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Newsletter of the Rancho Los Alamitos Volunteer Service Council

June 2023

Celebrating a Successful 2023 Cottonwood!

On May 25^th, 418 Long Beach leaders – along with scores of RLA volunteers and staff - gathered for the 11^th Annual Cottonwood Awards Luncheon. Former City Manager Jerry Miller received the Cottonwood Award, and Tongva Elder Craig Torres was our Special Recognition recipient. Jessica Miller, Alexandra Trementozzi, and Isabella Alvarez were introduced as this year’s Cottonwood Scholars. As a tribute to Mr. Torres, Lazaro Arvizu and Toveema provided traditional music, and lunch included a nopales salad prepared by Tongva chefs.

RLA volunteers, who worked for weeks to prepare for the event, were on hand to help with all aspects of the day, from guest check-in to giving festively attired stuffed animals to Pony Up donors. We couldn’t do it without you!

May gray and June gloom notwithstanding, the Rancho has been springing forward for many months. Bright yellow school buses are popping up in the parking lot. The first of our two summer-season concerts was a huge success. Among the Cottonwood’s many achievements is the impending arrival of a mule named Chili Bean who will be with us at the Rancho for about six months. (Chili Bean with Doug Cox. Photo by Karen Thompson.)

And we’re getting ready to welcome Chris Fountain, our new Manager of Education & Public Engagement and Erin Wilson, our new Director of Development. Interviews for other key staff positions are already well underway.

The VSC hasn’t been idle, either. The largest provisional volunteer group in the Rancho’s history has been properly celebrated in two huge welcome receptions, and just recently, we’ve launched the first all-VSC field trip in ages—a private midday tour at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA). Nearly three dozen Rancho volunteers signed up. Many more field trips are in the planning stages, some of them pretty ambitious. Stay tuned.

We once again successfully navigated the sometimes turbulent waters called prom season, an annual deluge surrounding multiple May and June weekends. This traditional coming-of-age celebration brought record-setting groups of hundreds of graduating high school students and their parents to the Rancho. Each time, after the last groups had left for their evening dinner reservations, a doughty cadre of the Rancho’s foot-weary prom staffers and volunteers threw themselves into their cars, took a very deep, very long breath, and headed home.

And we’re only halfway through the year. Hang onto your Stetsons.

A Rancho Los Alamitos Homecoming: Bonnie Cannou Schmidt

Bonnie Cannou Schmidt grew up in Los Alamitos. She enjoyed spending time with her family

and friends who were part of a close-knit Belgian community. Until 1957, when Bonnie was in

third grade, her parents, Albert and Irene Cannou, and her grandfather, René Cannou worked

on their farm growing alfalfa, sugar beets, corn, and beans. She and her mother often visited

Mrs. Bixby at Rancho Los Alamitos. Her mother and Mrs. Bixby would sit together at a table and

talk. Mrs. Bixby would invite Bonnie to sit in her lap on a chair in the kitchen. As a child, Bonnie

assumed the farm on which her family worked was one they owned. It was only when she was

older that she discovered they were tenant farmers who split the profits from the crops and her

mother’s chats with Mrs. Bixby were likely business meetings about the farm.

Belgian farmers had experience growing sugar beets; their expertise was valuable and so were

enticed to move to the U.S. René was born in Belgium in 1887 and was likely among those who

came to America for their knowledge of sugar beet farming.

René’s relationship with Fred and Florence Bixby began in 1924 when he moved from his farm

on the Hellman Ranch to a farm at Rancho Los Alamitos. Bonnie remembers her grandfather

well. She also remembers stories the family shared about him including of his return to Belgium

to find a wife. René and his wife, Peleerine, lived on the ranch in worker housing. Bonnie’s

family lived nearby in Los Alamitos. Fortunately, the Cannou family’s history with the Rancho is

documented and includes an oral history with her aunt Anna Cannou Scott.

Today she and her husband, Greg, live in Clear Lake, Iowa, and spend the winter in a second

home in Arizona. For several years, Bonnie wanted to visit Rancho Los Alamitos, but events

including the pandemic intervened. In May, they made a side trip to RLA on their way back to

Iowa so Bonnie could walk the grounds for the first time since she was a child.

On May 8, VSC president Doug Cox had the honor of serving as their tour guide. As Bonnie

walked through the ranch house, she stopped to read the plaque presented to the Bixbys by the

workers on the ranch that stands next to the 50th-anniversary photo of Florence and Fred. She

looked up and said, “I know every person on this list.” It gave a new significance to a familiar

object at the Rancho.

Pamela Lee, RLA Executive Director, found a photo taken in 1951 at the Belgian American Club in Orange County. When Pam held it up, Bonnie immediately pointed to the couple in the middle and said, “Those are my parents!” Pam promised to send a copy of the photo to her home.

Bonnie was interested in visiting the kitchen, where she had sweet memories of Mrs. Bixby.

When the tour reached the kitchen, she said it didn’t look like she remembered. Later, in the

dining room, Doug mentioned that the rooms had been reconfigured and described the location of the kitchen before the renovation. Bonnie immediately said, “That’s where the kitchen was when we visited Mrs. Bixby!” Another recollection was stepping down into one of the gardens. As the tour left the rancho house to visit the various gardens, the group stopped at the tennis court,

where Bonnie sat quietly on the steps taking it all in. Much was as she remembered but other

aspects had changed significantly.

The tour was a wonderful homecoming for Bonnie who hadn’t been inside the ranch house

since her father accepted a position with the city of Garden Grove and left the farm behind. For

Doug and Karen Pruett, one of the graduates from this year’s docent training, it was a reminder

that this place was home to many generations, each with memories that add meaning to our

understanding of Rancho Los Alamitos.

Bixby Tenants at the Belgian American Club, Saturday Night, 1951.

From left to right are Margaret Lerno Cosyns, Albert Cosyns, Irene Cannou, Albert Cannou, Madeleine Lerno Goeman, and George Goeman. 

A note on the back says, “All … were Belgian tenants on the Bixby Ranch except Irene Cannou.” 

In the Spotlight!

Two New Leaders Join RLA Staff

On July 10, Christopher Fountain will join the Rancho as its new Manager of Education and Public Engagement. Although he is moving here from New Orleans, he is not new to Long Beach. He graduated from CSULB with a BA in History, a minor in Sociology, and his teaching credential. For several years he taught at the Intellectual Virtues Academy, a Long Beach charter school, and served as the head of its history department. Then Chris ventured off to Southern University in New Orleans for his Master of Arts in Museum Studies. While in New Orleans, Chris worked at the National WWII Museum and the Historic BK House & Garden. At the BK House, Chris was responsible for developing diverse and inclusive programs for the historic site. He created and implemented educational programming and curriculum for field trips. He was responsible for training volunteers, staff members, and interns. He helped write grants, and he developed partnerships with community groups to enrich the site's programs.

A week later, on July 17, Erin Wilson joins RLA as its Director of Development. Erin brings with her 18 years of experience in all aspects of nonprofit fund development in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Six of those years were here in Long Beach at Precious Lamb Preschool. She is a graduate of the Leadership Long Beach Institute and The Nonprofit Partnership’s Emerging Leaders Program. She currently sits on Leadership Long Beach’s board of directors and on their executive committee. Erin’s undergraduate degree in Social Sciences is from Biola University. She’s finishing up her master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration at CSULB. Erin is a Long Beach native and lives within walking distance of the Rancho.

We give both of them a warm welcome!