For Katie Stam, who is accustomed to traveling 20,000 miles a month and working seven days a week, participating in two parades on the Fourth of July will be a cakewalk. Miss America 2009 will ride as grand marshal at the Pacific Palisades Americanism Parade at 2 p.m. after starting the day in Huntington Beach. From the moment the former Miss Indiana triumphantly walked across the stage in January’the final night of the Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas’her year-long journey began. ‘When it was down to the final three, Miss Tennessee, Miss California and me, I didn’t know which one of us was going to win,’ Stam says. ‘But I did know I would do a good job if I were to win. I was confident of what I had to offer: a good role model, a good spokesperson, and I could handle the travel and exposure.’ Now 4 1/2 months later, Stam is hanging in there. Crisscrossing the country by commercial coach and car, she is engaged morning through night speaking to audiences to promote community service, signing autographs, and supporting the pageant’s sponsors, including Planet Hollywood and fashion designer Joseph Ribkoff.   During a telephone interview on Monday from Las Vegas, Stam told the Palisadian-Post that she had visited six states in the last week. ‘The great thing about what I do is the variety of people I get to meet,’ she says. ‘We were in Delaware doing an autograph session for Miss Delaware and there were men and women, all ages, every race, aspiration and career. People always have something that they can relate to, whether it’s the pageant’s emphasis on education, or service, or if they are from that particular state or if they have family members who are in some way related.’ Stam, 22, is the first Miss America from Indiana in the contest’s 88-year history, which, she says, accounts for her completely booked schedule. ‘Even when I go home to Seymour, I really don’t go home; I stay in a hotel and work just as I do in other places,’ Stam says. ‘It’s extremely tough to stay in contact with my friends. When I do have some time, I usually spend it with my parents or siblings.’ The youngest of four children, Stam grew up in a farm town in south-central Indiana, halfway between Indianapolis and Louisville, which she quips is the part of the state that is referred to as the ‘lost southern state.’ She attended her local high school and is 13 units shy of graduating from the University of Indianapolis in communication with an emphasis in electronic media. As with many little girls, Stam was drawn by the glamour of the pageant. ‘It’s something I always wanted to do; I looked up to the title and prestige.’ But as she grew older and learned about the duties and the advantages, she set her goal. The program offers a $50,000 scholarship and allows the winner to use her stature to address community service organizations, business and civic leaders and the media about her personal platform issue, which must have relevance to our society. Stam also crystallized her ambition to work in broadcasting in eighth grade, when she found her role model, Katie Couric. In college, she has won a number of broadcasting awards, including first-place honors in the Indiana Association of Broadcasters News Anchor, News Reporter and Corporate Video categories. Her scholarship equals her talent, as she retains her place on the Dean’s List and Academic Honor Roll. Stam contends that winning Miss America has little to do with the competition we viewers see on stage. ‘I think the judges choose based on the person you are, which they assess from the interview. They want a well-rounded person, to see what you’re passionate about and what drives you.’ Each contestant was interviewed by each of the seven judges in a 10-minute, one-on-one session. All questions are on the table, including background and beliefs. Stam was asked her opinion on abortion, stem-cell research and the separation of church and state. ‘The organizers encourage us to stick up for our beliefs, to be confident and not to give an answer that we think the judges want to hear,’ she says, emphasizing that she never once formulated her answers beforehand, but researched them so that she knew what she believed. ‘These topics don’t often come up in conversation on a daily basis. Thinking about a subject, researching it and then having an opinion makes you a stronger person.’ Stam’s main platform is taking on the mantle of National Goodwill Ambassador for Children’s Miracle Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals. In March, she met President Barack Obama when Children’s Miracle brought 50 children, one from each state, to the White House for a tour and a conversation with the president. ‘I had about a 20-minute personal chat with him.’ Stam recalls. ‘I don’t remember what I asked him, but I do remember what a lot of the kids asked. One kid wanted to know when he was coming to visit him and ride horses and play basketball. Mr. Obama celebrated with them, honored them and talked to them.’ While days are long and schedules often change at the last minute, Stam says that she does the best she can to ‘get as much sleep as possible, eat from every single food group when I can, and drink lots of water. On long travel days, I try to catch a nap in the backseat or listen to music. My iPod is loaded with everything from country to classical, to oldies, Barbra Streisand and Disney music. I just kind of zone out and relax. And on the days when your body is exhausted, it’s exhausted. Those are the days you just have to rely on adrenaline.’ She adds, ‘I think that anyone can look at this job and read media interviews, plot the miles of travel, but until you actually live it, and experience it first hand, you don’t know what it feels like.’ Stam is looking forward to greeting parade spectators on July 4, with a little bit more than the ‘queen’s’ wave. ‘It’s so funny, we often joke around about the ‘queen’s’ wave, screwing in a light bulb with a stiff arm. But, during a parade [when the process slows down or stops], I love talking to people, asking them how they’re doing, connecting that way.’

