameras have improved zoom lenses and can detect heat signatures coming from a person from farther away, and it can deliver a payload weighing up to 7 pounds.

A homeless man clings to a tree in the Los Angeles River in the Atwater area of Los Angeles as members of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s swift water rescue team assist. LA sheriff’s deputies work with housing officials to warn homeless people living in rivers ahead of coming storms. (Photo by Mike Meadows)

Leckliter put the drone through the paces in a recent demonstration. He zoomed in on a construction worker from 1,000 feet away, close enough to get a detailed description of his build and clothing. Leckliter then snapped on an attachment and hooked a life vest to it. He pressed a button on a control panel and the drone released the vest. The drone can also drop two-way radios and bottles of water to lost hikers.

“It’s whatever our imagination is,” Leckliter said.

The infrared camera system has allowed firefighters to find homeless encampments where there were believed to be none. That will help them target more people for alerts. Operators of the drone can attach a loudspeaker and drop a pin on an electronic map that shows up on tablets that are in each fire engine, allowing crews to go more directly to victims.

Leckliter has his own fleet of drones, including a racing drone that can travel at 80 mph and one with a GPS system that will follow him as he rides his bicycle. He said he lobbied the department to purchase this advanced drone.

“As a drone pilot I understood the abilities that would bring our department to be able to more rapidly acquire intel and get to scenes faster than we ever could and ultimately decrease the risk of putting our personnel in hazardous locations when we can do the same thing with remote resources,” Leckliter said,

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​ Orange County Register 

Aquarium director: For ocean health, stop flushing period products

• April 1, 2023

Blame shame, convenience or ignorance, but studies show anywhere from half to more than two-thirds of women flush their tampons down the toilet.

Considering the average woman uses around 10,000 tampons in a lifetime, that’s a lot of period products landing in sewer systems.

Plumbers and wastewater experts have long cautioned against flushing anything but toilet paper, since other materials can cause clogs and lead to pricey repairs. Now, with growing awareness about the chemicals and microplastics found in many period products, environment and marine life advocates are adding their voices to a chorus asking folks to ditch the flushing habit.

“The concern for our aquarium is we want to make sure that people are aware that this is sort of a new reality we have to deal with,” said Marissa Wu, programs and operations director for the Roundhouse Aquarium in Manhattan Beach. Wu has made it a personal mission to educate people about the risks and alternatives to flushing period products.

Wu has been at Roundhouse Aquarium since 2016, helping to further the free site’s mission to highlight marine life native to Southern California waters, from sharks to shrimps. The aquarium recently added a display about pollution and how long it takes different materials to biodegrade in the sea. Wu said they’ve been trying to inform visitors how to cut down on waste and single-use products that too often end up in the ocean, an effort that has led her to start researching risks and alternatives to traditional tampons and pads.

Tampons must go through a review with the Food and Drug Administration before they can be sold in the United States, and experts generally consider those products safe if used as directed. But Wu pointed out that manufacturers aren’t required to list the ingredients of period products, or test results for things like chemicals and microplastics, on their packaging.

“So we’re basically putting something in a very sensitive part of our bodies that we don’t know much about,” she said.

Independent tests have found microplastics not only in wrappers and tampon applicators, but also in some tampon strings and in the tampons and pads themselves. The products otherwise are largely cotton, which is among the crops most heavily treated with pesticides. Some products also have been shown to have other chemicals, compounds and synthetic materials added to mask odors, boost absorbency and increase durability.

Such findings raised concerns for Wu in terms of personal health. And as a marine life expert, she also started to think about what happens when those materials end up in our sewer systems.

Anything flushed down the toilet can end up in oceans and other bodies of water in several ways. If sewers overflow or leak, as happens far too often, those materials end up contaminating local waters. Products like tampons also can hit screens in wastewater systems and sit there for a long time, leaching out whatever is inside of them until they’re cleared out and thrown in landfills. And some sewer systems have grinders to break down such material, which can create pieces of plastic small enough that they make it into the treated wastewater streams that many Southern California plants release into the ocean.

