Dana Point, Cal. – This summer, while luxury yachts cruise in and out of Dana Point Harbor and surfers lay in wait for the perfect wave at Killer Dana, just up the hill at The Fountains at Sea Bluffs, a dedicated group cranks out heart- and head-warming knotted, knitted and crocheted caps for chemo patients and others facing life-threatening illnesses and injuries.

These ladies get together every Tuesday at 2:00pm in the Fireside Room at their community to work on the handmade items they donate to Knots of Love, a non- profit organization based in Southern California.

Since joining this effort approximately three years ago, The Fountains at Sea Bluffs’ knitters have donated more than 200 caps to Knots of Love. Anyone wishing to help out by donating yarn may contact Nicole Reed at The Fountains at Sea Bluffs at 949-234-2005.

Knots of Love Knitters at The Fountains at Sea Bluffs, left to right: Gaya Maeder, Jean McCormick, Jean Eveland and Ruth White.

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Residents of The Fountains at Sea Bluffs Donate 100 Coats to Charity

Dana Point, CA – Residents of The Fountains at Sea Bluffs recently delivered more than 100 gently worn coats to One Warm Coat, a national non-profit organization that works with local agencies to distribute donated coats to children and adults in need.  The coat drive, sponsored in part by Burlington Coat Factory, takes place every fall and is heavily promoted on ABC’s Good Morning America. In 2009, the campaign collected and distributed 220,000 coats.

“Many of our residents think this is a wonderful opportunity to help those less fortunate and we agree,” said Nicole Reed of The Fountains at Sea Bluffs. “We’ll definitely do it again next year.”

In appreciation for their donations, Burlington Coat Factory’s manager greeted Fountains at Sea Bluffs residents personally and presented them each a 10% off coupon.

Photo: Left to right, Fountains at Sea Bluffs residents Eva Monge, Joan Boulter and Ed Boulter receive thanks for the coats they donated to One Warm Coat.

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WWII Tuskegee Airman Mitch Higginbotham recalls his days serving on the nation’s first all-black aerial combat unit

When 90-year-old Fountains at Sea Bluffs resident Mitch Higginbotham shows up for his 9 a.m. Tai Chi class in the clubhouse or late afternoon martinis in the lounge, there isn’t a soul in the retirement community—resident or staff member—who doesn’t recognize him. But Higginbotham isn’t just popular because of his ultra gregarious disposition; he served on the nation’s first all-black aerial combat unit, the Tuskegee Airmen (dubbed so because they were trained at the Tuskegee Institute Airfield in Tuskegee, Ala.) during World War II. Higginbotham, who opted to carry out his official duties on home turf as a civilian instructor rather than overseas, was one of only 450 of these pioneers (labeled Shwarze Vogelmenchen—“black birdmen”—by the Germans and Red Tails by the Americans because of the planes they operated). This illustrious group ultimately played a key role in the formal acceptance of blacks into the Armed Forces.

In fact, the Tuskegee Airmen story is so memorable that in 2011, Lucasfilm will release a George Lucas-directed movie, Red Tails, a work of historical fiction chronicling the lives and experiences of the Tuskegee Airmen, featuring big names in acting like Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard. (And roughly at the same time of the movie release, PBS will also air a documentary on the group, in which Higginbotham will be included.) Higginbotham has met George Lucas several times over the years, when he contacted the Tuskegee Airmen—now a nonprofit organization with 55 chapters nationwide dedicated to honoring the accomplishments African Americans who participated in WWII—for research. The story of Higginbotham’s peers is one that Lucas has been holding on to, meaning to translate onto the big screen for nearly two decades and he is now finally giving the vision life. “He was bogged down with things like Star Wars at the time,” Higginbotham recalls, with a smile at the understatement. “I’m excited. It’s long overdue—it’ll be enlightening to the general public and across the world.” For the remaining airmen, who were hardly excluded from the impacts of racial segregation prevalent throughout the United States at the time, their story had gone untold, for the most part, for much too long. “We were left out of the history books for a long time,” Higginbotham said, though they have gotten some attention in the last 15 years that’s been pointed at making up for the hardships they underwent due to the “Jim Crow” mentality.

In 1995, HBO actually aired a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen and the slogan on the promotional artwork reads, “They fought two wars: One against the Nazis abroad/One against racism at home.”

“We were mainly engaged in a battle of equal rights,” Higginbotham explained from his spacious condo at the Fountains, atop a Dana Point hillside, proud to don his red Tuskegee uniform for the interview. Before World War II, only white men trained as pilots but the military felt pressure from the public and the president at the time, Theodore Roosevelt, to allow African Americans to train as well. But men like Higginbotham and his younger brother Robert—who also served as a Tuskegee Airman—were relegated to that separate training base. (Ironically, Higginbotham and his father registered for the draft at the same time and though he was listed as “negro,” his fairer-skinned father was listed as “white.”)

