UPPER LAKE
Garden Club celebrates with Garden Tea
On Tuesday, May 17, Dana Di Ricco Benjamin and Dr. Glenn Benjamin welcomed members and guests of the Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club to their beautiful ranch in Upper Lake for the club’s spring tea celebration. Attendees were treated to tours of our hosts’ gardens of colorful blooms and eye-catching statues and their state-of-the-art horse barn that houses their award-winning Percherons.
As the tea started attendees were seated at tables under the ample shade of the large trees that dotted the freshly mown lawn. All of the nine tables were covered with crisp white tablecloths and set with the finest bone china and freshly polished silverware. Each table sported artfully arranged floral bouquets. In addition, because the event was a tea party, each table was further festooned with its own silver tea set. Women wore their “Sunday best” and several donned festive-looking hats that would have fit in quite nicely at a Churchill Downs racing event. Even the men in attendance seemed to be “styling” a bit in honor of the occasion.
No tea party would have been complete without the requisite little sandwiches (no crusts, please) and sweet treats commonly served at High Tea events, and garden club members extended their creative culinary cunning in making delicious dozens of each which were relished by all. To add even more flavor to the afternoon, at the end of the tea attendees caught a glimpse of Glenn and his “footman” in a white carriage pulled by a pair of snow white horses as they made their way toward the front of the house where they stopped. Of course, many hurried over to admire the horses more closely. Some even got to take a short ride in the carriage.
A short time later, festivities at the tea continued when Di Ricco presented the gathering with a huge cake which all shared in devouring with gusto as they participated in a gift exchange and final raffle.
Membership in the Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club is open to all those who have an interest in gardening. We would like to share a cup of tea with you at our annual tea next spring, or during any of our monthly meetings. Please call club President Carol Dobush at 707 279-1169 for information. The club is a member of the Mendo-Lake District of the California Garden Club, Inc.-Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs, Inc.
—Submitted
DAVIS
UC Davis awards academic medal to Stephanie Rasmussen
The University of California, Davis School of Medicine awarded its highest academic and leadership medal to Stephanie Rasmussen, 29, formerly of Lakeport, at its commencement ceremonies on May 13. The School of Medicine Medal is presented to the student who best displays the qualities of leadership, scholarship and respect for human life necessary to fulfill a physician’s pledge to be of service to humanity.
Rasmussen was a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, received the AMWA Glasgow-Rubin Citation for Academic Achievement, and was selected as the outstanding student in both gastroenterology and pharmacology. She was among the 126 candidates in the class of 2022 receiving the Doctor of Medicine degree. The 51st commencement ceremony took place at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for Performing Arts in Davis, the first in-person commencement since 2019.
The daughter of Lakeport Chief of Police Brad Rasmussen and Karyn Rasmussen, Stephanie graduated from Clear Lake High School in 2011 as the valedictorian of her class, where she served as student body president and a member of the Interact Club, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Lakeport. Her extra-curricular activities included 15 years of studies and performances with Antoinette’s School of Dance.
“The educational support from teachers and the programs in the Lakeport schools, particularly Clear Lake High School, helped set me up for success in both college and graduate school,” she noted in attributing her academic success.
Rasmussen’s higher education began with a scholarship to Dominican University of California where she completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2014. Her Master of Science degree in Biology from Dominican was awarded in 2017.
With a focus on malaria research during her six years at Dominican, Stephanie spent three summers in Uganda studying mechanisms of antimalarial drug resistance. She continued her work until entering medical school in 2018.
Rasmussen will begin her residency program at New York University Grossman School of Medicine in June. Her primary work will occur at Bellevue Hospital, the oldest hospital in the United States, founded in 1736. The hospital provides health care for individuals regardless of their ability to pay, handling over one million visits per year.
The commencement ceremony can be watched online at: https://livestream.com/ucdavis/medcomm2022/videos/231107433.
—Submitted
