French Hospital Medical Center (FHMC) appointed new board officers to its Community Board and Foundation Board. 

Jim Copeland has been elected the new chairman of the FHMC Community Board. He has served as the Community Board’s secretary from July 2007- June 2009 and vice chair from July 2009 - June 2011. Copeland is a longtime business leader, the founder of Copeland Sports and a founding sponsor of the Copeland, Forbes & Rossi Cardiac Care Center, the Christopher Cohen Performing Arts Center, and the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum and has supported many community causes.  

Sandy Dunn has been elected the chairwoman of the FHMC Foundation Board. Dunn has served as the Foundation vice chair from 2010-2011 and as a co-chair for the annual FHMC Gala and Fundraiser from 2007-2010. She also serves as a member of the Hearst Cancer Resource Center Advisory Committee. Dunn is a well recognized member of the community and has provided volunteer leadership and support to many area not-for-profit organizations.

Coast BMW donated $1,050 to Big Brothers Big Sisters to support their youth mentoring programs.

The funds were raised through a recent car sales promotion fundraiser in which $50 was donated for each BMW sold. 

“Coast BMW is pleased to support our community through Big Brothers Big Sisters youth mentoring programs," said Gordon Giacomazzi, owner of Coast BMW. 

Impact Learning Systems recently announced the addition of Rachel Miller to the Marketing team.

Miller said she became intrigued by Impact‘s customer service training program because, “We’re all in customer service in some way.” She was also inspired after meeting Impact’s employees who all share a passion for the products and the services they provide.

Impact Learning Systems is a local customer service training company with international clients. Impact helps customers achieve a strong service brand that improves customer loyalty, increases profits, and increases the value of the company. 

In conjunction with the San Luis Obispo Fire Department, Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center held a “vertical evacuation” drill combined with a hazmat incident July 5 in the hospital’s five-story parking structure.

This training drill simulated an auto accident on the top floor of the parking structure with limited access to get to it because the driver crashed into the elevator.

Three victims were safely brought down the stairs by Sierra Vista personnel with the assistance of the SLO Fire Department.

The drill was part of Sierra Vista’s quarterly disaster drill training as well as a training drill for SLOFD. The drill for both organizations is also in anticipation of Sierra Vista constructing a helistop atop the parking structure.

Lahout's Country Clothing & Ski Shop has partnered with retail-integrated eCommerce provider, Shopatron, to make its entire selection of ski and outdoor sports gear available online. Now shoppers everywhere can make a purchase from America's oldest ski shop, even when they are not in one of their six New Hampshire locations.

Shoppers will find the same level of service and expertise on Lahouts.com that they do in its stores.

"We wanted to bring all the Lahout's stores online without losing the level of service we are committed to," said Susan Lahout, director of eCommerce. "Shopatron enabled us to do this. Plus, Shopatron gives us access to additional orders coming from the websites of many of the brands we stock, supporting a whole new revenue stream for our stores."

Shopatron's retail-integrated eCommerce solution is a great fit for a service-focused multi-door retailer like Lahout's. Shopatron's superior 5-point shopping experience is focused on rich product information, world-class service, effortless shopping, unlimited delivery options, and, of course, strong community connections.

San Luis Obispo City Police Chief Deborah Linden announced last week that she plans on retiring from her public safety career at the end of 2011.

“The time is right, both personally and professionally, to move on to a different chapter in my life and pass the baton to a new police chief,” Linden said. “We will have implemented a new budget, the police department has an excellent leadership team in place, and we’ve completed some significant, long-term projects such as the new dispatch center.”

Chief Linden has served the city of San Luis Obispo as chief of police since January 2003. During her tenure, Linden has been dedicated to protecting public safety while leading the department during many major criminal investigations and significant events such as the Mardi Gras riots. Moreover, Linden has been a true believer in improving quality of life in San Luis Obispo through collaborative problem solving policing.

“I have been incredibly fortunate to have a career that allowed me to serve the public in such a meaningful way” said Linden. “I feel honored and humbled to have worked with some of the finest law enforcement professionals anywhere. I am incredibly proud of the work accomplished by employees at the Police Department every day, and I will miss them tremendously.”

Whizbang, a full-service marketing company in San Luis Obispo, launched their video department on June 24 with a viral video campaign that features numerous San Luis Obispo celebrities. 

The "Happy Town" video is a compilation of well-known community members doing the “Happy Town” dance to the “Happy Town” song. The dance was choreographed by award-winning choreographer Suzy Miller, while the song was created by Whizbang's , Ellen Curtis and Jose Molina. 

Molina is also a cast member of the Second City Improv Group in Chicago and collaborated with fellow cast member Caroline Lucius.

The San Luis Obispo Symphony’s 50th anniversary season closed on June 30 after an impressive year filled with unprecedented successes and one big announcement.

After a little more than a year with the Symphony, Executive Director Brian Hermanson has resigned his position for personal and family reasons, and to pursue other interests. He and his wife, Alice Ann, plan to return to the East Coast. 

Under Hermanson’s leadership, the Symphony increased the number of Strings in the School classes county-wide, including a new school site in Santa Margarita. A new string instruction program called SuperBows was initiated; and Youth Symphony enrollment rose significantly.

Doctor Joe Horne of San Luis Obispo Eye Associates has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from MES Vision for providing exceptional vision care in 2010.

The Certificate of Excellence is awarded based on feedback received from MES Vision patients who rated Horne’s practices as “Excellent” on all surveyed categories. 

Horne provides primary eye care including eye exams, contact lenses, and the treatment of ocular diseases. He focuses on making sure that all visual problems of every patient are perfectly corrected.

“I am honored to receive this recognition and grateful for the wonderful patients I have,” Horne said. “Ensuring my patients receive the greatest quality of care in a relaxed environment will continue to remain my first priority.”