Once there, Wu said, “They take around 500 to 800 years to break down. … And that’s just an estimation. We don’t fully know entirely how long it’s going to take because some of the first plastics that were made are still out there, right? They still exist. So we haven’t lived long enough to have a true estimate of how long it’s going to take.”

The plastics do get smaller and smaller, she noted, with microplastics considered anything less than five millimeters. That debris can get inside algae or plankton, Wu explained. Then fish feed on that plankton, and humans feed on the fish. So yes, bits of those flushed products might eventually end up inside of us.

“And the plastics don’t break down or get passed through the systems,” Wu said. “They just stay there.”

Wu also is worried about how pesticides or other chemicals in period products might affect marine life.

“I had a friend in grad school who was studying at the shark lab over at Cal State Long Beach. She was looking at sting rays and whether toxins that were ingested by the mother were passed on to the pups before being born, through the bloodstream and placenta. So she was majorly concerned as well about feminine products ending up in the ocean.”

The good news, Wu said, is that there are alternatives.

The most basic thing people can do, she said, is to stop flushing any period products down the toilet and, instead, wrap them in toilet paper and deposit them in waste baskets. There’s been progress in making that option more convenient, she noted, with most public facilities now offering lined bins in each stall for safe disposal.

Next, Wu recommends women either consider reusable products, such as period panties or menstrual cups, or look for single-use products that are organic cotton and don’t contain plastics.

“I would encourage women to learn more about the products and learn to trust a brand,” she said.

“It’s a very personal decision, so I encourage people to treat it that way and treat yourselves with respect to make sure that you’re aware of what brands you’re using and what they put in those products. Because, on the one hand, it does affect you. But at the same time it can also help the environment if we’re more conscious about it.”

Unfortunately, reusable and organic products tend to cost substantially more than traditional period products. With reusables, Wu pointed out it’s an upfront investment that can save money over time, like buying a reusable water bottle. But with single-use products, the cost can be twice as high.

That’s why Wu is not currently in favor of any sort of government regulation on the materials used in period products, realizing it might price some lower-income women out of the market. But she would like to see companies list ingredients and test results on packaging, so consumers can at least make more informed decisions.

Then, she said, “For menstruators who can afford to be more conscientious about the environment, and more conscientious about what what is put into their feminine products, make sure they go with the brands that they trust and brands that they agree with, as far as what kind of materials they’re using and putting up against their skin in those very sensitive areas.”

Wu would also like to see more people pressure companies to ditch plastics and other potential pollutants voluntarily, for the good of their consumers and the planet.

‘If enough of us raise our hands ask companies to make things a little bit better,” she said, “maybe they will.”

​ Orange County Register 

Sen. Fetterman discharged from Walter Reed

• April 1, 2023

By Brian Rokus and Kannita Iyer | CNN

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has been discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was being treated for depression, his office announced Friday.

He will return to the Senate when it returns from recess on April 17, his office said in a news release, confirming CNN’s earlier reporting.

“I am so happy to be home,” the freshman Democrat said in a statement. “I’m excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator Pennsylvania deserves. Pennsylvanians have always had my back, and I will always have theirs.”

Fetterman checked himself in last month “to receive treatment for clinical depression,” his chief of staff said at the time. A source familiar with the matter previously told CNN that while Fetterman was not suicidal, his symptoms for depression included loss of weight and loss of appetite.

“I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works,” Fetterman added in the statement after being discharged. “This isn’t about politics — right now there are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties.

“If you need help, please get help,” he said.

Fetterman, the 53-year-old freshman who helped cement Democrats’ 51-49 Senate majority last fall, suffered a stroke last year during the days ahead of the primary. And when he returned to the campaign trail, Fetterman often struggled to communicate with lingering auditory processing issues, relying on assistance through devices with closed captioning in order to properly have conversations and answer questions.

The same auditory processing issues impacted him in his early days in the Senate. And when he struggled with substantial weight loss and a loss of appetite, he was diagnosed with clinical depression, later checking himself into Walter Reed for treatment.

