I recently completed the 81 episode of Janey Way Memories. So, I think this column provides a good juncture to review what has happened to various members of our gang since we played on the street of Janey Way over 50 years ago.
Let’s begin with Gary Costagmagna who invented the hubcap trick and constructed the Janey Way tree house on the edge of the pit (the vacated sand and gravel site behind the houses on the east side of our street.)
After attending Sacramento City College, Gary joined the Sacramento City Fire Department where he rose to the position of Fire Chief before retiring. He lives with his wife Penny in El Dorado Hills these days and enjoys reading this column.
Gary’s brother Jim moved to Montana in the 1970s, and began a career with the Montana Department of Forestry. Like his brother, Jim worked as a fire fighter. He recently retired and resides with his wife in a home near Missoula Montana.
Harry Viani, who had the famous scuffle with Kenny Stone on the side of St. Mary’s Church, attended the University of Santa Clara, and then entered dental school at Marquette University. He still practices here in Sacramento.
Harry’s cousin, “little” Lou Viani attended U.C. Berkeley after leaving Janey Way. He works as an architect locally, and has done much to beautify the skyline of our wonderful city. Lou and I lunch out occasionally and reminisce about our exploits in the pit and on the basketball court at St. Mary’s school.
My good friend Jim Ducray survived a rebellious youth and a tour of duty in Viet Nam before going on to earn a masters degree in Family Counseling at Sacramento State College. After completing his education, he took up residence near Jackson, California where he continues his practice today.
Tom Hart, who played the role of Spartacus in the battle for Mt. Everest in the pit, went on to study at UCLA. Then among other jobs, he served as the Assistant City Manager of Yuba City. He is semi-retired now with plans to fully retire next year. These days, we play golf together with our fellow Janey Way friend, Dennis Tommasetti.
Finally, the Relles children explored many different career callings. My sister Patricia earned a degree in Art at San Francisco State College, then a degree in English at Sacramento State before marrying and having two children. She teaches now at a Waldorf School in Clinton, Washington. My brother Terry served in the U.S. Army in Viet Nam, then attended the culinary institute. He worked as an executive chef with specialty restaurants, before beginning a 20-year career with Sysco Food Services where he works today as a District Manager. My brother John has worked for 30 years as a floral designer with Relles Florist. I served a two-year hitch in the U.S. Army, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science at Sacramento State College, then began a 30-year career with the State of California. I retired in 2002 as the Chief of the Bureau of Administration at the Teale Data Center. Then, in July of 2009, I began a second career as the writer of this column. I published my first book, a compendium of the Janey Way stories, earlier this year.
Sadly, the Janey Way Gang has lost four of its good friends: Michael Gilson, Josie Tomassetti, Bernadette Tomassetti and Lynn Thomsen, but the survivors of the gang remain friends almost 50 years after leaving Janey Way.
Over all this time, our old neighborhood has remained relatively unchanged. Children still play in the street like we did so many years ago. Our friend Tom Hart and my brother John have actually moved back into the neighborhood and sit out on their porches in the evening, like our parents did in the 1950s and 60s. Now, the things we did so many years ago have become our Janey Way memories.

