July 10 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Ena Cooper loved to paint, write, garden and play the piano. At family gatherings, she was a magnet.

But Cooper slowly began fading away, leaving an almost silent shell.

July 25 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Volunteer, 75, makes park's garden grow: A bad hip and worn knee have not kept Val Gehrisch from lavishing attention on a corner garden at Mount Acadia Park.

June 27 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
A 'wonderful service' for those who can't see: Amid the bustle before a Saturday matinee, it's easy to overlook the box of 23 headsets sitting on a table in the lobby of the La Jolla Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Theatre.

SANTEE, June 10 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
School staffs' donations add up to college cash: It's Friday at West Hills High School, time for the usually well-dressed staff members on campus to raise money for scholarships for graduating seniors.

June 21 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Experience of a lifetime: Those who know 86-year-old Josephine Cooper say she has a strong will and a soft heart.

SANTEE, June 10 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
School staffs' donations add up to college cash: It's Friday at West Hills High School, time for the usually well-dressed staff members on campus to raise money for scholarships for graduating seniors.

IMPERIAL BEACH, May 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Imperial Beach's queens of the road: Red is the color of authority on Ebony Avenue. The moms who patrol the road outside Central Elementary School at dismissal time wear red windbreakers as they stem the flow of Voyagers, Previas and Rodeos cruising in search of sons and daughters.

CHULA VISTA, April 27 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Caravan of help, hope: When Joseph Acuña arrived in his red suit and white beard to play Santa Claus at Tijuana General Hospital's pediatric ward, he discovered all the children had gone home for the holidays – except those who couldn't get out of bed.

LAKESIDE, April 22 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Still horsing around: With his 10-gallon hat, Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, Ben Bruton fits the image of his unofficial title, "Mr. Rodeo."

LAKESIDE, April 22 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Still horsing around: With his 10-gallon hat, Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, Ben Bruton fits the image of his unofficial title, "Mr. Rodeo." At 72, Bruton is slightly hard of hearing and walks a bit slower than he used to, but he still volunteers with the rodeo he first organized in 1964.

ALPINE, April 12 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Local woman proves fine friend to the feathered: In Nancy Conney's sunroom, a barn owl sits serenely on its perch as a falcon and a parrot preen themselves in their cages nearby. In her kitchen, a freezer is stuffed full of rats, mice and chicks for Conney to feed to the eagles and owls in her back yard.

April 1 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
In touch with the past: In an elementary school auditorium, 8-and 9-year-olds sat cross-legged on the floor, watching and listening intently as Jamul tribal Chairman Lee Acebedo held up a long strand of rope made of horse hair.

March 22 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
For San Diego resident, life's busier after retiring: When E.T. Perry retired from the Navy 27 years ago, he looked forward to an easier life.

Jan. 28 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
A gym-dandy way to help: Kevin Galatis likes to say he lives a farmer's life, starting work at the crack of dawn and returning home after sundown.

January 15 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Battle against racism marches on for organizer of annual King parade: Robert L. Matthews is a learned man. A pious man. And he remembers his history well. He remembers the discrimination, the slights, the second-class treatment he and other blacks endured in the 1950s and '60s and beyond.

January 10 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Neighborhood watch: Back in the early '60s, the new, planned community of Rancho Bernardo didn't anticipate its residents living into their 80s and 90s. The visionaries didn't foresee homeowners growing frail and needing help to remain in their homes.

Helping hands soothe critters: Tiny cat paws reached out between the bars of the cages as Loren Castleman made her rounds at the county's central animal shelter.

Peace signs: Peace on Earth is a familiar sentiment this time of year and certainly evident at Farb Middle School.

Neighbors answer the call: Within days of the fires that burned too long and destroyed too much, most of us went back to life as usual, but not those with the heaviest losses – and not those who just had to help afflicted neighbors. They carry the spirit of the men long ago who rebuilt a neighbor's barn after it burned, and of the women who cooked and baked until every tired soul was fed.

Vision loss doesn't stop Navy veteran: Bill Boyd can no longer make out the details on the medal honoring him as a Pearl Harbor survivor. Mostly blind, he can only see shapes and shadows.

LA MESA
It's no joke: Clowning is healthy stuff for patients: Helen Curley loves to clown around. "I can't sing too well. In fact, I have the worst voice in the world," she said. "But I can act silly."

SAN MARCOS
Man's drive to beat cancer is a help to others: It didn't dawn on Craig Pollard until after he beat his cancer that he still had work to do.

Program gives young patients a place for artistic expression: The young man tacked his watercolor paintings where his mother could see them from her bed. She loved his sailboats best.

An escape from Chernobyl: You can't help but feel for the children. They aren't exactly growing up in paradise, after all. They come from a country called Belarus. It's part of the former Soviet Union, next to Ukraine.

Volunteers keep program going: Pearl Hartz takes no salary and said money is so tight these days she cannot afford to hire staff. All of the 100 or so mediators, board members and office help at her Restorative Justice Mediation Program are volunteers.

Passion for a park: Ron and Carol Matzenauer and their children were regular visitors to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.

NATIONAL CITY
Councilman is not afraid to get his hands dirty in trash cleanup effort: Councilman Ron Morrison began a recent Friday the same way he starts many Fridays, chairing a regional board meeting.

Winning spirit: Janice Martin didn't like sports growing up. She preferred the sidelines. But today you can call her coach.

It's now a family affair: The first Friday of the month unfolds like a children's book about family values at San Diego's Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

TIJUANA
Showing a healthy concern: Berta Santos inched her way toward a medical clinic inside a simple concrete house, her back aching with pain.

Groups at attention for military spouses: Military spouses are turning to aid societies after finding themselves strapped for cash or short-handed since the buildup of troops in the Persian Gulf called away thousands of local Marines and sailors.

Learning to make old friends: Frank Ratts' shopping list ran the gamut from A (as in batteries, double A) to W (waffles, frozen).

Recycled equipment leads players to baseball dreams: What power old baseball gear has. It cured little Jordan Wilson's stomachache and his father's blues.

The great outdoors: The lives of many young people unfold in cramped apartments, on paved streets, in urban parks.

He's sticking to his calling: Stickers advertising everything from skateboards to clothing spread like stubborn weeds across many of San Diego's beach communities. Stickers on stop signs. Stickers on lampposts. Stickers everywhere.

Handiwork behind bars: The bicycles are brought in battered and broken and put in the hands of men who want to prove that nothing is beyond repair.

Got health: Life inside Lucie Nicole's incubator is pink and rosy. She has a soft blanket, a bright name tag and plenty of mother's milk to nourish her tiny body.