Fetterman has experienced depression “off and on” over the course of his life, a statement previously issued by the senator’s chief of staff said.

In February, the senator went to the George Washington University Hospital after feeling lightheaded, his office announced. However, he was discharged two days later, and his office said that test results had been able to “rule out a new stroke.”

His lack of eating and drinking contributed to dizziness, the source previously told CNN.

​ Orange County Register 

Final Four: UConn in familiar territory as it faces Miami

• April 1, 2023

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer

HOUSTON — All this buzz about how a wildly unpredictable March Madness led to a Final Four nobody could possibly have seen coming overlooked one small detail.

UConn.

When the Huskies tip off against Miami in Saturday’s second semifinal, they will be two wins away from their fifth national title since 1999. No other school has won more over that span.

When the name “UConn” came up with a “4” seed next to its name three weekends ago on Selection Sunday, nobody raised too much of a stink. Four wins later – after no opponent came within 15 points of the Huskies – it’s becoming apparent this is a team that might have been overlooked. Or underestimated.

“A lot of things happened,” Coach Dan Hurley said in explaining how UConn’s profile went from world-beater to middle of the pack in midseason.

Most of that had to do with a string of six losses in eight games starting on New Year’s Eve. It was a dry spell that coincided, according to the coach, with a stretch where “we didn’t guard anybody for two weeks.” It also included two games against a then-top 25 Xavier team before it lost its star, Zach Freemantle, and a feud Hurley launched against Big East referees that he said distracted him from coaching his team.

“We left that behind,” Hurley said. “In November, December, February, March, we’ve been as good as anybody.”

UConn (29-8) ended the regular season listed eighth in the NCAA NET Rankings, a key guide for the selection committee that rates teams based on the strength of their schedules and other factors. That would have put UConn at a 2 seed. Meanwhile, Miami (29-7) was 35th in those rankings, which would have corresponded with a No. 7 seed, not the No. 5 the Hurricanes received.

The combined seedings of the four Final Four teams is 23 – the second highest since seeding began in 1979.

“How your season starts is not really reflective of how you might be in February and March,” Miami coach Jim Larrañaga said. “And it’s an impossible task for the committee to seed 1 through 68 and for everything to fall into place.”

But things have slotted in nicely for the ’Canes.

Their run to the Final Four has been sparked by one player, Isaiah Wong, whose agent put out word that Wong was considering the transfer portal if he couldn’t get a better NIL deal, and a few others, Nijel Pack and Norchad Omier, who came from elsewhere to help Larrañaga fill in a few pieces from a team that made the Elite Eight last year. Many viewed an NIL deal worth a reported $800,000 as an obvious reason Pack left Kansas State and chose the Hurricanes.

Larrañaga thinks it was more than that.

“I hope, and I really do assume, and I’m pretty sure I know, that Nijel saw the opportunity he had with Charlie graduating,” Larrañaga said of the departure of 12-points-per-game guard Charlie Moore.

All that sort of shuffling across the country has been cited as a major reason the tournament has felt so jumbled this season, and left us with a Final Four nobody saw coming.

Well, maybe not no one.

In a sign the Huskies aren’t fooling anyone anymore, UConn is a prohibitive 10-13 favorite to win it all, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Some might argue UConn has been as good as anyone over the past quarter century. With players such as Rip Hamilton, Kemba Walker and Emeka Okafor leading the way, the Huskies won titles in 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014.

But shortly after 2014, the program disintegrated in the wake of recruiting violations and the ugly departure of Coach Kevin Ollie. Hurley got the job in 2018 and saw UConn was ranked 170th on the KenPom analytics rankings.

“And you start looking at who was 165 and who was 172, and UConn shouldn’t be in this neighborhood,” Hurley said.

The Final Four feels like more familiar territory for this program.

ILLNESS

UConn’s second-leading scorer, Jordan Hawkins, came down with a non-COVID illness and missed Friday’s practice. Hurley said he was optimistic that the sophomore, who averages 16 points per game, had been isolated from the team in quick enough fashion to not get anyone else sick.