marty@valcomnews.com

McClatchy High School’s only Olympic athlete is Starr Walton-Hurley who competed in skiing in the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. Starr, who graduated from CKM in 1960, is one of first 50 individuals (between 1938-1962) chosen to be inducted into McClatchy’s Sports Hall of Fame on September 20, at the Elks Club as part of McClatchy’s 75-year Anniversary Dinner.
Starr was born in Yuba City but moved to Sacramento and attended Joaquin Miller and later McClatchy. Her grandparents were involved with the Soda Springs Hotel, the Donner Ski Ranch and managed Sugar Bowl in the 1930’s and 40’s. When her father went off to war in 1945, she moved to the mountains with her grandparents and began skiing at age three. She won her first race at five and was hooked for life. She was both the Junior and Senior National Champion and Skier of the Year in 1963.
High school life was challenging as a skier. “McClatchy was lots of fun,” she laughed, and “Mr. Pepper was always cutting out articles about my races for me.” Living in South Land Park, she remembers walking to school through Land Park with her friends. Other happy times include her first car, a blue military jeep, that she drove to school each day her senior year. Mrs. Johnson (Johnny) was one of her favorite teachers, and all of her teachers were supportive of her efforts to become a world-class skier.
With the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, she broke her foot right before trials, but she carried the Olympic torch at the opening ceremony, which was quite an honor for a local girl. She also helped Stan Atkinson and Stu Nahan get interviews with the American athletes that she knew for local television stations. Later that year, she came back to beat many of the Olympic athletes in races.
“To get to the Olympics, my parents paid for everything including various competitions. I represented Sugar Bowl and they gave us a little money, but you couldn’t take a lot of money because you were considered an amateur. Only amateurs could compete back then. We had no logos, no labels. Things were a bit different then, no endorsements. We had to give back all of our equipment after the games.”  Starr smiled as she called herself a “flatlander,” a person who lived in Sacramento but skied every weekend at Soda Springs or Sugar Bowl.
After graduating from McClatchy, Starr attended Sacramento City College and then transferred to University of Colorado, Boulder where she could ski and try out for the 1964 Olympic team. They picked six women every four years, and in 1964, at Innsbruck, she was the top US finisher in the downhill (14th) dominated by Europeans with a time of 2:01.45. She finished 9th in the world at the end of the ski season and laughed as she called herself “The fastest American woman skier in 1963 and 1964.”
When asked about her favorite Olympic moments, she said there were two of them. “One was walking in behind the children who carry the United States name plate and walking into the stadium in your uniform as part of the United States team with all of the other competitors. It’s pretty awesome! The reality hits you!  It’s like, I‘m an Olympian!”
“My second favorite memory is the closing ceremony. All of the athletes come in together. It’s an unstructured parade, and I remember walking in with the friends that I had made.  It really kind of states the camaraderie that has occurred. You may be competitors but, on the other hand, you are new friends and it is incredible.”
After the Olympics, she lived in Vail, Colorado for a while before moving to Sacramento and San Francisco where she worked for United Airlines. Later, she continued in the ski business with “Starr Trekks” where she led groups of skiers all over the world on ski trips. In 2002, she was again an Olympic Torch Bearer for the Olympic games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in 2010 carried the torch in Squaw Valley for the 50-year Olympic anniversary celebration.”
Today, Starr is known throughout Sacramento as “the ultimate volunteer.” She is President of the Land Park Zoo Association, a trustee on the Crocker Museum Board, and named Volunteer of the Year by the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce. She is an active volunteer with the Northern California Olympians, the Sacramento Sister City Council, and the Leadership Council of UC Davis Medical Center and Drexel University. Widowed, her husband was a famous cardiac surgeon at UC Davis Med Center. In her few minutes of spare time, she can be found playing golf at El Macero.
When meeting and talking with Starr, you can see a person who loves life and truly cares about people. And, you can still see that 15-year-old flying down the Sierra slopes, taking on all comers.
“I have a passion for skiing. I still ski all the time. I am on the slopes and I ski with anybody. I enjoy watching the beginners as their face goes from anxiety to this wonderful realization that they can do it!!! When I go to Sun Valley and ski with the “big boys,” as I call them, and I am cruising at 70 miles an hour down that mountain, I am in Hog Heaven. I am loving every minute of it and I do wear a helmet.”
This is the second in a series of articles about athletes and teams chosen to be part of McClatchy’s Sports Hall of Fame induction to be held on September 20. For more information about the members/teams and how you can attend the 75-Year Celebration, go to restoretheroar.org.

Lynn Hagemann, whose pony rides business at William Land Park was featured in the Aug. 11 edition of this publication, has a love for animals that extends well beyond ponies.

SOUTH SACRAMENTO resident Edward Cervantes, Jr. recently made friends with Daisy the dog at Hagemann Rescue in William Land Park. Daisy is currently available for adoption. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Lance Armstrong

For the past 23 years, she has operated a dog and cat rescue business, known as Hagemann Rescue. And in those years, Hagemann has found homes for about 1,200 dogs and about 800 cats that would have otherwise been euthanized.

In speaking about her efforts to save the lives of animals, Hagemann said, “We go to the pound to see whose time is up and that’s who we choose.”

Hagemann, whose love for animals began during her childhood, said that her road to establishing her dog and cat rescue business mainly began when she was a United Parcel Service driver.

“I’ve always rescued dogs and picked them up off the streets and stuff like that,” Hagemann said. “I worked for UPS and my mom (Fran Pederson) worked in a veterinary hospital and people would have their dogs and they wanted to put them to sleep, because they couldn’t afford the bill. My mom would tell me about certain dogs and I’d ask people on my UPS route and try to find them homes, which I did.”

In an attempt to assist more animals, Hagemann went to the local animal control shelter at 2127 Front St. and inquired about providing volunteer work.

After being turned away, because the shelter did not accept volunteers, Hagemann discovered an advertisement for the Yolo County Animal Services.

