Introducing: The Felix Foundation
The Felix Foundation In February 2022, Felix Gomez was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs Disease. His parents, Kate and Alan, are overcome with emotion from the news but are hoping to make every lasting moment in their son’s life extraordinary. Donate to The Felix Foundation Help support The Felix Foundation by donating or sharing with your friends.... READ MORE In April 2022 we interviewed the Gomez Family to learn more about their story and what their daily lives look like with a child diagnosed with Tay-Sachs. THE GOMEZ FAMILY We heard you guys just got back from a trip. Where did you go and are there other places you would like to take Felix? We just got back from Big Sur and Monterey. Felix loves the Aquarium of the Pacific here in Long Beach, so we brought him to Monterey Bay Aquarium. In the near future, we mainly want to take him to Paris, France. We spent our honeymoon there, and want to have a chance to show him around the city we love. We have a friend who lives there and is a photographer. We thought it would be nice to spend some time with him and have him take photos of our family around the city to capture the memories. Can you tell us about the moments leading up to finding out Felix has Tay-Sachs? We noticed he wasn't hitting milestones that he should have. For example, he wasn't crawling. And we started to get frustrated. Not with Felix, but with the situation. We felt that there might be something wrong because we could look around and see kids younger than him full-on crawling. When we told the doctor, she ignored us. Worse than that, she told us everything was fine. But we’re his parents, and we were noticing that something significant was going on. We ended up having to go to a different doctor, who confirmed that something was in fact wrong. The new doctor told us that Felix should be crawling or at least trying to, but he wasn’t. We finally got him into physical therapy and doctor’s kept testing everything all the time. We spent more time in doctor's offices and in the car driving to appointments than we ever care to do again. But they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. His brain functioning was normal. His nervous system was normal. His muscle function was normal. How did you find out Felix has Tay-Sachs? Fast forward a little, and we noticed that he was kind of losing the ability to do certain things. We didn't know at the time, but he had a bad seizure one day, so we took him to the Emergency Room and they confirmed it was a seizure. Then he was admitted to Miller Children’s. The day before they told us, they brought in an ophthalmologist, and he found a cherry-red spot in his eye, which I guess is one of the telltale signs of the disease. So they narrowed it down and we're able to kind of expedite the genetic testing that we had at the lab already before his hospital stay. That night, before we found out, we researched what the cherry-red spot meant. We saw Tay-Sachs on the list, read about it, and prayed it wasn’t that. When the doctors confirmed it was Tay-Sachs, we were devastated. What is Felix’s current prognosis? Since the diagnosis, we have to keep him on seizure meds, which are good for seizures, but suck because they make him super drowsy. We don’t really get to see his personality anymore. He's just so sleepy all the time. We almost wish we could stop giving him the medication because we miss his big personality. But the risks outweigh the benefits — if we take him off, it’s possible he could have a bad enough seizure that he would go brain dead. What are your goals as a family moving forward after learning about this disease? What do you need right now? We want to create beautiful memories with Felix. We want to give him the best quality of life that we can with the time that he has. Our biggest focus is to keep him as healthy as possible. Felix is going to regress from everything he’s able to do. He's gotten a lot weaker since being on the seizure medications and so as he gets sicker we need more specialty equipment. One of the things we're working on getting him is a medical stroller that doubles as a high chair. It will keep his head where it needs to be and posture supported. We have to get a specialty bath chair from him because he can't sit in the bath anymore and what we were doing to support him isn’t working as well. So these accessibility items would be really helpful. DONATE We want to create beautiful memories with Felix. We want to give him the best quality of life that we can with the time that he has. Our biggest focus is to keep him as healthy as possible.
