Smith: Sebastopol’s Living Peace Wall induction ceremony gets a boost from Holly Near

It was toasty in Sebastopol at midday Sunday as a large crowd clustered for the adding of five names to the town’s Living Peace Wall.

The heat overcame the gasoline generator that powered the public-address system. Suddenly the mic went dead.

As wall creator Michael Gillotti and helpers tinkered with the generator, Holly Near, the widely acclaimed singer-songwriter and one of the celebration’s honorees, sensed what was needed to fill the void.

She began to sing. She was joined by everyone familiar with the songs, one of them “Singing for our Lives,” which Near wrote following the killings of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978.

No one missed the generator.

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IN HENRY’S NAME: Also Sunday, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital celebrated its naming of a building in gratitude to Henry Trione.

The visionary and benefactor was honored with the dedication of The Henry F. Trione Medical Arts Plaza on Doyle Park Drive. Trione, who died in 2015 at 94, was for seven decades a key supporter of Memorial.

“Three days before he died, called to give me a good idea,” said the hospital’s Andrea Learned.

“At long last, there’s a building named after Henry.”

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DELECTABLE DUO: Just last February, SRJC’s grand Wine Classic honored two stars of Sonoma County’s culinary scene for keeping us supremely well fed and, even more than that, for constantly serving and lifting up the lives of others.

On Saturday, Evelyn Cheatham and Art Ibleto were together again, doing what they do so well.

They donated most of the extraordinary food to a community meal hosted for the benefit of Connie Camara-Rodrigues, whose two children were killed in June by her estranged husband, who following the slayings committed suicide.

Ibleto supplied his famous polenta and his penne with marinara and/or pesto. Cheatham and friend Christina Lindh dressed a table with an irresistible selection of pastries, brownies and other desserts they prepared at the Worth our Weight apprentice cafe Cheatham founded.

The benefit at the Oddfellows Hall near SRJC was hosted by Local 83 of the Painters & Drywall Finishers Union and featured contributions from the Oddfellows, Lombardi’s Catering, Michael’s Sourdough and Ace Promotional Specialties.

Both the Pasta King and the queen of WOW comforted a grieving mother grateful for the kindness she’s receiving.

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THE SRJC WINE CLASSIC, by the way, will be renamed in honor of the homegrown force of nature who co-founded the benefit as chair of the college’s Wine Studies Advisory Board.

He was, of course, St. Francis Winery chief and truly good guy Christopher Silva, who was taken by brain cancer in June.

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GOOD NEIGHBORS: The family that operates Santa Rosa’s Modern Nails is back to work, not even a week after a car smashed through the salon’s plate-glass front.

A sign on the temporary plywood wall directs patrons to the Beauty Connection store five doors away in the Yulupa Avenue retail center.

The beauty shop crew invited the salon staff to come on down and share the space. It’s a beautiful thing.

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