Community news from your Sonoma County town

CLOVERDALE

High school spirit team performs at Kings game

The Cloverdale High School Spirit Team joined 10 other high school spirit programs in partnering with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings to host a Spirit Spectacular Halftime Performance Jan. 6.

Head coach and adviser Sherrie McNulty, and assistant coaches Vianey Lopez and Ruby Stone, led Jessica Aguirre, Laura Garcia, Gena Glisson, Yahahi Gonzalez, Sebastian Ley, Gracie McNulty, Vanessa Rodas, Liz Ruiz, Lizbeth Salas and Alexis Sanchez in the program at the Golden 1 Center.

CLOVERDALE

Happy feet at Jefferson Elementary

Every child at Jefferson Elementary School received a free pair of new shoes the week before Christmas, thanks to a generous opportunity discovered by Pastor Thomas Craig of Parkside Christian Chapel at a pastoral conference last year.

The program, offered by TOMS Shoes, invited applications for free shoes to be given to students of a local school. The primary criteria being communities with less than 10,000 population and the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch.

Volunteers from the school, churches and the Cloverdale Police Department measured each student’s feet to ensure correct shoe sizes. Once the shoes arrived, they were sorted by classroom, tagged with the recipient’s name and distributed with help from police officers John Camara, Beau Gastineau, Rickey Rhodes and Katie Vanoni.

HEALDSBURG

Healdsburg Jazz Festival to celebrate 20 years

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival will celebrate 20 years of festivals from June 1-10, with programs, free community concerts, an “unprecedented number of musicians” and events at local schools.

Artistic director Jessica Felix and the board of directors announced an “unparalleled collection of jazz artists,” in a press release. Artists will include Ravi Coltrane, Dave Holland and Terri Lynne Carrington, Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain, Gerald Clayton and others.

The year-round jazz education program is presented in all area schools, free of charge.

For more information about the program and this year’s line-up, visit http://www.healdsburgjazzfestival.org.

HEALDSBURG

Firefighters holding annual blood drive

The Healdsburg Fire Department will join with other departments across the area to participate in the 12th annual Bucket Brigade Blood Drive from 2-7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24. Event T-shirts will be available to donors, along with a free meal prepared by firefighters.

The event will be held at 601 Healdsburg Ave. Preregister at www.bloodheroes.com. Click on “Donate Blood.” The sponsor code is HFD.

SANTA ROSA

Double dose of good news for young family

Despite losing their Wikiup home in the Tubbs fire and barely escaping with their 2-year old daughter, Jake and Rachel Forbis continue to experience unexpected blessings.

Last month the couple discovered they will be welcoming identical twins in June.

Soon after, they learned they might be candidates for a donated car from the Crozat Family Foundation of G&C Auto Body and were invited to come to Montgomery Village on the pretext of being interviewed.

When they arrived, they were confused to see KZST radio host Brent Farris doing a live toy drive and surprised when they were pulled onstage and made part of the broadcast. They were told their soon-to-be family of five was being given a free Nissan minivan.

“The Crozat Family Foundation’s generosity has been incredible,” said Rachel Forbis. “It has certainly helped us get back on our feet sooner. The van even holds three car seats comfortably.”

-Towns correspondents