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“Hopefully it just doesn’t continue to spread, and hopefully Jordan’s good to go, or at least give us something,” Hurley said.

DANCING

Some people would call it a win-lose. Larrañaga is getting buzz for his post-victory locker room dancing celebrations that look like a cross between the gopher in “Caddyshack” and Elaine from “Seinfeld.”

There’s a reason, Larrañaga said, that they call this “The Big Dance,” and he’s not going to slow down now.

“If I can entertain my players, bring a smile to their face or have them laugh, that’s great because I got thick skin,” he said. “I don’t worry about stuff like that.”

​ Orange County Register 

Grateful Ilie Sanchez, LAFC look to extend momentum in Colorado

• March 31, 2023

To his teammates, Ilie Sanchez is known as the Maestro. Or Professor. The Brain. The Nucleus.

The straw that stirs Los Angeles Football Club’s drink since joining the team last year as a free agent added another title on Wednesday.

“I like to call him a gringo now,” said Kellyn Acosta, who greeted Sanchez with chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” when his fellow midfielder, hailing from the Catalonia region of Spain, returned to the LAFC Performance Training facility following a successful naturalization interview. “He’s American and it’s definitely super special.”

Moving to the U.S. in 2017, following a flight from Barcelona to Tucson, Ariz., Sanchez was warmly greeted by representatives of Sporting Kansas City and shortly thereafter received a green card.

Five years later, surrounded by new friends in L.A., Sanchez, 32, waved a small American flag in celebration of his citizenship with thoughts of settling down in the States after his playing days were done.

“Growing up, my mentality was always to be where people want me to be and so far I’ve had amazing opportunities here in the U.S. to have a job that I really enjoy and really fight for,” Sanchez said. “Once I retire, or if I keep building my soccer career here, that would be an awesome situation if I could stay here for so many years.

“Nothing changed for me from yesterday when I wasn’t a citizen to today that I finally became one of you guys, but still I hope that in the next years to come I can keep building relationships and moments and memories here in the U.S.”

Currently, that means doing what he can to propel LAFC forward.

Next for Sanchez and the group is the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, where LAFC has not won since 2018.

“We didn’t look good there last year so we still have something we’d like to prove,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “It’s a team who is ready to win their first game of the season and we’ll have to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

After missing the playoffs following a Western Conference title in 2021, the Rapids (0-3-2, 2 points) have struggled to earn points and sit at the bottom of the league standings.

LAFC (3-0-1, 10 points) also picked up where it left off and is one of four unbeaten MLS teams heading into the Saturday evening encounter near Denver, which opens another congested segment of the early-season schedule that could amount to eight games in April if LAFC advances to the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals.

As the first leg of the quarterfinal round against Vancouver looms in Canada next week, there is no utility in looking past the Rapids. That means counting on Sanchez to do his part in the center of the park, where he has served as a “super efficient, hard-working, very clever and intelligent” contributor over 37 regular-season games and LAFC’s 2022 MLS Cup run, Cherundolo said.

“Ilie means a lot to us, as a person first,” the coach added. “Great. Just an unbelievable human being. Very kind. Great communicator. Somebody who takes other people’s feelings into consideration before his own. Really just an all-out leader for us. A fantastic guy to have in our locker room and our club. We’re extremely blessed to have him.”

LAFC AT COLORADO

When: Saturday, 6:39 p.m. PT

Where: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.

TV/Radio: Apple TV+ – MLS Season Pass/710 AM, ESPN LA App, 980 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Application deadline for Section 8 housing voucher waitlist in Anaheim extended

• March 31, 2023

Anaheim officials have extended the deadline for getting in applications for the city’s waitlist for vouchers that help with paying rent.

The city now has funding for 300 more of the vouchers, commonly referred to as Section 8 vouchers, from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department. They are administered by the Anaheim Housing Authority, which is looking to build back up the waitlist it turns to when vouchers come available.

