Young Palisadians

Compiled by LAURA WITSENHAUSEN Associate Editor When they met in 1982 one dreamed of wearing an astronaut’s suit, the other longed to own a cash register. They were kindergartners then at Carlthorp School in Santa Monica. In grammar school there, Palisadian friends PAMELA NEUFELD and DARYLL KIDD achieved at least one shared ambition: marching in red, white and blue leotards and performing a ribbon-twirling routine with their Carlthorp Brownie Troop in the Pacific Palisades Fourth of July parade in 1985. Winning the First Place trophy that afternoon was frosting on the cake. The girls took different paths after sixth grade. Pamela attended Harvard-Westlake School, where she became a reporter and editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Chronicle. Daryll went to St. Matthew’s School in the Palisades and Marymount High School, where she was active in student government and graduated as president of her class in 1995. In 1999, both earned a B.A. degree, Neufeld in Rhode Island at Brown University with a double major in comparative literature and history, and Kidd at UC Berkeley, majoring in political science. For the next two years, more miles separated them as Neufeld worked on a Fulbright Scholarship in Damascus, Syria, translating Arabic poetry into English. Kidd served as Community Affairs Manager in the office of former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan. In 2001, 11 years after parting as sixth graders, the Palisadians became classmates once more at UC Berkeley in the Boalt Hall School of Law. The old friends graduated together for a second time last May. In the fall of 2004 their paths diverge again, though both have settled in Southern California’Neufeld will be a staff attorney for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, and Kidd will be an associate with the law firm of Bingham McCutchen in Los Angeles. o o o Members of Boy Scout Troop 400, under the direction of Palisadian WILFORD EITEMAN-PANG, an Eagle Scout candidate, created a garden box at the Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center in Temescal Gateway Park. The 6 ft. x 5 ft. garden box is made of wood with a plexiglass cover that the preschool children can lift in order to tend to the herbs and plants which will be planted inside. The Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center, which opened in September 2000, encourages children to learn by ‘hands on’ garden nurturing. Scoutmaster Ken Wheeland supervised the project, which took over eight hours to complete. ‘The Scouts attitude, application and love for the Boy Scouts of America make any parent proud,’ said PJECC director Barbara Leibovic.