The La Honda Voice

The Face of Local Music - Tony Buekers

Tony at the La Honda Fair 2012

by craig eddy

This months pick for The Face of Local Music is truly a son of La Honda. Tony Buekers grew up here in La Honda. He started playing guitar at eleven year old.  You can blame the band Aerosmith for that. As he was learning to play he was influenced by bands like Aerosmith, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. As time went on he started appreciating the folk scene too. He loved listening to Bob Dylan and has enjoyed playing more acoustic oriented music.  Seems as you get older this tends to happen, you start out rockin' but eventually your mind opens a bit while your body slows down. Tony credits La Honda icon Reid Dennis in helping him get started on electric guitar and also says Reid cured him of playing only Fenders. These days Tony plays his Martin 1970's D28 and a Epiphone copy of the Gibson 235. Tony has only played with one band. He is still, after eleven years, playing with local favorites Lighthouse. Tony tells of the band's worst gig ever when the opening band left with all the sound gear leaving Lighthouse high and dry. The club owner also billed them as a 80's and 90's cover band. Oops. Lighthouse features lots of original music and a few covers but no Abba and BeeGees. The band plays a mix of rock, reggae, psychedelic, country and blues. Tony's favorite gigs are the local La Honda and Pescadero festivals. He has sat in with many of the local acts but rare as it is around here, officially plays in only one band. The back patio of the local cafe is his favorite venue due to the outdoor acoustics and the beautiful setting. I asked Tony what he likes most about playing and he really likes the crafting of new songs as well as the energy of playing live for an audience. Tony will be appearing with Lighthouse at AppleJacks on March 8th. If you want to learn more look for Lighthouse on Facebook and Myspace. If you search on La Honda Fair on Youtube you can watch Lighthouse playing at the Fair in the new Documentary video by Bill McKay. As the outdoor music scene starts warming up soon you'll see Tony and Lighthouse playing even more at the local venues.

 

La Honda Food Pantry

On Sunday afternoons you'll find the doors open at a rustic shed under the redwoods at the edge of the parking lot of Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church in La Honda. From this unimposing building, between noon and 2 PM, members of St. Vincent de Paul distribute to our local community, food supplied by Second Harvest.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a worldwide group of lay Catholics who serve their local communities on a person-to-person level, helping anyone in need, maintaining confidence and dignity. Second Harvest is the largest local food bank serving Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. Second Harvest works with local organizations that can distribute the food to the people who are in need. The small church community of Our Lady of Refuge originally tried starting their own St. Vincent de Paul conference (as the local groups are called), but found that there weren't enough people to hold the required officers positions. Fortunately the parish church, Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay, has a very active and supportive St. Vincent de Paul conference. Partnering, they hope to get food to La Honda residents.

The La Honda pantry distributes grocery bags of non perishables like rice, beans, cereal, canned goods as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, protein items such as fresh eggs, frozen ground turkey or chicken, and occasionally, exotic items like dragon-fruit-flavored Pepsi Cola.

They also have had sheets and towels donated by local large chain stores. There is no charge for anything. Second Harvest requires a name and address so that they know the food has been given to a real person, but this information is never entered into any database or put on any list.

Deacon John McGhee is always looking for a way to help the community. "If there are people who need help, we want to be there," he says. In an area like La Honda, with no regular public transportation and limited shopping opportunity, it's important to have access to basic foods, but it isn't easy to organize a program with potential volunteers spread out as widely as the people they want to serve.

Our Lady of Refuge is what is known as a mission church--part of the parish of Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay, as mentioned above. So La Honda has looked to its sister organization in Half Moon Bay for help. St. Vincent de Paul volunteers at Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay take delivery of the Second Harvest items and bag them up for La Honda. A La Honda volunteer with a large enough vehicle then picks up the bags (and boxes of additional items) and delivers to the pantry in La Honda. Volunteers also handle the Sunday distribution. This takes some amount of coordination.

Shella Bordi has been instrumental in scheduling the Sunday workers who are there from noon until 2 PM. She has also been scheduling the food pick-up from Half Moon Bay, often doing it herself because a truck-size vehicle is needed. She is grateful to "have access to resources in the Half Moon Bay St. Vincent de Paul" since they have, she adds, "the ability to supply the the food pantry as well as interface with the community for other needs. Because our goal is to reach out to people in any capacity that we can." By partnering with the larger St. Vincent de Paul at Our Lady of the Pillar, the food pantry in La Honda can also expand simply by requesting more bags of food as the need arises.

Spring will bring changes to the look of the pantry: new signs on the outside, new flooring and paint on the inside. The goal is to be there every Sunday so that the people who count on them know that they can get the help they need.

For those who can't get to the pantry or need other assistance, St. Vincent de Paul of San Mateo County has a hotline phone number. Usually a home visit will be required for these other services, but this will be carried out by someone from Half Moon Bay and one of the local La Honda members of St. Vincent de Paul. The number is 650-343-4403.

Other service besides food can include financial help for utilities and rent, referal to shelters for the homeless or abused, job training or service to anyone in need.

La Honda pantry hours are every Sunday, noon to 2 PM.

The South Coast Prevention Partnership invites Community for Mural Hanging

The South Coast Prevention Partnership would like to invite the community to celebrate in the hanging of a community driven mural, carrying a positive message, "We are healthy and united, we dream with strength and courage, and together we succeed." The event is on Tuesday February 12 at 5:00PM, in La Honda at 8865 La Honda Road, just outside of Suite 4 (the Puente office). We will be serving light refreshments immediately following the mural presentation. 

The South Coast Prevention Partnership (SCPP), a community based group of South Coast youth and adults, community non-profits, law enforcement, business, schools, and school board members that meet once a month to address concerns of alcohol and other drugs that challenge community safety and health. To learn more about the partnership, you may also look at www.mypuente.org, and scroll down to the "What we do" link on the left side. There you can read further about the partnership, the community art project, the youth and parent involvement, ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs) facts and look at a gallery of pictures.  
from:
Susan LaGow
Youth Outreach Worker, PUENTE
PO Box 554 / 620 North Street, Pescadero, CA 94060

February 2013 Edition of the La Honda Voice

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