Local girl, Amy Chraft, enlists in US Army

18 year Bret Harte grad and Copper resident Amy Chraft is looking forward to Jun 29, 2014 when she takes her oath to serve our country in the United States Army.

Her decision to join was based on many factors; an education, travel and curiosity, as well as seeing her good friend Joshua Hines who enlisted last year, doing so well and loving the Army life. "I took my ASVAB the day he left, trying to understand why he would leave. I talked with the recruiter and learned more. I knew I wanted to become a doctor (pediatrician) someday and this would offer me the opportunity to eventually become a doctor." Amy has chosen the MOS 68W, health care specialist.

Darrell Lucas - Community Garden Curator

In the fall of 2011 Darrell happened upon the Copperopolis Community Garden and partook of the bounty. His interest piqued he visited again, this time he noticed that the tomatoes were looking a little sad and thought they might be suffering from over-watering. Being currently unemployed and wanting to give back to the community Darrell offered his services and within months turned "4 rows into 14 rows" of luscious seasonal vegetables.

Darrell was born in Berkeley, but spent his youth growing up in Martinez. In 1984 he first visited Copperopolis to help his father build a home in Poker Flats. Upon completion he went back to the Bay Area and attended college majoring in Biology with great interest in Botany. He jokingly said he learned "just enough facts to make me dangerous."

Linda Stefanick - The Incredible Oz Behind Town Square Events

We have all enjoyed the multitude of events that are hosted or sponsored by the Copperopolis Town Square: Chili cook-offs, Dog day afternoons, Christmas wonderlands, Fall celebrations, Calaveras Arts Council music in the park, Classic Car Shows, September Music series, Parks and Rec movies under the stars or phenomenal Halloween experiences, but do we all know who coordinates these amazing events?

The incredible Oz behind the curtain at Town Square is none other than Linda Stefanick.

Linda has been with Castle & Cooke since 1999 filling many different shoes, from real estate sales and marketing to managing the Town Square website and organizing the ever growing list of events. Though her official title is Vice President, Sales and Marketing, she says with a smile, “if the trash needs emptying I will do that too.” Her chosen profession may be real estate sales but she may have missed her calling as a major event coordinator.

Maggie Rollings - literacy/education advocate

Maggie Rollings is well known in our little slice of heaven as the first to raise her hand to volunteer when a child is struggling with reading or any educational development. But there is so much more to Maggie than meets the eye.

Maggie was raised in Cupertino California, the youngest of four. Her favorite memories of childhood were the times she would lay on the living room floor and  have talks with her father. She would pose a question and he would respond with a question. Even at the young age of eight she realized her father was on to something, making her think out of the box, and that he valued her capacity for learning. "He empowered me to use the gifts I was born with."

After high school Maggie spent some time abroad which gave her the opportunity to see how other cultures interacted. It piqued her interest in history and how "we make contracts without ourselves and our governments." She went on to college and studied modern European/US intellectual and social history. Her goal was to succeed in obtaining a degree, her professors hoped for more, they mentored her in hopes of her joining their ranks one day. "But life happens." Said Maggie when the reality of bills to pay hit, it was time for gainful employment. With her history degree in hand, she took a job in administration in a county hospital as a "gate keeper" pairing people with issues to people with solutions.

Marilyn Richardson - no slowing down for this active senior

Marilyn Richardson is known to many throughout town as the funny, happy-go-lucky Copper Run organizer. Well this has it basis in fact, seeing as how she and her late husband Ed began the Copper Run some 27 years ago, yet she is so much more than a run coordinator.

Marilyn moved to Copper 30 years ago in hopes of a  more rural setting than her current town of Stockton. Harking from a small town in Nebraska where the nearest town boasted a population of 26 people, Copperopolis fit the bill perfectly. Organizing the Copper Run was one of the first things Marilyn did when she hit Copper. She and her husband Ed were volunteer firefighters with Copper Fire and she was wanting to help raise much needed funds for the small department. With that thought in mind, knowing the school needed funds also she pulled the two together and helped organize the run to benefit the two. She ran the run for 12 years, pushing herself on the 13th and then handed the reins over to the two organizations.

By 1989 Marilyn was our local postmaster, not to be called a postmistress as the post requires a "master of knowledge" and by by 1998 realized that being a supervisor was not what she wanted. She took a USPS job in Avery and retired in 2005. She took an early retirement because "Ed was 75 and I wanted some family time" as they now had a son together, Daniel.