“The Yolo County animal control, they advertised that they wanted volunteers, so I went in there and I started taking animals down to (William Land) Park,” Hagemann said. “I talked to the people who run my contract there (at the park) and they said as long as they (obtained approval of) everyone around the area – the zoo, the animal control, the SPCA, everybody – and (the animals) were spayed and neutered, I could have them (at the park).”

Today, most of the animals available to the public for adoption through Hagemann’s rescue business are dogs that she acquires from the Sutter County Animal Control shelter in Yuba City.

Hagemann said that she feels especially good about taking animals out of the Yuba City shelter, because the animals at this Sutter County facility are housed in very tight quarters.

Generally, Hagemann selects mixed breed dogs, since purebred dogs are more likely to be adopted from animal control shelters.

The dogs and cats of Hagemann Rescue are strategically placed within a gated area near the entrance to the Land Park Pony Rides, in order that these animals receive the best exposure to guests of the pony rides and the nearby Funderland.

Hagemann Rescue animals are popular with many park guests and many times people arrive at the pony rides area simply to visit the dogs, and cats, if any are present.

In a show of appreciation, many people who have acquired animals from Hagemann return to visit her at her place of work.

Hagemann recalled that a woman recently visited her with some photographs of her dog.

“A lady came here and she had pictures of her little Chihuahua mixed dog, and they have two acres, and she was telling me how this dog sleeps on her husband’s arm at night on their bed and how spoiled it was and how they loved the dog,” Hagemann said. “And that’s what happens all the time with the dogs that people get here. And I love it when people get dogs here, because we get to turn around and get another one.”

When asked whether she is active with any hobbies, Hagemann was quick to mention that her involvement with animals is her hobby.

“(Working with animals) is in the blood, I guess,” said Hagemann, who in addition to her ponies, horses and mule, owns six “keeper dogs,” three cats and various geese and chickens on her property in Sheridan in Placer County. “I’ve always loved animals from the time I was a little kid. I’m not sure whether my mom and dad loved animals. Maybe that’s where it came from, but I love almost any kind of animal. I’m not real big into reptiles, but anything with fur on it.

“My interest is animals and that’s why I give the pony rides, because I love animals and that gives me an excuse to have (the ponies), and they pay for themselves pretty much. And I never get tired of going to the pound and getting new dogs to take home and teach them how to walk on a leash, and (working) with them.”

Considering that Hagemann said that she does “not make a penny” on placing dogs and cats in new homes, it is evident that she operates her rescue business because of her love for animals.

“We put (the animals) up for adoption for the money that I have into them,” Hagemann said. “So, actually they cost me, because I’m not like most of the rescue groups that charge for going to get the dogs, their time, gas and everything else. I just charge for the price of purchasing the dogs and shots, (de-)worming and that sort of thing. There’s no money in it. This is my hobby. I don’t drink beer, alcohol or anything like that, so I feel that if I don’t get all the money out of the dogs, that’s okay, because it makes me happy.”

On average, the cost of adopting a dog from Hagemann is about $60, and a cat from Hagemann costs an average of about $40.

For additional information regarding, Hagemann Rescue, call (916) 645-1161.

American Red Cross Capital Region Chapter members gather together at the chapter’s headquarters near Cal Expo. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Lance Armstrong

It was on May 21, 1881, thus nearly 130 years ago, that the ARC was founded by Clara Barton.

Furthermore, on a national level, this is currently a very notable time for the organization.

This month is Red Cross Month, a recognition that has been a tradition since President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was serving as the honorary chairman of the organization, first declared March as a special month for the organization in 1943.

Since then, United States presidents have continued to proclaim March as Red Cross Month on an annual basis.

As a fundraising campaign with a goal of collecting $125 million, the original Red Cross Month received an overwhelming response as the goal was reached in less than six weeks.

Further proving that the public did not recognize Red Cross Month as a drive with an expiration date, funds continued to be donated to the organization. By June 1943, the drive had resulted in donations totaling about $146 million.

Because of this initial success, Red Cross Month became a tradition that has assisted the Red Cross in fulfilling its mission, which reads as follows: “The American Red Cross, a humanitarian organization led by volunteers and guided by its Congressional Charter and the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross Movement, will provide relief to victims of disaster and help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies.”

Clara Barton, who was also known as the “Angel of the Battlefield,” founded the American Red Cross in 1881. / Photo courtesy of the American Red Cross

Furthermore, the ARC described its role as an organization that “shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation’s blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families.”

