Smith: Honor for Doolittle Raiders evokes family memories for Santa Rosa woman

Marian Mapes can’t get to D.C. just now. How she wishes she could.

The Santa Rosa woman treasured her connections to two of the Doolittle Raiders who 73 years ago this week made history with their audacious, sea-launched bomber attack on Japan.

The navigator aboard No. 13 of the 16 B-25s was Mapes’ late uncle, Clayton Campbell of Washington state. Mapes also was a longtime friend of Frank Kappeler, who was navigator on the No. 11 bomber and who died in Santa Rosa in 2010 at age 96.

Mapes’ heart will be on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, when Congress awards to all 80 Doolittle Raiders the Congressional Gold Medal. Only two Raiders are still alive; two others passed away just this year.

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Music lives on in classrooms of the Mark West Union School District a year after the death of extraordinary music teacher Sue Hufford in the horrific Highway 12 crash that also took the life of her mother-in-law, Sharon Hufford.

Among the people determined to sustain the music program in Sue’s honor are some who attended Leadership Santa Rosa with her husband, Jay.

From 6 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, LSR alumni will host the second “Let the Music Continue” benefit dinner at Mark West Elementary on Lavell Road. “Pasta King” Art Ibleto will donate most of the meal.

Tickets are at brownpapertickets.com and at the door. There will be live music, of course, by Bittersweet Jam.

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Restorative justice is not a fancy term for coddling people who break rules or laws with some touchy feely alternative to punishment.

It’s a practical and effective approach to making offenders aware of the impacts of their actions, bringing them to accept responsibility for what they’ve done and reducing the likelihood that they do it again.

Wednesday evening, a forum will allow anyone who’s interested to hear from Santa Rosa Schools officials about how restorative justice is working to resolve problems and reduce suspensions and expulsions.

Speakers include Superintendent Socorro Shiels, the school board’s Bill Carle and Gabriel Albavera, who helps direct the restorative work.

The League of Women Voters invites all to the forum, to start at 6:30 p.m. in the Santa Rosa City Council chambers.

It will surely be educational.

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All the way to San Francisco on Wednesday, 13-year-old Hannah Hosier will sit in the back seat and rehearse the National Anthem.

That Hannah will later stand alone on the diamond before the Giants-Rockies game and belt it out to more than 41,000 people is all the more remarkable when we recall that the Santa Rosa Middle School student did the same thing at AT&T Park last year.

Hit it outta the park, Hannah.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.