Fundraising launched for Fourth of July drone show
A fundraising campaign was launched recently to cover the $60,000 needed to present this year’s Independence Day drone show in La Jolla.
The July 4 event, called the La Jolla Sky Show, is intended as an alternative to fireworks and is planned to feature 500 drones creating patriotic and La Jolla-themed images, synchronized to music, with viewing from the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club and surrounding areas.
“What makes this show so special is how it embraces both technology and creativity,” said Sky Show coordinator Jim McInerney. “Coordinating 500 drones to music is quite a feat, and it reflects just how much this event has grown into something truly world-class.”
But to make it happen, organizers are seeking support at various levels:
• Grand Finale sponsor: $5,000
• Independence Day sponsor: $2,000
• Red, White & Blue sponsor: $1,000
• Sponsor a Drone: $500
• Sponsor the Show: Any amount
All donations are processed through the nonprofit LJ STEAM Foundation and are tax-deductible. Donations can be made through ljsteam.org.
Additionally, a website, lajollaskyshow.com, will be launched in coming weeks where the public can get more details about the show and/or watch a livestream of the event.
“We are excited about the addition of the livestream this year,” said La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club President William Kellogg. “Now, anyone in the world can watch the drones light up the sky above La Jolla Shores, making this community tradition more accessible than ever and showcasing our beautiful destination to a global audience.”
Velella velellas return to La Jolla beaches
Colorful little marine creatures called Velella velellas have washed ashore in La Jolla, delivered by fickle coastal winds.
The offshore creatures, also known as “by-the-wind sailors,” also were seen by the thousands washed up in La Jolla Shores in April 2023.
Organisms called Velella velellas, like these pictured at La Jolla Shores in April 2023, have been seen lately washed ashore on La Jolla beaches. (File)
UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla says they most often appear in late fall or late spring, depending on wind patterns, and not always annually.
The organisms’ structure, which resembles a jellyfish though they are not, causes them to be moved around by the wind, and when the wind is blowing toward shore, large numbers of velellas may be washed up.
Anya Stajner, a graduate student at Scripps Oceanography, said they first started showing up on local beaches this year in the last week of April.
The free-floating organisms are translucent, making them hard to see. Beach-goers are most likely to notice them when they wash ashore, where their deep blue and purple coloring fades as they dry out and die.
The creatures can deliver a sting that is benign to humans. They eat mostly invertebrate zooplankton and the occasional larval fish.
Velella velellas also have been seen since late March on beaches in the Bay Area and San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties. — The San Diego Union-Tribune and La Jolla Light
La Jolla researchers partner for study to protect against neurodegenerative diseases
Researchers at three of La Jolla’s most prominent medical research institutions — the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Sanford Burnham Prebys — have received a four-year, $13 million award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to investigate how to reverse age-related neurodegeneration by eliminating what the researchers call “RNA pollution” in aging neurons.
The ultimate goal is to develop new therapies to protect against neurodegenerative diseases.
As brain cells age, they often make mistakes when processing their genetic instructions (RNA). This creates RNA pollution, which accumulates over decades, stressing the cells and making the brain highly vulnerable to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Instead of focusing on the late-stage symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, the research initiative will investigate the root causes of cellular aging. To do so, the team is moving away from traditional animal models and standard stem cell methods, which often fail to replicate human aging.
Two Scripps Research scientists named Canada Gairdner award laureates
Jeffery Kelly and John Yates III, professors at Scripps Research in La Jolla, have been named winners of the 2026 Canada Gairdner International Award, one of the most prestigious honors in biomedical science.
The award from the Gairdner Foundation recognizes researchers whose discoveries have made a major impact on scientific progress and human health. More than 100 past laureates have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize since the awards were established in 1957.
Kelly has dedicated his career to understanding what happens when the protein folding process goes wrong. His lab discovered tafamidis, marketed by Pfizer as Vyndaqel and Vyndamax, which slows the progression of transthyretin cardiomyopathy and polyneuropathy and is taken by about 70,000 patients worldwide. Tafamidis was the first drug to slow the progression of a human amyloid disease.
