Image Up Advertising & Design

8 SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | NOVEMBER 2016 WHO'S IN CHARGE, PART II? By Alan Siegel, Resident She was born in Los Angeles where she attended Catholic school thru the 8th grade. She's always been active in her church, but when she tried out for the choir they said, "Thanks but no thanks". That was the end of her singing career. She did take piano lessons, and ballet lessons, but the singularly unique education she received was from the Santa Rosalia School of Charm. Yes, you heard me right. In her early teens, she actually had to learn to walk around with a book on her head, how to dress appropriately, how to set a table. She attended fashion shows. She wore elbow length evening gloves. She graduated from Cal State Northridge with a major in Sociology and a minor in Psychology. She went on to law school, only to realize that wasn't really her calling. She wanted to help people. She wanted to save the world. So she became a parole officer with the California Youth Authority. In addition to her usual parole officer duties, she wanted to show her wards (we used to call them juvenile delinquents) that there were other ways to live. Many of her wards had never even been out of their neighborhoods. She arranged celebrity/ward basketball games. When she realized that most of her wards had never even been to the beach (this is in L.A.), she arranged programs to take them to the beach, see the ocean and play in the surf. Believe it or not, she even arranged for Muhammad Ali to come down to her center. In 1991 Connie started a nonprofit called Passage to Success to help at risk youth and women in low income communities. As a result several inner city youth had the opportunity to visit space camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Even more impressive, she somehow took eight inner city youth to meet President Bill Clinton. All eight wrote thank you notes to the President, and he wrote them back! It was a life changing experience for many of them. In her spare time, she helped put on weddings at her church. She began to plan more and more events for both her nonprofit and the weddings and eventually decided to go into business with her sister as event planners. Bon' Air Affairs was started in 1987. Notable clients of the time were Will Smith (his first wedding) and Michael Jackson (luncheons and parties at his Bel Air Home). She moved on to become the event planner for the Ontario Convention Center and 8 years ago became the Lifestyle Director at Solera Diamond Valley. She always seems like she's burning the candle at both ends while holding it in the middle and running down the hall. I bet she could do that with a book on her head. Have you guessed without looking at the pictures? She has the same smile after 50 years, Connie King. Join us on Fri., Nov. 18 at 6 pm for Soup and Grain potluck. This event will launch our Holiday Festivities. Bring your favorite soup dish, salad, grains (bread) or dessert. Sign up online or at the Lodge front desk and let us know what dish you will be bringing. RSVP by Nov. 13.

• Cover