With a long history of responding to the nation’s needs, the ARC, which is strictly a charitable, non-government agency that relies on the volunteer support of the American public to perform its services, has grown with the times.

For all the good that the ARC does to assist others in needs, none of the many services of the organization would have been possible without the work of its founder.

And for this reason, it is important in any overview of the ARC’s history to highlight Clara Barton.

Born Clarissa Harlowe Barton in Oxford, Mass. on Christmas Day in 1821, Barton can be considered a holiday gift for countless people who have benefitted from the services of the ARC since its founding.

But in order to have a better understanding of how long Barton maintained a deep interest in assisting others in need, it is necessary to know that Barton was active in helping such people long before she founded the ARC.

With the beginning of the Civil War, little time passed before Barton was dedicating her time to helping soldiers in her home state.

Initially, Barton cooked for soldiers and also ripped sheets into towels and handkerchiefs for them.

But her efforts did not stop there, as Barton was dedicated to bringing comfort to the sick and the wounded from the battlefield, and fought for permission to bring food, medicine and supplies to soldiers on the frontlines.

An American Red Cross worker speaks to an injured soldier in a field hospital in Vietnam. / Photo courtesy of the American Red Cross

Through these efforts, she received the nickname, the “Angel of the Battlefield.”

Following the war, Barton was commissioned by President Abraham Lincoln to search for missing Union soldiers and she also initiated a movement to have a national cemetery constructed for Union soldiers who died in the Andersonville prison – the Confederate prison of war camp, which was officially known as Camp Sumter – in Andersonville, Ga.

Barton’s goodwill nature and experience in helping those in need led to her founding of the American Association of the Red Cross – the name was later shortened to the American Red Cross – which evolved to become known as the nation’s premier emergency response organization.

In understanding that disasters result in human suffering, Barton, who served as the Red Cross’ first president, recognized a need for a volunteer organization that would be available during emergencies.

Barton, as well as the Red Cross symbol, became synonymous with the fact that comfort would be offered by the organization to those who suffered due to disasters.

The first American Red Cross chapter was organized at the Lutheran Church of Dansville, N.Y.

Among the early service of the Red Cross was its assistance to victims of the Ohio and Mississippi floods of 1884.

Nurses work at an American Red Cross recruiting station to field new members during World War II. / Photo courtesy of the American Red Cross

Five years later, the Sacramento Record-Union printed the following quote regarding Barton: “The sublime life of this plain, simple, unpretentious and self-sacrificing woman is one of the grandest monuments to charity and merciful kindness the world has witnessed.”

In 1898, the Red Cross played a very significant role in the Spanish-American War, as the organization assisted refugees and prisoners of war.

Since its early beginnings, the ARC has expanded to other cities across the nation, and today the organization, which also provides assistance in other countries, has many chapters throughout the nation.

Sacramento’s chapter, which was previously known as the Sacramento Sierra Chapter and is presently known as the Capital Region Chapter, was established in 1898.

The founding of the Sacramento chapter was very timely, considering that only seven years after its organization, the chapter was assisting in the relief efforts of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

This 1956 “On the Job” recruiting poster by John Gould is among the many posters that were designed to recruit American Red Cross volunteers. / Photo courtesy of the American Red Cross

The Red Cross’ local and national response to this disaster prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to describe the Red Cross as “the national organization best fitted to undertake the outpouring of the nation’s aide.”

The ARC also provided assistance during the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic and World Wars I and II.

Leftover ARC funds from the Great War were utilized to create the “Baby Clinic,” which became part of the Sacramento Health Clinic in 1927.

During World War II, the Sacramento chapter was a 24 hours per day operation, and overall, Sacramento contributed $468,037 to the National War Relief Effort.

The Sacramento chapter responded to five American River floods and the Yuba City-Marysville floods during the 1950s, and during the Vietnam War, ARC programs were expanded to assist the military and their families.

In more recent times, the ARC’s Sacramento chapter has continued to provide local and national assistance, including its aide to Hurricane Katrina.

Trista Jensen, communications and marketing director for the Capital Region Chapter, said that as a representative of the American Red Cross, she is pleased that the organization has been able to successfully operate with consistency for the past 130 years.

“I think what’s remarkable about the American Red Cross is that we are still doing the things that we started doing 130 years ago,” Jensen said. “We started serving people in the battlefield, responding to disasters and helping people in their greatest time of need. Whether that’s a house fire across the street, a hurricane across the country or a major disease breakout across the world, we’re still responding in the same manner that we were 130 years ago.”

lance@valcomnews.com