As 2009 draws to a close, it is time to look back at some of the many different events of the last year that happened in Anza and its surrounding areas.

The Anza Valley Outlook has been very fortunate to have Kassandra Reed aboard as a consistent and reliable correspondent for the paper.

In her first "Question of the Week" assignment for 2009, Reed asked several residents, "What are you looking forward to in the coming new year?"

Alice Hopkins said, "I hope that God grants everyone a blessed and happy year."

Firefighter Greg Maytubby said, "On behalf of the Anza Fire Department, we are looking forward to another year of serving the people of Anza."

"I am looking forward to working here at the Anza Fire Department, which is unlike any other fire department in the area, and I am glad to be here," said Firefighter Kalev Kulblin.

Anne Crutchfield said, "I am hoping for good health, for my family, for me, and for everyone."

Carl Long, previous Outlook publisher who continues to write for the paper, wrote a piece called, "Celebration," in which he stated in the same issue of the new year, "I am so thankful for our family, who have supported us financially and emotionally and our extended family. Also thanks to all for the gifts. Dale opened them in bed. We are trying to figure out how to improve her breathing."

Long continues to write weekly for the paper. We appreciate Reed, Long and everyone else who contributed content for the paper in 2009, and invite them and anyone else to submit their stories to the Outlook in 2010 as well.

In May, sixteen members of the Anza Valley Citizens’ Patrol took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States in the spring. The oath is binding for five years.

Also, the 2009 Hamilton girls were back-to-back Big Sky League champs and had several girls go to CIF at Carpinteria.

Throughout the year, the Mowtivated Hillbillys lawnmower racing club held races at the baseball field off of Kirby and Mitchell roads.

The club is sanctioned by the US Lawnmower Racing Association, which is the largest in the nation, and their track is the first one of its kind in Southern California.

"Lawnmower racing is a very fun family sport that is really inexpensive and safe," said Bud Elmore, club organizer.

Aguanga resident Pam Nelson opened her home and property to host the High Country Garden Club in June. She and her family live on an 80-acre parcel. They have wholly invested themselves into living on a small footprint and try to not disturb the soil and natural beauty. Living ‘off the grid,’ they have 24 solar panels, two wind pumps for their wells, horizontal wells and a wind generator for electricity. A small garden feeds them and they use donkeys to trim and mow the land.

The story of Bronco Braveheart continued.

The play "Bronco Braveheart Returns" was held at the community hall on Oct. 8, 9 and 10. The show was sold out.

Members of the High Country Rockers, the Lions Club and other Anza residents gathered for months to rehearse their annual musical.

The 2009 show was a western melodrama that has evolved over the years based on Bronco Braveheart, a character a few of the players dreamed up in 2004.

Former Anza resident Dyle W. Henderson, 93, died peacefully at his home in Sunland on July 9.

Dyle and Ida, his wife of 65 years, lived in Anza from 1978 to 2008.

During World War II, he served as Advertisement

Barley and Hops a combat MP in the US Army in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany. He worked at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank until 1976.

The high point of his career there was his work at "The Skunk Works," where he helped build the SR-71 spy plane.

Dyle was a champion baseball coach and an umpire in Little League and Babe Ruth in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.

He was a master gardener, a gifted dancer and singer, and a beloved husband and father.

I took my first plane flight in a Cessna over the summer.

George Phelps often began his day sitting in his 1965 Cessna 172 at the Lake Riverside Estates airstrip contemplating the clear skies and soft wind.

We flew over Anza and took photos.

He owns and operates Ace Aerial Photography based in Aguanga.

Several Anza community members began lobbying for a petition for a Boys & Girls Club of America facility in their area.

A scant crowd showed up for the first benefit, held at Minor Park, to help raise the money needed to get the project off the ground.

Petitions placed in many supportive businesses generated about 1,200 signatures in favor of such a facility. When it came to donations, however, the event netted just $16, organizers said.

Vernon "Vito" Johnston stood in the Anza RV Resort Club House before five people to tell the cancer survival story that had brought the small group together.

Johnston, a 65-year-old resident of the park, gave a talk one Saturday night as a way to introduce a workshop he would hold the following day.

The breezy, lighthearted presentation focused on a disease that – according to the World Health Organization – kills 7.9 million people a year worldwide.

Yet this talk delved into areas that most cancer presentations don’t, as Johnston claims he used unorthodox methods to battle his disease.

Johnston claims a combination of baking soda and deep-breathing techniques cured his cancer.

Known as a ‘poor man’s cancer treatment,’ the use of everyday household sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) has been shown to positively lower the acidity and alternately raise the alkaline level in one’s body, say Johnston and some other advocates.

Tons of tires in Anza were taken to the trash.

Tire Day, a community recycling program, was held in the dirt lot next to the Community Hall, an event organized by the Anza Valley Chamber of Commerce with additional volunteer help from Code Enforcement and the men from Aguanga’s Victory Outreach Community Ministry.

"We like to clean up Anza and make it a more beautiful place to live," Robyn Garrison said. "We used the money from the other tire days to clean up places like our park and High Country baseball field."

This was an opportunity for residents in the area to dispose of their old tires for free.

The Nov. 14 event was said to be a success with the three semitrailers donated by Code Enforcement filled with about an estimated 1,300 tires.

More than 10 volunteers helped guide vehicles and count and load the tires into the semitrailers.

The Anza Valley Municipal Council (AVMAC) continued to meet almost every month throughout the year. Tulvio Durand stepped down from his post as president of the organization. Garrison has presently stepped into the position. A few new members were added to the AVMAC.

And, Minor Park was threatened to be closed by the park’s caretakers, the Anza Civic Improvement League, due to vandalism.

So, another year has gone by and the town of Anza will be kicking 2009 to the curb and opening its arms wide to 2010.