The Willows Newsletter

Priscilla Holzworth will be the Las Concordias speaker at the meeting on Tuesday, March 16, at The Willows. In the twenty years between 1972 and 1992, Priscilla led tourists through the buildings of The Mother Church as a member of The Mother Church’s guide staff.

Priscilla is a life-long Christian Scientist who was raised in Massachusetts. As a guide, she felt she was talking about her hometown. However, it was much more than the Plymouth where she had grown up. As a Mother Church guide, she fielded all sorts of questions about the church architecture, the art, Mary Baker Eddy, Boston’s Back Bay, why, why, and why the buildings were the way they were. Priscilla says that sometimes it took a bit of an act to explain to the layman the things that seem so obvious to the Christian Scientist.

The work started with a prepared script that the guides were to memorize, and it blossomed from there. Often there were visitors of renown from the United States as well as from other countries. As a rule, the guides usually spoke only English, but sometimes even the English came out strangely when explaining a point to a non-English speaking visitor. Priscilla has many wonderful stories to tell!

Deborah Garrett and Randy Woltz will headline the Willows March 25 Board program at 7:00 p.m. in Hodges Hall. The focus will be the music of George Gershwin.

Deborah is well-known to Willowites who attended the Laguna Beach Christian Science church around the turn of the century. She was the soloist there for many years. In more recent times, this Smith College graduate has turned to the great pop songs of the 1930s and 40s.

Her mission now is to help recapture memories through music. She uses songs, fashion, dialogue and dance to engage with the audience and help truly “bring back memories.” She has over 20 years’ professional singing experience and is also co-founder of “The Girls Next Door 1940’s Vocal Trio.”

Randy Woltz on the piano is also a well-known figure to people at The Willows. Most recently he accompanied a Sing-Along in the Garden Room on New Year’s Eve, before going to Pacific Palisades to play out the old year on percussion at a private party.

Randy is a California native and comes from a musical family. His educational background includes Orange Coast College where he studied conducting with Gerhard Samuels, CalArts where he prepared a professional music composition program, and USC where he studied music under a Harry Warren Scholarship. Randall is also an alumnus of Chapman University having studied percussion under Kent Hannibal.

Randy is the regular organist for the Laguna Beach Christian Science Church, and he often plays the 5:00 pm service for the Newport Beach Christian Science Church.

His collaboration with Deborah is of long standing, at least in terms of church solos. Gershwin may not be new, but we can expect a great program.

On Saturday, March 13, Kristy Christian will present the first of three Bible Seminars in Huntington Beach. The Off-Campus Committee has planned a trip to the Seminar, the bus leaving at 7:45 a.m. A lovely buffet breakfast will be served prior to the Seminar, which will begin at 9 a.m. and conclude at noon. Cost is $20 plus a $7 bus donation. Deadline to sign-up is Friday, March 5.

The general topic for all three Seminars is “Church and Its Healing Mission.” The sub-topic for the March 13 Seminar is: “In the Wilderness.” Topics for the following Seminars will be: “Upon this Rock,” and “Messages to the Seven Churches.” These will be given on September 18 and December 4, at the same location.

In January, 2008, Kristy started The Biblos Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to encouraging a deeper interest in and appreciation of biblical studies. She has conducted tours to Israel and other countries relating to Bible history.

Kristy has taught at Principia’s Adult Summer Session for almost two decades. She is co-author of several books on teaching Bible history, as well as a lecture audio series, which can be found on the Biblos Foundation website.

Since January, Erwin Cornelius has been playing the DVDs on “The National Parks” in Hodges Hall for The Willows’ residents. In all, there are 6 episodes of this grand subject. Episode 4 (on March 4, 3:00-5:00 pm) is “Going Home 1920-1933.” It’s about attracting more Americans to the National Parks and includes a couple who spent their honeymoon in a homemade boat on the Colorado River (not the calmest of places for a honeymoon). Then there is the campaign to save the Smoky Mountains from destruction.

And on March 18, Episode 5, “Great Nature 1933-1945” will be shown. Franklin Roosevelt expands the park system to include battlefields and other important sites. Creating national parks on the Olympic Peninsula, Florida’s Everglades and Wyoming’s Teton Mountains are included.

The final episode (on April 1) on “The Morning of Creation (1946-1980)” continues with the creation of seven new parks in Alaska.

What’s next? “Masterworks of American Art” begins in April. This is a series of lectures by Professor William Kloss of the Smithsonian Institution. You’ll have more details on this in the next newsletter. All of these series have been informative and interesting. So, you are invited to come over on the Thursdays that these DVDs are played. Dates and times are shown on your Willows calendar. .