Celebrations

Releasing a flock of white doves, cancer survivors and their supporters picnicked together Sunday in a Glendale hospital's garden to mark the day set aside for those who are beating the disease. "This day is all about the spirit of life," said Cindy Smith Idell, who coordinates the hospital's programs for cancer patients. Commemorating the 13th annual National Cancer Survivors Day, Glendale Adventist Medical Center's Comprehensive Community Cancer Center held its third annual garden ceremony.

They're not officially moving until next year, but officers of the LAPD's North Hollywood Division aren't waiting for completion of their new digs on Burbank Boulevard to begin celebrating. In a private ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the North Hollywood station at 11480 Tiara St., at least 75 active and retired LAPD officers, civilian employees and their families gathered to celebrate the impending closure of the old station.

Singing, some dancing and a lot of barbecue were all on the menu as about 120 fathers and grandfathers, residents of the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging, celebrated Father's Day on Friday. "The more celebrating you can do the better, especially when you get older," said Louis J. Feldman, rabbi at the Jewish Home. In the dining hall, decorated with red and blue balloons and Father's Day posters and banners, as many as four generations honored dad.

Norouz, a New Year's holiday that has been celebrated for centuries at the beginning of spring in Azerbaijan and other countries bordering the Caspian Sea, was marked locally by a gathering at the Reseda Country Club. "Many ethnic groups in that part of the world celebrate it," said Bahman Safyari, known to his friends as Ben, who helped organize the gathering Saturday night as one in a long-running series of events for local Azerbaijanis.

Molly Murphy MacGregor thought being a woman was something to be proud of, something to be celebrated. That's why in 1978 she helped launch a one-day event in Sonoma County to honor women and their achievements. Three years after that, National Women's History Week was started as support for the idea of celebrating women and their contributions to American life grew. In 1987, National Women's History Month was born with a Congressional proclamation. March is National Women's History Month.

Fourth-grader Christine Magana cooed when she walked into the library. "It has a lot of room!" she exclaimed. "Everything was kind of stuffed in before." Christine, 9, and dozens of other pupils at Cantara Street School in Reseda enjoyed their first visit Friday to the school's new library, which was built after the old library and an adjacent classroom were torn down. New features include a quiet alcove--with white benches and large stairs--that serve as a group reading theater.

For many blacks, Juneteenth is the real Independence Day. People across the country commemorated June 19, 1865, the day slaves in Texas learned of their freedom more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The news came from Union troops who landed in Galveston. "It's a celebration of freedom that we finally got," said 48-year-old Austin resident Fennis Scott.

Reporting from Kansas City, Mo. — No athlete wants to make the list of "dumbest sports injuries," but like it or not, Kendry Morales was added to it Saturday when he fractured a bone above his left ankle while jumping into home plate in celebration of his walk-off grand slam against Seattle. The Angels first baseman, who will undergo surgery and could miss the rest of the season, can take some solace in the fact he won't replace former NFL kicker Bill Gramatica at the top of that list.

With a rich history and a promising future, the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts will celebrate its 80th birthday Sunday with a dedication ceremony of its new $175-million home on campus. The school's most famous alum, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, whose Lucasfilm Foundation provided $75 million for the new digs, plus $100 million for the school's endowment, will be on hand.

Thousands of Orange County Latinos will gather this weekend to take part in Guadalupe Day festivities, commemorating a 461-year-old legend of the patron saint of Mexico. More than 1,500 people are expected at a Mass today honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Most Rev. Norman F. McFarland, bishop of Orange, will preside during the noon Mass at St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church in Anaheim. Msgr. Jaime Soto, who heads the diocese's Hispanic Ministries, said that each Dec.