Higginbotham had begun a college education at Virginia State College for Negros, then worked in the steel mills near his hometown in southwest Pennsylvania in order to study at Tennessee State College. After being accepted into the draft, he completed the exam for Aviation Cadet and passed. “I wanted to fly,” he said.

As the “negros” trained to be single-engine pilots, twin-engine pilots, navigators and bombardiers at Tuskegee, away from the white training camps and were then sent overseas, they found themselves fighting to suppress their internal anger from the racism and bigotry they endured. (Lucas’ movie will delve into those feelings.) Higginbotham was accustomed to the treatment, having grown up in Sewickley, Penn., where he couldn’t so much as go to the same movie theater as whites. Still, the treatment weighed him, along with the other black airmen, down.

“It was not good for our morale at all,” admitted Higginbotham. “It was like being a boxer with one hand tied behind his back. It was self-defeating for the military. It was a challenge to go through the whole process and maintain our dignity,” he continued. “We experienced constant embarrassment and humiliation.”

During the airmen’s physical exams, they were required to enter and exit the doctor’s office through a different door around the back of the building. When traveling from camp to home or abroad, they were denied meals while in transit at airport and train station cafeterias. “We were tired and hungry from traveling,” he recalled, “and we had to eat in a room where only employees ate.”

Their frustration slowly boiled over and about 100 of the 500 men refused to comply with the enforcement of segregation in one way or another, mostly by entering the common areas denied to the black service members, like the Officers’ Club, which was against military policy at the time. They were consequently court marshaled and locked up—the “crime” appearing on their permanent record. Higginbotham’s roommate, Bill Terry, was actually convicted for battery against his supervisor and fined $150 when he bumped his shoulder passing him in order to get through and into the Officer’s Club. The Air Force finally, officially exonerated the Tuskegee airmen with marks against them in 1995—and paid back the price of their fines (“with no interest!” Higginbotham added, laughing.)

“Mitch represents the African American struggle,” said Capistrano Valley Boys & Girls Club Executive, James Littlejohn, who first met Higginbotham about eight years ago when his son, Joshua—then part of the Boys & Girls Club’s “Adopt a Grandparent” after-school program—came home and told him he had “adopted” a “Susqueeky Airman.”

“He didn’t know how to pronounce ‘Tuskegee’ and he kept repeating ‘Susqueeky,’” Littlejohn said, jokingly. “Finally I asked him, ‘Tuskegee?’ He said, ‘Yeah, that’s it!’ and I couldn’t believe that my son had met a Tuskegee Airman. I thought, ‘I gotta meet this guy.’” The significance of the encounter meant a lot more to Littlejohn than to his son who, at 10, wasn’t quite the US history buff and already generations removed from the reality of racial segregation. “At that time, [Joshua] didn’t understand what the Tuskegee men went through just to be recognized.” Excited, Littlejohn set up a meeting with Higginbotham.

“There was a piece of living history right in front of me.” The encounter stemmed into a longtime friendship, from which Littlejohn—and his son—took much inspiration. After all, Higginbotham was among the first generation of his family members to attend college. Unsurprisingly, the Higginbothams have all made impressive names for themselves with professions like orthopedic surgeon, lawyer or judge, despite the steep battles they faced while reaching their goals—Higginbotham and his peers were court marshaled nine years before Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus. “There aren’t many African Americans in South Orange County. And to have become friends with someone with that much history—it means a lot to me,” said Littlejohn. “I can’t even recount all the stories he’s shared; there have been so many. He’s a wealth of knowledge. He and the other Tuskegee Airmen opened so many doors—he’s an unbelievable person.”

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Watermark Retirement Communities Reappointed as Manager for Fountains Portfolio

Watermark Retirement Communities, Inc., formerly Fountains Retirement Communities, has been reappointed as manager for 16 retirement communities previously managed by Sunrise Senior Living, announced David N. Barnes, President/CEO of Watermark Retirement Communities.

“Watermark was the obvious choice for managing the Fountains portfolio because we know the communities so well,” said Barnes.

After selling 18 properties within the Fountains brand to Sunrise in 2005, Fountains Retirement Communities was renamed Watermark Retirement Communities. Over the past four years, with his partner David Freshwater, former Fountains CEO, Barnes has grown Watermark’s management portfolio to 11 communities plus three home health agencies in six states. The addition of the Fountains portfolio brings Watermark’s total managed communities to 27 in 16 states.

“We very much look forward to the coming weeks and months as we personally welcome back so many former residents and associates into the family of Watermark communities. It feels like we’re putting the band back together,” stated Barnes.

Watermark Retirement Communities has owned and operated successful, innovative senior housing communities for more than 20 years. According to Barnes, Watermark is committed to creating extraordinary communities where people thrive and a culture where everyone is encouraged to express their creativity, passion and inner child – to express their true selves. As a result, Barnes says, Watermark communities are full of spirit, character, compassion and adventure.

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