Long Beach Staple: Mother's Beach
MOTHER’S BEACH: The unofficial but fitting name for Marine Park's Beach By Lindsey Goodrow As the nickname suggests, Mother’s Beach, AKA Marine Park, is the ideal location for mothers to bring their small children and families of all shapes and sizes to gather and enjoy a warm Southern California day. With its calm, wave-free waters and options for both swim and play, this is one of the most popular beach destinations in the city. Long Beach has no shortage of shoreline, so read on to understand why Mother’s Beach could be the perfect summer spot for you and yours as well as learn about its long history. LOCATION BENEFITS The sleepy sands of Mother’s Beach can be found on the northeastern side of Naples Island, precisely at 5839 Appian Way, between the Davies Bridge (the bridge leading from PCH to 2nd Street) and the Appian Way Bridge. It’s down the block from Marine Stadium, where onlookers watch boat races and water sports from the stands, and just a little further passed the parking lot on Nieto where locals hold a small harvest farmer’s market every Wednesday evening. The beach itself is humble and quiet save for the laughter of happy children. It stretches out for 1400 feet and includes a roped-off swimming zone, sandy beach, grassy picnic area, and state-of-the-art playground. Beach-goers are invited to bring volleyball nets, food to barbecue, beach toys, and anything else their hearts might desire during a day spent in the sunshine. Across from one direction of the beach are the beautiful homes that belong to Naples Island and from the other direction, across the water, you can spot the Marina Pacific Shopping Center. This beach is ideally located, as it’s far enough away from the sound PCH traffic but close enough to restaurants and shopping—you can easily walk to them if you wish. HISTORY Mother’s Beach was created in 1955. A beach was created, you say? Yes, and most of the beaches in Long Beach are in fact man-made. According to the Chief of the State Division of Los Angeles beaches and parks in 1948, the state’s shoreline then was “a sorry mess”. Problems facing urban beaches included lack of hygiene, the presence of dilapidated buildings on the sand, over-crowdedness, and obstacles to accessibility. The beaches that existed prior to the 1950s would be wholly unrecognizable and uninhabitable today. Following World War II, an urban renewal project took place over the course of two decades which in turn transformed the Southern California coastline into something that only dreams could be made of. The city officials fulfilled plans to build designated beach areas, promenades, play apparatuses, picnic tables, and community stoves. Restroom facilities were erected and regularly maintained. Proper parking lots were paved and pay meters were installed for hourly visits. “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot!” - Joni Mitchell Illustration by Jamie Tablason COMPARISON TO OTHER BEACHES IN THE AREA It’s early August and the weather is guaranteed to keep rising in temperature. As children are on summer vacation, a good beach is prime real estate. But not all beaches are alike. In Long Beach, you can pick your sandy sanctuary depending entirely on your needs. Here are a few examples of beaches in the area and why you might prefer one over the other: Rosie’s Dog Beach Located on Ocean Ave. in Belmont Shore, between Roycroft and Granada, this beach is for the dog-lover. This small stretch of beach, marked off with dog-silhouette statues, was officially named "Rosie's Dog Beach" on Aug. 3, 2010, to honor the life of Rosie the Bulldog. It remains the only off-leash dog beach in Los Angeles County. Although small, this beach is widely known to be a canine wonderland. This year, the beach celebrated twenty-one years of dogs being allowed to legally play off-leash on the beach in our city. Alamitos Beach Alamitos Beach is the gateway beach; it is expansive and open to a world of possibilities. More specifically, it is the entryway to our city’s namesake — a long stretch of beaches. This sandy paradise connects downtown to Alamitos Bay via a paved bicycle path and a separate pedestrian walking path. For those who participate in or observe the Long Beach Marathon, this path takes up 7.5 miles out of the 26.2 the runners need to complete. Colorado Lagoon Unbeknownst to most, Colorado Lagoon is the cleanest Long Beach water to swim in. This urban wetland is an ongoing restoration project and therefore a passionately protected swimming hole. Located on Colorado and Appian Way, this unsuspecting beach and wildlife-protected zone is just a short distance from Mother’s Beach. If you happen to choose Mother’s Beach as your summer spot, you’re in for a world of family-fun. The water, beach, and playground are all steps apart, allowing parents to easily keep watch of their little ones. The gentle waves, shallow swimming area, and lifeguard supervision will leave anyone feeling safe and content in the sun. Sally as a new mother at Mother’s Beach!
