Leaders of the Native Sons of the Golden West, representing different areas of the State, join in prayer as part of the Native Sons’ dedication of the Imperial Valley’s Spreckles Sugar plant as a significant historical part of the Valley. The dedication was held Saturday, February 8, on the plant grounds along Highway 86 north of Imperial. The facility is the last operating sugar plant in California.

In the geographic center of the Imperial Valley,
strategically located to meet the needs of growers in both the northern and
southern ends of the Valley, stands California’s last operating sugar plant—a
monument to the past, a symbol for the present and a harbinger of the future.

The Spreckles Sugar plant, perhaps better known to longtime
residetns as Holly Sugar, towers over the Highway 86 corridor between El Centro
and Brawley just as it has since it was first built in 1947 to serve the needs
and more importantly

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Children gather together with those in law enforcement and other first responders outside Target in El Centro during an annual Imperial Valley Shop with a Cop event held in recent years. The event is meant to provide a joyous holiday to children facing challenges in life while building positive relationships with those in law enforcement.
Photo by the Imperial Valley Shop with a Cop committee.

Every Christmas season in the Imperial Valley, on a Saturday
afternoon in December, a caravan of law enforcement vehicles and other first responders,
blare their sirens as they make their way to Target for a very special mission
– to give children facing challenges a joyous holiday experience.

The annual event, well into its 20th year, is
called Imperial Valley Shop with a Cop, and it brings together law enforcement
and other first responders together with children who might otherwise not
experience the joy of receiving a gift during the holiday

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Elbia Escalera, a crossing guard for the city of El Centro for 18 years, stands watch as students from nearby Wilson Junior High School cross a busy city intersection. She is joined by her partner, Yolanda Staton (pictured to the left). Together they help students cross both in the morning and in the afternoon and pride themselves on the fact no student has been hurt crossing the street on their watch.

In the morning hours before the start of the school day, Elbia Escalera stands watch at her post, a corner on one of El Centro’s busiest thoroughfares along Imperial Avenue where motorists make their way north and south along the four-lane roadway.

Escalera is waiting and mindful of everything happening around her, as is her partner Yolanda Staton.

They have to be. It is their duty.

When children appear at the corner of Holt Avenue, her

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