The housing authority recently updated its waitlist, checking in with previous applicants and found many had either found housing, moved or were no longer interested for other reasons. So it opened the window last month for accepting 10,000 new applications, which were originally due April 6, but that deadline has been extended to April 14.

The city will give priority to applications received from people who live or work in town as well as veterans, said city spokeswoman Erin Ryan. Once a lottery has been held to order them on the waitlist, another lottery will be held to fill in the remaining slots up to 10,000.

“We are just shy of the 10,000 waitlist slots we looking to fill,” Ryan said, adding that applicants will be notified May 11 if they’ve been added to the list and their position.

That notification will be by email, she said, and emphasized those filling out applications need to use an email they will have access to at that future time.

Already, about 6,300 households are using vouchers from Anaheim to help pay a portion of their rent. The voucher holder is required to spend about 30% of their income on rent, and the voucher pays the rest.

Eligibility is based on an individual’s or household’s income level — for example, a family of four with a household income up to $67,750 is eligible for housing assistance.

Anaheim is one of four housing agencies in the county that administers the vouchers.

The city is providing computer access and language and other assistance with applications on weekdays during business hours at the Anaheim Housing Authority, 201 S. Anaheim Blvd.

There are resources for people who don’t speak English as their first language through the Access California Services office at 300 W. Karl Karcher Way as well as help for those with disabilities at the Dayle McIntosh Center, 501 N. Brookhurst St.

Get information and the application at anaheim.net/applysection8.

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​ Orange County Register 

WWE just made the dreams of 20 Make-A-Wish kids come true

• March 31, 2023

Cody Rhodes, Finn Balor, Carmella, Liv Morgan and announcer Alicia Taylor of the WWE teamed up to pay a visit and interact with 20 families through the Make-A-Wish program at Universal Studios on Friday.

“That’s the best part of this job,” Rhodes said. “Any time you can take this modicum of fame that you get from sports entertainment and pro wrestling and you can help someone with it, that’s an absolutely beautiful thing.”

The families took photos and received autographs from the wrestlers before taking a private studio tour and having access to the theme park.

The wrestlers also invited the families to attend WrestleMania 39 this weekend.

“I can look at other things and say it’s really special, but I bet I leave this week thinking that’s the most important thing I did, when you really put it all in perspective,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes will compete in the main event against Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match on April 2 at SoFi Stadium.

Balor and Morgan are also scheduled to compete during the company’s biggest annual event.

Related links

WWE’s WrestleMania 39 takes center stage in Inglewood this weekend
Cody Rhodes views WrestleMania 39 as ‘biggest chapter’ of his career

​ Orange County Register 

Orange’s Hannah MacDonald, 22, remembered and cherished for her heart

• March 31, 2023

Hannah Rae Luna MacDonald was going places. Anybody who watched her grow up in her hometown of Orange, or met her however briefly, could see that.

The 22-year-old already had gone so far, living her dream in New York City.

Hannah Rae Luna MacDonald graduated in May 2022 from The Hotel School at Cornell University. (Courtesy of the MacDonald family)

She graduated May 2022 from The Hotel School at Cornell University – a proud “Hotelie” of the nation’s top hospitality school – and a month later started as a project coordinator for foodservice design firm Jacobs Doland Beer.

As busy as work and fun (somehow seeing 40 plays in the span of eight months) kept her, MacDonald still visited home, including just in March for a best friend’s bachelorette party.

That trip was the last time family members would see her alive, blowing a kiss to her parents as she passed through airport security. It was the last chance for neighbors on East Palmyra to say hello as she walked her beloved dog, Luna.

Two days after her flight back to New York, MacDonald died in her sleep on March 23 at her Eastside apartment. Her roommate, worried she hadn’t woken for work that morning, found her lifeless in her bed.

The shock has reverberated from her newly adopted town to her university town to her hometown. Her death, in their words, has “broken” her parents, Nancy Luna MacDonald and Brady MacDonald, both accomplished journalists based in Orange County.