Kelly’s achievements have earned him many other honors, including the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the 2023 Wolf Prize in Chemistry and election to the National Academy of Sciences.
Yates is a foundational architect of modern proteomics, the large-scale study of proteins and how they function within cells. His award, which he shares with Ruedi Aebersold of ETH Zurich and Matthias Mann of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, recognizes their contributions to establishing systems proteomics as a scientific discipline.
Yates’ previous honors include the 2018 Thomson Medal from the International Mass Spectrometry Society and the 2019 Discovery in Proteomic Sciences Award from the Human Proteome Organization.
Scripps hospital building to be named Rady Tower following $75M gift
Scripps Health announced last week that it will rename its recently completed seven-story tower at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla as Rady Tower in honor of a $75 million gift from San Diego philanthropists Ernest and Evelyn Rady.
Though the Radys are perhaps best known for their hundreds of millions dollars allocated to Rady Children’s Hospital, Ernest Rady served on the Scripps Health governing board from 2004 to 2010.
The $664 million tower opened on June 1 last year. — The San Diego Union-Tribune
Bird Rock’s Waverly Wall gets new collection of tiles
A Bird Rock Elementary School feature known as the Waverly Gate Community Wall got a new addition April 28 with a mosaic-like collection of tiles containing personalized messages.
Artist Jane Wheeler, Bird Rock Community Council board member Barbara Dunbar and Bird Rock Elementary School Principal Eric Banatao stand next to a new section of the school’s Waverly Gate Community Wall. (Pearl Preis)
The new section is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Bird Rock Elementary School, which was founded in 1951. The wall is at the Waverly Street entrance ramp leading to the grassy park behind Bird Rock Elementary.
“Numerous Bird Rock community members participated [in the project] by purchasing a commemorative tile, adding their personal message to the patchwork quilt-style mosaic mural,” said artist Jane Wheeler. “The Waverly Gate Community Wall is an ongoing beautification project that tells a story of the Bird Rock community. It was created with a threefold purpose: to honor members of the community, raise funds for Bird Rock Elementary and connect the community through a storytelling beautification project. Each tile is hand-created and hand-stamped.”
For more information or to buy a tile for a future wall addition, contact Wheeler at 619-822-1120 or by email at dwheeler@san.rr.com.
Weed-pulling party nets 7 tons of debris
Friends of Coast Walk Trail held its sixth annual weed-pulling party April 18, gathering more than 50 volunteers who removed 7 tons of weeds from the trail, organizers said.
“Our volunteers ranged in age from 5 to 90 years old, which tells you something about who cares about this place. … We were proud to support our friends who live on Coast Walk in clearing ahead of summer fire season,” Friends of Coast Walk Trail stated in an email to supporters.
Sierra Club Seal Society leads beach cleanup in La Jolla
More than 40 pounds of trash were collected from La Jolla beaches during the 24th annual I Love A Clean San Diego Creek to Bay Cleanup on April 25.
Volunteers under the guidance of the Sierra Club Seal Society pick up trash in La Jolla on April 25. (Sierra Club Seal Society)
Sierra Club Seal Society volunteers were team captains leading groups of participants in picking up trash at the Children’s Pool and heading south, and from Scripps Park past La Jolla Cove and to The Cave Store.
Amid the 40 pounds of trash, the volunteers picked up 330 cigarette butts, according to the Seal Society. Other items included a sneaker, a flip-flop, glass, six socks and a battery pack.
Aerial combat veteran Royce Williams honored at Mount Soledad
Korean War fighter pilot and Medal of Honor recipient Royce Williams was honored May 1 at the Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial in La Jolla with a formal ceremony and plaque dedication.
The 100-year-old Williams was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in February for facing off against seven Soviet MiG fighter jets on Nov. 18, 1952, shooting four of them down in a 35-minute dogfight and narrowly surviving amid extensive enemy gunfire.
Williams, an Escondido resident, also received the Navy Cross in 2023. — City News Service ♦