Back in Business, Spaghetti Fund Raiser and Student Fitness

Lt. Brian Kalinowski is the facilities manager at the Marsh Creek Detention Facility and works with inmates to build toys for children.

The toy giveaway program is a collaboration of the sheriff’s office and the County Office of Education. It allows inmates ages 18 to 60 to make wooden toys and restore bicycles under the direction of woodshop instructor Rick Boughton, who recently won Detention Services Division (non-officer) Employee of the Year Award.

“Each year, they do bike rehabilitation and make between 1,000 and 1,200 doll houses, guitars and other toys for kids at 33 nonprofit organizations,” Kalinowski said. “The program has been going for 17 years.”

Clayton and Concord police officers chased a suspect on foot at Delaware and Indiana drives in Concord on Monday evening, but weren't able to catch him, according to Clayton Sgt. Richard McEachin.

About 4:57 p.m., Clayton officers pulled over a car on a vehicle code violation. The suspect ran from the vehicle and jumped over a fence with officers in pursuit.

Concord police assisted in the chase and set up a perimeter, clearing two back yards on Delaware Drive and a section of the parking lot at St. Bonaventure church. The search was called off after about 30 minutes and the suspect was not found.

After an arson fire burnt down his salon on Thanksgiving, Jim Frazier has quickly gotten back to cutting hair in downtown Clayton.

His salon reopened March 6, next door to where his old business stood. It took just six weeks for Frazier to renovate the salon with the help of local businesses.

"Good friends helped me out," he said. "All the contractors, all my landscaping came from local companies here in town. That was a big thing for me. Being part of the CBCA, Clayton Business & Community Association, I mean how could I go to Concord or Antioch or Walnut Creek to rebuild my place?"

: The Clayton branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) sponsored the 7th annual Clayton Spaghetti Feed on Wednesday night, raising money to encourage girls to pursue careers in the math and sciences.

The primary mission of the fund raiser is to send three  seventh-grade girls to Tech Trek, a weeklong summer science and math camp at Sonoma State.

The goal of Tech Trek is to instill self-confidence and excitement in girls in the math and sciences, subjects that historically have been  dominated by males.

"We've discovered if we encourage girls to be involved in the math and sciences in middle school, then they are more likely to continue in those disciplines in high school," said AAUW member Rosemary Harwood. "We keep track of the girls and it's great to see some of them continue to stay interested in the math and sciences in high school and beyond."

: Clayton students tested to determine their overall fitness graded higher than their peers across the state, according to a study released by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Thursday.

The study looked at students at the three grade levels — fifth, seventh and ninth — and tested them on six physical attributes: aerobic capacity, body composition, abdominal strength, trunk extensor strength, upper body strength and flexibility.