David and Lorraine Crawford - retirement = full time community volunteers

Lorraine and David Crawford bought their piece of property in Copperopolis with dreams of vineyards, orchards and vegetable gardens. 7 1/2 years later, vineyards complete, wine racked for multiple seasons and vegetables canned, the Crawfords have less and less time for what they thought was their dream as their original dream has morphed into almost a full time job of helping people.

In 2007, the Crawford's were able to retire from their high stress jobs at Lawrence Livermore Lab - David a computer scientist and Lorraine a weapons program secretary, both working daily with DOE, DOD, Homeland Security, NSA and more Government agencies with more acronyms - to settle down in Copperopolis and make beautiful wine together. Within a year Copper became "home" and they had begun to attend Copper Canyon Baptist Church where they met Don Hopper who told them about the efforts of the local food pantry to meet the needs of Copperopolis residents in need. One meeting with the food pantry folks and the Crawford's knew their calling to the foothills had taken a circuitous route through wine making and canning to helping those in need.

Becoming active in the food pantry fulfilled a part in the Crawford's lives that their previously busy lives had yet to allow them to fulfill. Within a year of volunteering with the food pantry David was asked if he would chair the food pantry committee when Richard DeBussman stepped down, his response was, "Yes, if Lorraine is vice-chair." So became the dynamic duo.

Copper People

Each Wednesday the Copper Gazette will highlight a member of our community that has been submitted to the Gazette as inspiring or community oriented.
If you have a suggestion for a person of interest please submit your suggestion along with the reason you find the person interesting to:
coppergazette@gmail.com

Valerie Dean-Shimkus ~ the passion behind the books

Many in town may know of Valerie - our town librarian - but many more may not know that she is the original librarian for Copperopolis. Though she is referred to as a branch attendant (because librarians have a masters degree) we still call her our librarian.

In 1998 Copperopolis was growing in leaps and bounds and some folks in our town made it clear that we too deserved a library. Soon thereafter a library was forthcoming. A small little office type library located in Cosmic Court with Valerie at the helm. Locating the library was not easy except for the fact that there was an aged oak tree in the parking lot that was estimated to be well over 100, pushing 200 years old which helped with directions. Within a few years, the tree long since gone much to the dismay of the community, the library found a new home by Primo's Pizzeria. Valerie moved right along with it.

Kathi Copeland - Life altering trauma begets greater need to give back

On Veterans Day, November 11 2012, Kathy Copeland's life changed drastically and created within her a stronger commitment to "give back."

Kathi and her husband Ralph moved to Copperopolis 2 years ago and immediately became involved in community groups like the Lions and the Friends of the Library, thoroughly enjoying their semi-retirement and their new found home town. After spending 20+ years in human resources and training and development Kathi was excited to be part of community groups that were doing such wonderful things for their own community. Veterans Day was one such occasion.

The day started with her excitement over the upcoming first annual Veterans Day parade and as she was active in the Lake Tulloch Lions Club she would be helping to serve hotdogs to raise money for the Lions who in turn were donating the proceeds to the newly formed Copperoplis VFW Post 12118.

After a day of pride and fun with friends Kathi took a trip 'up the hill' to run some errands. Upon arriving home she placed her bags of purchased items in the dumbwaiter and headed upstairs. She checked her phone to see if there were messages from her husband who was away for the weekend and placed the phone on the counter. She walked the few steps to the dumbwaiter and reached for her bags, at this point the dumbwaiter came crashing down trapping her arm just above the elbow in the contraption. After 20 minutes of frantically trying to get out Kathi knew it was futile. It wasn't long after that Kathi realized she had most likely lost any hope of regaining use of her arm if she was rescued, so concentrated on staying awake. She remembers telling herself, "If I fall asleep or pass out, I might bleed to death" due to the additional stress on her arm. Yelling was useless and the phone remained out of reach.

Stacy Pierson - Chili Cook-Off Sweeper

Recently Stacy Pierson of Copperopolis won multiple titles at the Copperopolis Chili Cook- Off, walking away with People's Choice, Judge's Choice and Best Name - 'Stacy's Slap You Silly Chili.'
Stacy and her friend Eric Tyre spent months planning the recipe for the chili. Up until the night before there was a disagreement on the final ingredient to use in their secret recipe chili. Stacy being a bit upset designated Eric as the Chief onion cutter and left him with a 30 pound bag of onions to peel and chop. She came back a bit later and found Eric happily chopping his onions with a full scuba mask on. From there on out it was all laughter for the two would-be champion chili cookers.