Santa Rosa church leaders to offer drive-up holiday prayers through Christmas

Starting Friday morning and on each Friday morning through Christmas, Pastor Tim Novelli and his wife Janelle will stand on a street corner north of Coddingtown Mall, ready to pray for anybody who pulls to the curb.

The couple, leaders of the nearby Fountain of Life Fellowship, know that amid the anticipation and joy of the holidays there is great sadness, anxiety and hardship.

So the Novellis and members of their church will offer drive-by prayers on State Farm Drive at McBride Lane, a stone’s throw from the Redwood Credit Union’s drive-through ATMs.

“This is a hard time year for so many people,” said Janelle. “I figure that even if we get only one person, that person needs help.”

She and her husband and other church members are committed to being on the corner from 10 a.m. to noon each Friday, including Christmas morning. Those desiring a prayer need not even step from their cars.

Janelle said that if it rains, it rains.

TAXES & TREED CAT: Shelli Piva was grouchily writing a check to cover her property taxes when she heard something like the cry of an unhappy cat.

Piva walked to the backyard her Santa Rosa and discovered her Polly yowling about 35 feet up an oak tree.

“The sun was setting, the temperature was dropping,” Piva said, and Polly was not coming down.

Piva got on the phone to tree services, to no avail. Desperate, she phoned the Santa Rosa Fire Department. Free of other calls at that moment, a three-firefighter crew drove over and within about 20 minutes had Polly un-treed.

Piva felt better as she mailed off her tax payment. She swears she’ll write a check, too, to the firefighters’ Toys for Kids Holiday drive.

NO ONE ON THE HORIZON: Her suitcase in hand, a woman looked about the little terminal at the Sonoma County Airport for someone to print her a boarding pass for next Alaska/Horizon Airlines flight.

She saw that were airline employees out at the plane, but the ticket counter was unattended. She swears it was a full hour before a 6 a.m. flight to LA.

As flight time approached and there still was no one at the counter, she pleaded to security personnel who told her, no, they couldn’t let her through without a boarding pass and, yes, there’s often no Alaska agent at the counter.

The woman seethed as the plane she needed to fly her to business meetings took off without her.

“It does happen, more often than we care to see,” Jon Stout, the airport manager, told me.

There’s no excuse if the Alaska counter was in fact unattended a full hour before the flight. But Stout said would-be passengers can be left behind if they arrive less than 40 minutes before flight time.

It’s often a fact of life at smaller airports, he said, that the airline employees who staff the ticket counter must move to the gate as departure time approaches. Arrive 39 minutes before flight time and you may well not get a boarding pass.

But 60 minutes? If the woman who missed her 6 a.m. flight was indeed at a vacated counter at 5, she rightly feels wronged.

ANDREW MAKES A PITCH: Through most of his 17 years, Andrew Sipich has moved about in a wheelchair and he’s rooted for the Giants.

Not long ago, the winsome Petaluma High senior wrote to the team.

“I eat, sleep and dream baseball,” he said in his letter. “My wheelchair is Giants orange and my seat back has the Giants logo embroidered on it.”

Andrew asked if a player who has struggled and persevered might come speak to his special-needs classmates.

“I am in a class where sadly some kids are feeling defeated and unhappy ... I feel that their hopes and dreams need encouragement.”

A Giants staffer got back to Andrew, telling him it’s not possible now to send a player to his class - but would he like to come to AT&T Park during pre-season training next spring, play on the field and meet the players?

Andrew wishes he could take his class. But he’ll go, he’ll have a ball and he no doubt will continue to inspire.

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