Senior Foundation helps 80-year-old Oakdale crime victim

More often than not, when The Bee reports about a crime victim and particularly an elderly one, readers step up and want to help. But in March, a story headlined “80-year-old Oakdale woman targeted for theft at least twice” surprisingly didn’t generate the usual offers to help. The victim, a visually impaired woman, lost her purses, a Braille slate and an antique rocking chair. There were no signs of forced entry, and police suspect the victim was home when the thefts occurred.

The woman, identified only as Pam, was left alone without help.

Members of the Stanislaus Senior Foundation, assuming people would have stepped up to help, did so themselves when they found out otherwise. They contacted Debbie Hampton of the Oakdale Police Department’s Citizen Volunteer Auxiliary and provided a Braille watch and door chimes that indicate when the doors of her home are opened or closed, delivering the items in mid-April.

LearningQuest gets $15,000 grant from Dollar General

LearningQuest/Stanislaus Literacy Centers received a $15,000 grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. The money will be used to support family literacy for adults learning English. It’s part of the store chain’s $7.1 million in grants going to more than 900 schools, nonprofits and organizations in the 43 states where Dollar General has stores. The local grant will fund an English as a second language class for parents of Robertson Road Elementary School children, beginning in September and aiding roughly 40 families.

Modesto native serving at naval air station in Maryland

Dominic Custer, a Modesto native, is in the U.S. Navy and serving with the Test Wing Atlantic at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. Custer, a petty officer third class, is a logistics specialist responsible for ordering parts and supplies for equipment repair. His unit is responsible for the execution of developmental ground and flight testing for all naval aviation platforms and systems.

Born in Modesto, Custer later moved to Washington state, where he graduated from Issaquah High School in 2009.

Modesto honored by 144th Fighter Wing

The California Air National Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing featured Modesto as part of its Cities of Honor program last weekend at the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater. The event was part of Peacekeepers and Protectors Recognition Day. The wing dedicated an F-15C Eagle fighter jet during the ceremony. Modesto’s city logo joins those of Madera, Fresno, Sanger, Selma, Reedly, Hanford, Clovis and Kingsburg on the nose of the aircraft.

Author! Author!

Laura Hamilton, a professor at UC Merced, is the author of “Parenting to a Degree: How Family Matters for College Women’s Success” published this week by University of Chicago Press and available through the publisher’s website. The book continues the research she conducted for “Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality,” which she co-wrote with Elizabeth A. Armstrong.

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Senior Foundation helps 80-year-old Oakdale crime victim."