It was another in an endless string of perfect, beautiful July 4ths in San Marino. And that’s not to infer that we take them for granted, but rather to declare that we appreciate them more fully.
For more than 800, the day began in the early hours with The Tribune’s 13th annual J.P. Blecksmith Memorial 5K Walk & Run and ended some 12 hours later with 10,000 assembled in Lacy Park with a little extra elbow room this year due to the midweek holiday, many surmised.
The three who volunteered to sing patriotic songs before the fireworks were sent skyward are as diverse as they are talented. Melody Yeung, a 2001 graduate of San Marino High School who later signed with a record label and spent a decade in Asia as a pop singer, recording artist and songwriter, made a triumphant return to her hometown with a scintillating version of ‘America, the Beautiful.’
Christina Curtis, a member of the San Marino Police Dept., likewise hit all the right notes on ‘God Bless America.’
And before taking the stage, Allison Ye – a junior at San Marino High School – mentioned that she had never performed the song in public, then on the town’s biggest stage knocked out a flawless version of the National Anthem to close the show.
Back to the race, where Anthony Stone, 15, of Pasadena and Loyola High School, was the first male to finish, traversing the 3.2 miles in 16:13.1, the same amount of time it took “race organizers” to sound the starting horn, walk the block back to the finish line and grab a donut.
Elizabeth Ben Ishai, 36, won the female event in a time of 19:20.7.
But most were content to walk the route on a picture post card morning, and possibly reflect on heroes like Blecksmith – a San Marino boy who gave his life during Operation Iraqi Freedom II – and helped make possible this endless string of perfect, beautiful days.
