Smith: Former Sonoma County cops host pasta dinner to benefit kids in Africa

It’s too long a story to tell fully how four retired Sonoma County law enforcement commanders committed themselves to sponsoring some of the Earth’s poorest children in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.

The essentials are that former Petaluma Police Chief Pat Parks, Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Brown, Sebastopol Police Lt. Jerry Lites and Santa Rosa Police Lt. Jerry Briggs, and their wives, will host a pasta dinner next week to raise some money for their fledgling humanitarian project, Hope Milele Africa. Milele means “forever” in Swahili.

The nonprofit supports a school in Ngozi, Burundi. In the other three countries, the organization pays to feed, educate and provide basic medical care to a growing number of children, many of them orphans.

For their first public fundraising event, founders of Hope Milele Africa will share stories and details of their Christian mission at the 6:30 p.m. dinner July 21, at Petaluma Valley Baptist Church.

The retired law officers and Pasta King Art Ibleto will provide the meal. Anyone attending is asked to RSVP to hopemileleafrica@gmail.com.

There will be no charge for the pasta supper. Former Chief Parks and the others vow that 100 percent of any donations will go to lifting up young lives in East Africa.

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TIBBETTS, TOO: Should you desire to contact Jack Tibbetts, Santa Rosa’s vice mayor, it’s perfectly reasonable that you’d address an email to jtibbetts@srcity.org.

The problem is, those emails go to Jeff Tibbetts, an employee of the Recreation & Parks department.

Jeff Tibbetts has received so many emails intended for Vice Mayor Tibbetts that he has created an automatic response advising that the email for Jack Tibbetts is hjtibbetts@srcity.org.

Why the ‘H’? Because the 27-year-old City Council member’s given name is Harrison Newton Jesse Tibbetts.

City employee Jeff Tibbetts shared with one inadvertent correspondent that though he’s had to deal with a good many of the vice mayor’s emails, “on the bright side I’ve never been more informed on local issues and I’ve been invited to more social events in the last six months than my whole life.”

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SOME OLD PRUNES will be on hand in Healdsburg Saturday to talk baseball and pose for pictures before two teams of talented college players take the field at Recreation Park.

About a dozen former Healdsburg Prune Packers, maybe more, will be on the diamond at 3 p.m. to throw the first pitch.

The honorees played for the Prune Packers as far back as the 1950s.

Among those invited back to their home park Saturday are Ron and Steve Barbieri, Joe Rochioli, Ed Pisenti, Ron Puiccioni, Duane Herman, Rich Domitilli and Cullen Wilder.

They’ll share a reunion lunch, then take a bow just before the new, collegiate Prune Packers take the field against the Auburn Wildcats.

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SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS and their folks may want to be at Healdsburg’s Foss Creek Community Center from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday for drumming, dancing and just good, summer fun.

North county Rotary Clubs will host the free activity, open to young people from 5 to 22.

Drummer Tacuma King will get the beat going. Samantha Doyle will inspire all to move.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.