Honoree Hazel Wallace receiving the city’s proclamation from Councilmember Ed Wilson
BY NICK DIAMANTIDES
Staff Writer
Hazel Gim-Wallace has devoted much of the last 30 years in service to the people of the Signal Hill/Long Beach area. Last week, in recognition of her important accomplishments, the City of Signal Hill issued a proclamation naming her the Outstanding Older American of the Year.
“I am very surprised and delighted to receive this honor,” Wallace said. She came to the Long Beach area in 1979 and moved to Signal Hill in 1981. She volunteers much of her time to organizations in the greater Long Beach area. “But the main thing I do in Signal Hill is represent the city on the Los Angeles County Vector Control Board,” she said.
The Signal Hill City Council appointed her to the board eight years ago. “There was a vacancy and I applied,” she said. “I think I was selected because of my background in the control of mosquitoes.” While Wallace served as the director of the Long Beach Health Department’s Public Health/Biomedical Laboratory, she established the city’s vector surveillance program.
That program is responsible for identifying areas where mosquitoes are breeding and eliminating them. “The City of Long Beach eradicates mosquito larvae in the western part of the city,” she said. “The county does the same thing in the eastern part of Long Beach and in Signal Hill.” She explained that Long Beach’s surveillance program is a systematic effort to regularly monitor known mosquito breeding sites and identify new ones. She added that constant monitoring allows the health department to do whatever is necessary to prevent the larvae from growing into adult mosquitoes.
Wallace graduated from UCLA in 1972 with a doctorate degree in Infectious and Tropical Disease Epidemiology. In her long, distinguished career in the field of public health, she has received many honors and awards from her peers as well as private organizations and governmental agencies.
For the past 44 years, May has been proclaimed as Older Americans Month throughout the United States. The national theme for May 2009 is “Living Today for a Better Tomorrow.”
In Signal Hill, every year local residents contact the city’s community development department to suggest who should get the award and why they deserve it. The department passes those recommendations on to the Signal Hill Parks and Recreation Commission, which then decides who will be named the city’s outstanding senior.
The city proclamation paid tribute to Wallace for implementing the health department’s first HIV-screening program and for “being proactive in the efforts to eradicate AIDS long before there was much knowledge regarding the disease.”
The proclamation also noted that Wallace has served as a volunteer on the AIDS Walk board of directors for more than 10 years in addition to serving on the Vector Control board “where she not only serves Signal Hill, but the entire county and brings her professional experience to this volunteer board regarding important public health issues.”
In addition to the Signal Hill proclamation, Wallace will receive an Outstanding Older American Award at a luncheon scheduled for May 21 in downtown Los Angeles. Don Knabe. Los Angeles County Supervisor, will present her and residents from the 18 other cities in his 4th County District with awards.
The awards are given to people who volunteer much of their time to their respective cities and are active in many local events.
“Hazel is obviously very deserving of this award, primarily because of her work in the field of health care,” said Kathy Sorensen, Signal Hill’s director of Community Development. “As a member of the Vector Control board, she keeps the city council and staff informed on health issues that could affect our residents.” Sorensen added that Wallace is also very supportive of the Signal Hill Library and has volunteered much of her time to help with library fundraisers.
In addition to the county luncheon, Wallace will be honored at the May 28 Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce Luncheon, which will take place at the Signal Hill Community Center.
“I am very honored by all this recognition,” Wallace said. “I know there are many people who volunteer their time to the community and I just think that working to make this area a better place to live is something we should all be doing.”
