Community Corner

Longtime Fiesta Association Member Kathy Hooper Resigns

The group that puts on the Swallows Day Parade each year in San Juan Capistrano will be one woman down this year.

After 31 years, Kathy Hooper has resigned her volunteer role at the Fiesta Association, the folks who put on the Swallows Day Parade and other events.

The resignation was announced in an email sent out Monday night.

“Please know this has not been an easy decision and not something I am taking lightly, but something I feel I need to do,” wrote Hooper, who is also a member of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Commission.

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While she wore many literal and figurative hats for the Fiesta Association, Hooper was most recently chair of the Mercado, the after-parade marketplace. Last year, the association stopped offering beer for sale because of ever-tightening restrictions issued by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Some in town loved the return to a more family atmosphere, but others found the dry proceedings a disappointment and flooded local bars instead.

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In her announcement, Hooper did not indicate what prompted the decision after so many years of service. But she told Patch it was just time.

"I will NEVER leave Fiesta as much as Fiesta will never be out of my heart, it is a part of my soul," Hooper said. "After 31 years of being involved and helping make history, it's time for me to move on and allow the other board members to lead the association and carry on the history."


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