South Bay Landmark: Vincent Thomas Bridge
VINCENT THOMAS BRIDGE By Lindsey Goodrow The Vincent Thomas Bridge opened its lanes to an awe-inspired public back in 1963, making it 59 years old today. The need for a safe and efficient crossing over the main channel of the Los Angeles Harbor was the vision and years-long project of Vincent Thomas, a former California Assemblyman of San Pedro. Today, the glimmering emerald bridge is as notable a landmark in San Pedro as it was when it first opened. SPECS The overall length of the Vincent Bridge is 6,050 feet, which is about 1.15 miles long. The road of the bridge reaches a height of 185 feet while the towers reach 365 feet into the sky, or 35 stories if you can wrap your head around that. If you’re ever taking a boat to Catalina from San Pedro, you’ll be able peer up at this magnificent green bridge, the astounding height of which might actually make you dizzy. Constructed with 92,000 tons of Portland cement, 13,000 tons of lightweight concrete, 14,100 tons of steel and 1,270 tons of suspension cable, it is designed to withstand winds of 90 miles per hour, and easily let’s more that 32,000 vehicles and trucks drive on it each and every day. HISTORY Terminal Island Prior to its construction, the only way to get from San Pedro to Terminal Island was by ferry. In the 1870s, passengers were actually transported by a small rowboat. By 1941, a ferry service was established and ran until the day the Vincent Thomas Bridge AKA “San Pedro’s Golden Gate” opened. Terminal Island is a popular destination but not for people. You wouldn’t know how remarkable and rich it is just by looking at it or driving through it. Many vehicles pass through the island to get from San Pedro to Long Beach, or vice versa. But this man-made island is most importantly used to host shipping container terminals, canneries, shipyards, Coast Guard facilities, and a federal correctional institution. In order to connect the harbor to the freeways, plans for more than just a little ferry boat began to develop. There was briefly some talk and some proposals to build a tube tunnel. However, it was decided by a local assemblyman that a four-lane bridge should be built, even though it would cost a little more money than the city wanted. Illustration by Jamie Tablason VINCENT THOMAS California legislature passed special legislation to name the bridge after Vincent Thomas, Vincent Thomas, a California Assemblyman that had been representing the City of San Pedro and surrounding area since 1940. Before the bridge was drawn up, Thomas had supported over sixteen pieces of legislation that were in favor of the bridge being built. Thomas would end up being the longest serving member of the Assembly — serving 19 terms for a total of 38 years. He ended his last term in 1978. Vincent Thomas was so proud of his plans and dreams of a bridge connecting the city to the harbor that he was very first person to pay the toll (this toll, which hovered between .25 - .50 cents for a number of years has since been terminated, as the bridge is now “paid off”). ANOTHER NOTABLE BRIDGE Vincent Thomas Bridge is the distinctive, emerald green suspension bridge that connects the city of San Pedro to Terminal Island. This bedazzling bridge is not to be confused with the Gerald Desmond Bridge, which connected Long Beach to Terminal Island and was recently replaced by a larger, more modern, cable-stayed bridge called the Long Beach International Gateway. PAINT DRAMA In 1983, the Vincent Thomas Bridge was repainted with a different paint in compliance with new environmental regulations. This new paint color made the landmark bridge dull and ordinary, as it was the color of all other unremarkable bridges around the country. No longer sparkling emerald green, the Vincent Thomas Bridge appeared dull for a number of years. In 2000, however, the bridge returned to it’s original green glow, all thanks to Caltrans chemist. This special new paint costs $25 a gallon. For typical upkeep, bridge painting crews will use about 45,000 gallons of paint over the course of ten years; which means the total cost of paint alone will be exceptional. But that’s a small price to pay to restore a landmark. LIGHTING Before 2005, nightime visibility on the bridge was abysmal. Thanks to more than a decade of campaigning and fundraising, blue solar-powered LED lights were installed, lighting the glorious bridge up to a spectacular sight. These 160 lights operate from dusk until midnight to reduce potential harm and distress to local wildlife. Today, the Vincent Thomas Bridge sparkles green glittery light across the harbor. Whether you’re driving from Long Beach or San Pedro, this bridge remains an incredible sight and feat of architecture to behold.
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