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December is the month for many celebrations including Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year's Eve. The AACC will celebrate Christmas by hosting our annual Christmas Gala on Saturday, Dec. 9. Our Gala will include dinner, dancing, and entertainment. This is our elegant affair for the year. In January, the AACC acknowledged and celebrated the birthday and the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through community participation, books, videos, and recognizing him as the most prominent leader of civil rights. In February, the AACC celebrated Black History Month through Black films, showing a combination of classic and newly released films. This was followed by discussions about the films relevance. We also celebrated this Black History Month with a Fish Fry which was supported overwhelmingly by the community. In May, the AACC hosted a fundraiser supported by the Four Seasons community. The event raised funds to support the International Shimmy Mob. The annual "flash mob" event creates awareness of emotional abuse and domestic violence committed on women and men. In June, we celebrated Freedom Day by hosting our annual Juneteenth celebration. This year's celebration was hosted in collaboration with the Solera community. The celebration included a delicious catered, traditional Juneteenth meal, R&B music, games, and socializing. In August, the AACC sponsored a community bus trip to the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. The trip was enjoyed by all. In October, we danced the night away as we hosted Jazz Under the Stars. This was another crowd-pleasing performance celebrated with jazz, R&B, and soul music. This was our way of giving back to the community for their support throughout the year. Special thanks to the HOA & Bistro staff for supporting the event. Lastly! The AACC will introduce the new Board for January 2024. A special thank you to the previous Board members: Wanda Valentine, Shairon Nevills, Greta Shelton, Thelma Towner, Grace Hollis, Betty Ann James, Martha Benoff, and Johnetta Driscoll, for their leadership and commitment over the past two years. The AACC Club meets on the first Monday of the month at 6 pm in The Lodge Game Room. All are invited to attend and learn more about African American culture. Our next meeting is Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. For questions, contact AACC President, Wanda Valentine, at (951) 544-1606. "Hate — it has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet." ~ Maya Angelou ~ Shairon Nevills 46 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | DECEMBER 2023 Last month, our club members competed indoors with a form of corn hole. In this particular game, called "Baseball," the holes were singles, doubles, triples, or home runs. Each competitor had three bean bags, and if none of the bags went into one of the designated holes, you were out! Yes, each miss was a strike until three misses equaled three strikes, and you were out. Barbara Dipoma split the teams up with the men against the women which ended with the men winning in a close game. It was fun throwing the bags and a lot of cheering went on for the teams. Hopefully, we will get to play Corn Hole Baseball again in the near future. Thanks to Barbara and her Steering Committee for choosing this game for our club night. This month's club meeting will be Dec. 14 at 5:30 pm at The Courts. We will be having our catered holiday dinner and gift exchange. Barbara will send out an email to all our members with the information about the holiday dinner. If you have any ideas for a program for our club please contact Barbara Dipoma. The Steering Committee is always looking for suggestions for our club events. New ideas are always welcome. The Italian American Club is open to all residents of Four Seasons. You do not have to be Italian to join our group or come to our meetings. We would love to have you come visit with us. To all our members and everyone at Four Seasons, we wish you a happy and safe holiday season. Non Vedo L Ori Di Vederti Presto (Looking forward to seeing you soon). ~ Barbara Dipoma, (805) 377-2616, and Jerry Monahan, (951) 212-8898 Italian American Club African American Cultural Club FS Veterans Park Veterans and residents who support veterans activities here at Four Seasons need to participate in the monthly meetings of our club. We are now official and registered with the IRS. Our first priority is to replace the memorial painted rocks in the Veterans Park with tiles honoring our veterans with their names and branch of service. In order to do this, we need participation. While the rock piles that were painted for the opening of the park with donated labor from the HOA, the replacement memorial will require time and funding from our veterans. Our concept is for 4"x4" tiles laid flat below the bench area. Each tile will be paid for by the veteran or a veteran's supporter at a cost of $25. We will need at least 40 tiles to begin this memorial. As of Oct. 31, we have nine members enrolled. The area will be expandable so veterans' tiles can be added annually as needed. The HOA painted over 100 rocks which will be removed as the new memorial is developed. Our next meeting will be on Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7 at 10 am in The Lodge. This will be our November and December meeting due to the holidays. ~ Len Tavernetti, ltavernetti@hotmail.com