Packed with past Chamber presidents, local merchants and even a couple of Hollywood celebrities, the 60th Annual Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce Installation Dinner was held last Thursday at the Riviera Country Club. Business and pleasure joined together as incoming Chamber president Ramis Sadrieh (founder and owner of Technology for You!) and his enthusiastic 14-member board of directors were installed. Emceed by past president Brad Lusk, this year’s banquet felt like a family affair as cycle-of-life events within the Chamber’s sphere were acknowledged from the podium. In the last year, outgoing Chamber president Toni Balfour gave birth to Scarlett (a first for a sitting president), former Palisades Honorary Mayor Dom DeLuise passed away, and Chamber board member John Petrick was engaged to Sara Tracy. Even during the invocation, delivered by Dr. Mike Martini (Sadrieh’s childhood pediatrician), the retired doctor mentioned that he and his wife Elaine were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. Palisades Flowers owner Manal Karin supplied the centerpieces at every table. But perhaps a pair of criss-crossing klieg lights should have been planted in the middle of the Chamber’s table, given the Hollywood star power seated near Chamber executive director Arnie Wishnick. On one side sat actor Peter Graves and his wife, Joan, while Honorary Mayor Gavin MacLeod (‘The Love Boat,’ ‘Mary Tyler Moore’) and his wife Patti were seated opposite. Poor Gavin didn’t even finish his salad before a diner joked about eating at the Captain’s table. ‘Beat it!’ joked a deadpan Graves as he passed by Palisadian-Post photographer Rich Schmitt on his way up to the stage, where he led the Pledge of Allegiance. Joan Graves may have wanted to apply her ukulele lessons from Amazing Music and play the ‘Mission: Impossible’ theme, but Ernie Hernandez and His Orchestra beat her to the punch. Nicole Howard presented the Best New Business Award to Joyce Brunelle on behalf of the solar installation company she co-founded, Suntricity, Inc., on Sunset. Brunelle used her stage time to decry America’s dependency on foreign oil, while urging everyone to go solar. ‘As we say at our company, ‘May the sun always shine on your roof!” Rotary Club president Kevin Niles presented the Chamber’s annual Beautification Award to the Village Pantry and Oak Room team. Architect Ralph Gentile delivered the thank-you speech on their behalf and explained how the former Mort’s Deli was transformed into twin restaurants on Swarthmore. Palisadian-Post publisher Roberta Donohue presented the Mort Farberow Businessperson of the Year Award to architect Rich Wilken, who has lived his entire life in Pacific Palisades. ‘My family has had businesses in this town since the late ’40s,’ Wilken said. ‘My dad and mom had John’s Pastry Shop and Wilken’s Patio Coffee Shop, my wife Deann’s family had several businesses [including the Lindomar Hotel on PCH], and my brother and I had our surfboard business.’ The Chamber also handed out its first award to green-conscious businesses, as Riveria general manager Paul Mroz accepted on behalf of the Riviera and its owner, Noboru Watanabe.   ’He’s a big supporter of green initiatives here and in Japan,’ Mroz said of Watanabe, ‘and he was pleased to hear about this award.’ Mroz cited the Riviera’s green efforts, from recycling to saving water, and vowed: ‘We’ll do our best to enlarge our green footprint.’ Representatives from the offices of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, State Senator Fran Pavley, Assemblymember Julia Brownley, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presented certificates to Balfour and MacLeod. Villaraigosa’s field deputy, Jennifer Badger, installed the Chamber’s new board of directors. Balfour humorously summed up her year in office: ‘A year ago we were here at the Riviera. The food was great, the views were fabulous, and the wine was flowing…Nine months later, I gave birth. So I caution all of you, go ahead and party tonight, but be warned: there could be consequences!’   In his remarks, MacLeod praised Sadrieh, who was Mr. Palisades in 1993 and has built a successful business repairing and installing computers and entertainment-based products. MacLeod, who, with his wife, have often relied on Sadrieh’s business, noted, ‘He’s gone from Mr. Palisades to Mr. President. Patti and I love him like a son. In fact, we see him more than our own son!’ MacLeod continued teasing Sadrieh, discussing their mutual lack of hair: ‘At PaliHi, he was voted Most Likely to Recede! We don’t really need barbers! We can just wipe our heads with a little wet tissue.’ In an acceptance speech blending one-liners with moving tributes, Sadrieh thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press (‘Just wanted to see if you’re listening!’), before praising his parents, Dr. Khosrow and Fatemeh Sadrieh, DDS, and the community that shaped him. ‘I have never been given a more opportunistic moment to genuinely thank my mother and father for all that they have done, all the sacrifices they have made in order to make me who I am today,’ Sadrieh said. ‘I am so grateful for the struggles and challenges my parents faced in their lives. First with leaving Iran with professional degrees and established professions, not speaking a word of English, migrating to America with my sister for new opportunities to basically start their lives all over’learning a new language and obtaining professional degrees from accredited American universities’and then for having me. ‘I admire their tenacity in buying a home in the Palisades and for raising two children, trying to provide them with the very best they could. My parents taught me the true gift of giving, and the very sense of community, which I have taken as far as I possibly could.’ Sadrieh singled out his wife Sara ‘for putting up with the late nights and all of the functions I dragged you to against your will!’ He dubbed their 15-month-old girl, Layla, ‘nothing short of a miracle. We all know how time goes by so quickly, and for this reason, I can see her as the next Miss Palisades!’

