Youth take part in a boxing class organized by the El Centro Police Activities League, which for 24 years has been providing programs for youth, not only from El Centro but the entire Imperial Valley.

Antonio Cornejo and his younger brother Esteban grew up in El Centro. As teens, they found their way to the Police Activities League as a way to get involved in sports they may not have had access to without the program. Back in 2003, the two teenage brothers found their focus in PAL martial arts classes. “We were born and raised here and grew up in humble beginnings,” said Antonio, who is now 32 years old. “This was the place where we could come, and it turned out to be the best thing for us.”

The Cornejo brothers point to the importance of the El

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Pictured are (back row, left to right) Alan Phillips, Chief Executive Officer of the Imperial Valley Expo and the California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta, and Bo Shropshire, a member of the fair board, and (front row, left to right) Addyson Rubin, a local 4-H Club Ambassador, and Shanna Abatti, 4-H Club Program Director for Imperial County under the University of California Cooperative Extension. The four are pictured in one of the arenas at the fairgrounds used as part of the fair’s large animal auction. The large and small animal auctions are part of the fair’s history and highlight the hard work of area youth and the great support shown by the community.

Since Addyson Rubin was 9-years-old, this time of year has been special to her. It’s fair time, and for Addyson that has meant raising lambs to show and auction

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Paula McConnell Pangle, who leads the historic McConnell Ranch family trust, is photographed on an old milk wagon used by her great grandfather, Hardy McConnell, who founded the ranch 110 years ago in the Imperial Valley.

The year was 1908.

Hardy McConnell and his son Leslie were drawn by vast open lands and the great potential of the rugged, undeveloped Imperial Valley. Father and son left Temescal Canyon, near Corona, enroute to settle in the Imperial Valley, driving two teams of horses pulling wagons, hauling farm implements, chickens and leading a cow.

It took fourteen days to cross through the mountains and desert and arrive in Imperial. When they arrived, they went to work turning stretches of sand dunes into productive farmland using teams of horses and Fresno Scrapers.

It was Hardy who founded McConnell Ranch in the Imperial Valley. Today, 110 years later,

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