Mar. 18: Kids Donate Money to Help the Homeless

Good day, all. A lot happened on this site on Thursday; here's what we published:

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

As is typically the case on Fridays, this SM AM Report is structured a little differently, since we hit on most of today's highlights in our weekend planner. Below are a few additional happenings that we didn't discuss, preceded by the weather forecast.

Weather Forecast

• mostly sunny
• high temperature: 63 degrees
• low temperature: 49 degrees
• chance of precipitation: 0 percent
• humidity: 50 percent
• sunrise: 7:01 a.m.
• sunset: 7:04 p.m.

Note: The chance of rain for Sunday, when the LA Marathon happens, has returned to 30 percent after having risen to 70 percent earlier in the week.

Additional Friday Events

• At 3 p.m., three children from Santa Monica will deposit $90 into the Dolphin sculpture, which collects money for local social-service organizations that help the homeless. Four-year-old Matthew Prager started the initiative after learning about homelessness in his pre-school class; he and his 8-year-old twin brothers, Alex and Jacob, decided to sell hot chocolate, brownies and Rice Krispy treats at the farmers market to raise money for their effort. The kids are giving the money to the Dolphin Change Program run by Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. On hand for the event will be Santa Monica Police Officer Jacob Holloway and Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. CEO Kathleen Rawson.
• At 10 a.m., Gary Gonzales—who nearly died at the Spectrum Athletic Club after suffering a heart attack—will thank two people who saved his life, instructor Tracey Smith and Spectrum employee Amaud Mitchell. At the recognition ceremony, Santa Monica firefighters including Captain Mark Bridges will present Smith and Mitchell with Citizen’s Awards. The event will take place at the club, which is located at 2425 Olympic Blvd.
• A pretrial hearing for Jaime Pressly will take place at 8:30 a.m. at a court in Los Angeles. The actress was in Santa Monica in early January for driving under the influence and later .
• Also, don't forget that the Santa Monica Red Cross' will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at .

Lastly, on Saturday, two events will be staged in support of workers who were locked out of Marina Car Wash in Venice following a labor dispute. A charity car wash will be held outside the from 1 to 5 p.m., followed by a comedy-night fundraiser inside the church beginning at 7 p.m. Go to read more about the workers and the protest they staged in December.

(Go here for more events happening today.)

This Day in Santa Monica History

• On Mar. 18, 1947, a general election was held for the first Santa Monica City Councilmembers serving under the city's new charter. (source: A Brief History of Santa Monica and Its Charters)

Did you take a great pic of SM in the early morning? Want to see it in The SM AM Report? Drop a note to Kurt.Orzeck@patch.com.

City News Service contributed to this report.