Police and paramedics responded to three different incidents’a police pursuit, a suicide and a 911 call’between 3 and 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9, leading one Palisadian to remark, ‘I’ve never seen so many police cars in the Palisades.’ o o o The police pursuit started at Bowdoin Street and Temescal Canyon Road, when school police observed a Cadillac Escalade being driven erratically and tried to pull the car over. The 15-year-old male driver turned left onto Sunset and raced down the boulevard at an estimated 70 mph. At Las Lomas, he hit a pole and then sheared off a fire hydrant. Undeterred, the youth turned onto local streets and came back out on Sunset at Almar Avenue, running a stop sign and striking a silver Honda, driven by a 84-year-old female. Her 81-year-male passenger suffered minor injuries and was transported to the UCLA Trauma Center as a precaution. ‘The driver being chased almost broadsided me at Bienveneda and Sunset as he ran through the red light,’ reader Tracey Davis-Kempka e-mailed the Palisadian-Post. The juvenile, who is not from the Palisades, was finally stopped by police at Las Casas Place, where he was arrested and charged with felony evasion of the police. Additional charges may be filed, including driving without a license, speeding and driving on the wrong side of the road. o o o Fire Station 23 responded to a call at Palisades Circle at 3:50 p.m. and found Robert Popa, 41, dead, an apparent suicide. A spokesperson for the L.A. County Coroner’s office confirmed that Popa died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Popa, who was going through a divorce, had been arrested in a domestic violence dispute on June 2. He was reported missing on June 3, and leaves behind a five-year-old son. o o o Five patrol cars responded to a 911 call about screams coming from a residence in the 1000 block of Monument Street. Shortly after the investigation began, Station 69 paramedics were summoned. ‘There are no criminal charges,’ a police officer said. ‘This person is being transported because she can’t take care of herself.’

With the deadline to submit a budget to the state looming, Palisades Charter High School’s board of directors voted 8-2 on June 9 to approve a $21.7-million budget, which calls for dipping into the reserve by about $840,000. ‘I am concerned about going into the [$5.3 million] reserve to this extent,’ Board member Darcy Stamler (a parent representative) said before the vote. Board Chair Rene Rodman agreed: ‘If we have three years of [state cuts], we are out of reserve. We need to make this organization stable over the long term.’ Although the school has a $5.3-million reserve, $1.5 million of that money is designated for lifetime retirement benefits. PaliHi’s Chief Business Officer Greg Wood informed the board that the budget could be resubmitted after the June 30 deadline, but ‘we have to have a starting point,’ he said. Therefore, the board charged PaliHi’s Budget and Finance Committee to reexamine the budget this summer to find another $340,000 in savings. The board does not want to dip into the $5.3-million reserve by any more than $500,000. The committee, which is charged with creating a proposed budget for the board to approve, already trimmed the 2009-10 operating budget by $1.1 million this spring.   Some of those cuts include reducing facilities and technology expenditures by $300,000; cutting consulting contracts and facility costs with Los Angeles Unified School District by $280,000; and trimming textbook spending by $200,000. In addition, three days of professional development will be eliminated or reduced to one day for a savings of about $100,000, Wood said. Teachers currently have the option of participating in the training, which is before school starts in September (the hours are not a part of the contract year). PaliHi will also offer fewer summer school courses for a savings of $63,000. Wood explained that the committee would have proposed a more balanced budget, but when it met on May 26 to develop its final proposal, it did not know how the failure of the May ballot measures would affect funding, or the amount of federal stimulus money it would receive. The school received $800,000 in federal stimulus money for 2008-09, but Wood said funding from the state fell more than the committee anticipated, resulting in a larger deficit. PaliHi could, however, receive more federal stimulus money in 2009-10. ‘If there is any bright news on the horizon, I’d say that’s where we might have it,’ said Wood, who told the board it is fortunate to have such a large reserve, created since the school gained fiscal independence from Los Angeles Unified School District in 2003. The state requires schools to have 3 percent of its funding in reserve, and PaliHi is at 15 percent. As a result, the school does not have to lay off employees this fall (salaries and benefits make up 81 percent of the budget). Rodman agreed, but said PaliHi may have to negotiate with the unions to cut a percentage of employees’ salaries in the future if the economic situation does not improve. The board also decided to develop a strategic plan by October for rebuilding the reserve through fundraising, corporate partners and grants. The goal would be to replace the reserve money used this fall for education. In the approved budget, $25,000 was set aside to hire a fundraising consultant for that purpose. ‘The coming years will be a challenge,’ Wood said.