An autopsy indicated MacDonald had an enlarged heart. There had been no prior hint of illness, nor clue of a genetic disorder. Her parents won’t get any clarity until the medical examiner’s tests are completed in two months. Or, maybe, never.

What they do know they shared on Facebook: “… preliminary results show she had a dilated heart. The poetic version of that is something we already knew – she’s got a BIG BIG heart. Perhaps too big for her body to sustain all the electrifying love she had to give …”

That heart.

It’s a constant in remembrances: “Heart of gold.” “Pure-hearted.” “Warm and open heart.”

She grew up both adventurous and grounded.

From 4 years old into her teens, the girl with the long curly hair braided in two signature pigtails sold lemonade from a curbside stand to raise money for pediatric cancer research.

She was the first-born child on a tight-knit block whose celebrations included an annual Independence Day sidewalk parade led by a roller-skating MacDonald.

She played youth soccer. Sold Girl Scout cookies. Practiced piano. Learned to tap dance. Did her homework and made the honor roll.

Maternal grandparents Rachel and Fred Luna lived nearby. Her “Tata” Fred took care of her all day from 5 months old to preschool, and then after school. He affectionately called her “Changa” (Spanish for monkey) for her boundless energy and curiosity.

“She gave me more of a workout than the 35 years that I worked,” said her heartbroken grandfather, a retired municipal maintenance supervisor.

Hannah Rae Luna MacDonald, at right, loved the Disney character Peter Pan. (Courtesy of MacDonald family)

A big fan of Disney movies, she’d stretch out on the coffee table with garden flowers scattered around her, pretending to be Snow White. “Tata,” she’d say, “come and kiss me so I can wake up.”

She never lost childlike joy for theme parks, a beat her dad covers for The Orange County Register and Southern California News Group. Disneyland truly became her happiest place on Earth, Peter Pan her favorite story.

“She was this old soul who lived to always be youthful and childlike,” Brady MacDonald said in a tearful interview.

The young woman who took a post-college, month-long solo trip through Europe walked every morning as a child hand in hand with her dad to St. John’s Lutheran School. “Nana” Rachel picked her up in the afternoon, their routine until MacDonald started ninth grade at the Culinary Arts & Hospitality program of Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana.

The close bond with her parents never wavered.

Clockwise from top, Brady MacDonald, daughter Hannah and wife Nancy Luna on vacation in the Bay Area. (Courtesy of the MacDonald family)

They loved to travel and took their daughter everywhere with them – from her first road trip to San Diego in an infant seat to places across the country and overseas, and summer sojourns to Prince Edward Island to visit her dad’s family in Canada.

“I remember her singing a song she had written about marshmallows in the back seat of the car while traveling the back roads together in PEI,” her aunt Jackie MacDonald wrote in an email.

At ease among adults, she’d tag along to news assignments with her mom, a former Register reporter who writes about the restaurant industry for Insider: “She’d be talking to chefs about food and restaurants, and they’d be enthralled with her,” Nancy Luna MacDonald said.

She loved to cook. In the kitchen beside her Nana, she learned to make Christmas tamales. She also mastered her paternal grandmother’s raisin pie recipe.

“Nothing was too difficult for her. She always knew she could figure it out,” said Rachel Luna, who treasures the rosary her “Mija” remembered to bring back last year from Vatican City.

Cornell alumni Al Zelinka and Anna Pehoushek, a couple on Palmyra, eagerly wrote a college referral letter for MacDonald – and not just because she taught their son, whom she babysat, to make great barbecue.

“Most of us view her like you would a niece,” said Zelinka, city manager for Huntington Beach. “Can you imagine, if she’d had the chance to live a full life, what all would have happened in her life?”

Her parents will bring her ashes home on one last road trip together, joined by her Uncle Neil MacDonald. They’ve met her friends and co-workers in New York City and will drop by some of the sites she loved best – “to walk in Hannah’s shoes.”

On their cross-country drive, they’ll stop at places they didn’t get to yet as a family.

Her mom described their plans this way: “Let’s just take our baby home. In the fashion we always did with her, the way we always traveled.”

​ Orange County Register