Friday March 29 marks the deadline to vote for the 2019 Honorary Mayor of Alpine. The campaign is run by the Alpine Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit voluntary association of business owners and organization leaders founded in 1961.
The Chamber of Commerce has run the annual program since 2003. “Indeed, it was our very members that proposed the idea of the Honorary Mayor program as an annual opportunity to bring attention to worthy local causes,” said Executive Director Alex Ward.
The position of Honorary Mayor holds no authority, but serves as a podium from which the winning candidate can bring awareness and funding to their individual cause.
Candidates are encouraged to campaign for a cause that is close to their hearts and solicit votes in the form of donations. Each dollar donated to candidates is the equivalent of a single vote. This year there are two candidates campaigning to raise funds for their individual causes.
Alpine Education Foundation Director Rob Laatsch is campaigning for AEF and its Wheel of Experts program, while Quest For the Cure organizer Linda Cioffi is raising donations for Alzheimer’s research.
LINDA CIOFFI AND HER QUEST FOR THE CURE
Cioffi joined the Honorary Mayor race to raise funds specifically for her Quest For the Cure event that benefits Alzeimer’s San Diego.
“This organization is the only organization where every dollar raised in San Diego, stays in San Diego to assist those afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease right now and to fund important research at our very own world renowned research facilities,” says Cioffi.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the disease is currently ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States but recent estimates on their website indicate that the disorder may rank third, just behind heart disease and cancer, as a cause of death for older people.
The Cioffi family has owned and operated a memory care facility that treats elderly patients with Alzheimer’s and Dementia for more than 30 years— Cioffi emphasized that she is raising funds for a cause that directly affects Alpine residents.
According to the San Diego County Department of Health and Human Services website, diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease and other Dementias in adults over the age of 55 subregional areas of San Diego include: 339 diagnoses in 2012, a projection of 426 diagnoses in 2020 and 555 diagnoses in 2030.
“I continue to do what I can to raise money because I hang onto the thought that if we can just find a treatment that slows the destruction or delays the onset by just five years, we could cut in half the number of people impacted by this disease,” Cioffi said.
She also spoke to the fight that is waiting after her goal of finding a cure for Alzeimer’s has been met.
“When we find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease it will be time to take what we have learned about the brain and diseases that destroy it and apply it to Pick’s disease, or frontal temporal lobe disease, or Parkinson’s disease or Lewy Body dementia.”
ROBERT LAATSCH AND THE ALPINE EDUCATION FOUNDATION
Alpine Education Foundation director Robert Laatsch wants your vote for AEF and its Wheel of Experts program. AEF is a volunteer, non-profit organization consisting of parents, educators, and community leaders concerned with maintaining, enhancing, and improving the education of our children in our schools.
Laatsch said that participating in a program like the campaign for Honorary Mayor is out of character for him, but that the goal of his campaign is to bring awareness to AEF’s mission.
“AEF is focusing their efforts, which I am supporting with my campaign, on their Wheel of Experts program,” said Laatsch. Wheel of Experts is a multiple pathway program that brings STEAM based learning to the classroom.
“Our Wheel of Experts Program brings music instructors onto the campuses for weekly instruction from Pre-K to 5th grade. Students are guided through age specific and professionally developed curriculum from San Diego Youth Symphony and ST Math for keyboarding instruction. We also support the art docent programs on each campus, and the art and music programs at Joan MacQueen Middle School though Block Grants and directed donations,” said Laatsch.
He said that he believes education is the lifeblood of a community.
“Every community, as I see it, is in itself a living organism. Each organism has qualities and characteristics that differentiate it from others. Alpine has a rich history as being a community that is family oriented and education is at the heart of that village-like feeling we experience. Our community and the schools are intertwined even if a resident doesn’t have children,” he said.
Laatsch recognizes the importance of AEF programming and the personal influence that it might have on local students as they grow into adulthood.
“In 10 years I would love to hear that one of our students was inspired by one of our programs which led them on a path to find their purpose whether it be a passion, a career, or a hobby. If the Alpine Education Foundation helped a single child to find a lifelong love for art, coding, music, engineering, math, biology, gardening, or robotics that they otherwise wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to, well then I would consider AEF a total success.”
The deadline for submitting copies of donations for Rob Laatsch or Linda Cioffi to the Alpine Chamber of Commerce is 5 p.m. on March 29.