Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
The Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce will hold its second annual Community Expo on Sunday, May 16 from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. along Antioch Street, Via de la Paz and Swarthmore Avenue (below Sunset). The ambitious day will include booths promoting health, the environment, education, financial issues, camps, home and garden, religion, travel and technology. Another feature will be a display of classic and exotic cars on Via de la Paz that proved popular last year. This attraction is made possible by gold sponsor Stokes Tire Pros, located in Santa Monica and owned by longtime Pacific Palisades resident Jon Stokes. The Expo’s other gold sponsor is Altour Palisades, the travel advisory firm at 15309 Antioch. Wells Fargo Bank, now merged with Wachovia Bank at 15240 Sunset Boulevard, is the silver sponsor. Come May 16, the streets will be alive with music when Patrick Hildebrand takes to the bandstand at the corner of Antioch and Via with his Amazing Music band, comprising students of all ages who have learned to play at his 867 Swarthmore studio. Also roaming the Expo will be one-man-band Michael Cladis. Currently, businesses participating with booths at the street fair include Aldersgate Retreat Center; Barry Shaw & Associates; Brett Bjornson, Esq.; Carpets West; Chabad Palisades; Cognitiatives Brain Training; Ford’s Plumbing; Zara Guivi of Oppenheimer & Company; Innate Chiropractic Center; Kitchen Design Group; Sean Leo of New York Life; One West Bank (formerly First Federal Bank); Pacific Palisades Pediatric Dentistry; Pacific Coast Pilates; Palisades Lutheran Church; Palisades Screen & Glass; Perennial Financial Services; RLB Architecture; Spectrum Athletic Club; St. Matthew’s Parish; Tanya Starcevich of Keller-Williams; Suntricity, Inc.; Technology for You!; The E-center; The Maids Home Services; Time Warner Cable; Tumbleweed Camp; Village School Summer Camp; and Vital Force Chiropractic. Members of the Pacific Palisades Art Association will display works of art on the Village Green. The hard-working Expo committee is co-chaired by Joyce Brunelle (Suntricity, Inc.) and Roberta Donohue (publisher of the Palisadian-Post). Members include Brett Bjornson, Rena Bornstein (Cognitiatives), Chris Erickson (Aldersgate), Zara Guivi, Maisha Perry (Palisades Charter High School), Carol Pfannkuche (Palisades-Malibu YMCA), Shannon Watson (Vital Force Chiropratic), and Greg Wood (PaliHi’s chief business officer). For more information about the Expo, call the Chamber office at (310) 459-7963. Stokes Tire Pros, located at 1117 Santa Monica Blvd., has been fitting tires for Vipers, Lamborghinis, Porsches and BMWs, as well as family cars and vans, for more than 30 years. The shop also provides vehicle maintenance and oil changes. The Stokes family has been in the car-related business since the late 1930s, when Jon’s grandfather, Bill, opened a gas station on Pontius and Idaho in West Los Angeles. Jon’s father, Jack Stokes, eventually opened four stations, the last of which was located at 10th and Wilshire. Beginning at age 9, young Stokes worked in that station, helping to wash windows and check tire pressure. Some 35 years ago, Jack Stokes bought a retail tire store at the present address and asked Jon to come aboard. ‘What was supposed to be short-term turned into my life career,’ Jon Stokes told the Palisadian-Post in January 2009. Staff writer Sue Pascoe contributed to this story.
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