Fall Is Here, Time For Flu Shots

For a low-cost or in some cases, free, flu shot this LaSalle Medical Associates clinic at 565 N. Mt. Vernon Ave in San Bernardino is the place to go. Other clinics are at 1505 W. 17th in San Bernardino, 17577 Arrow Blvd. in Fontana and 16455 Main St. in Hesperia.

(SAN BERNARDINO, CA) Now that the cold weather is upon us, with winter fast approaching, it’s a good time for anyone to get their annual flu shot.

Just ask Dr. Albert Arteaga, the president and founder of LaSalle Medical Associates in San Bernardino. “Flu shots make a very big difference.” Dr. Arteaga, a pediatrician for more than 20 years, spends every flu season surrounded by coughing and sneezing patients. “It is especially important for the young and the elderly to protect themselves from this disease, but anyone can avoid the unpleasantness of the flu and its potentially serious complications with an immunization. Why avoid the shots?”

Aside from the tired feeling, the body aches and fever, flu symptoms can be much worse. “There may be intestinal problems that develop,” Dr. Arteaga says, “and other potential complications such as internal infections, pneumonia and possibly even meningitis. Why take a chance?”

The reason many avoid flu shots is simply the fear of the needle. “I can understand that,” Dr. Arteaga says, “and then what happens is those people influence their friends and then you start hearing ‘The shots will just give you the flu themselves,’ and ‘Shots don’t really make a difference.’ The fact is shots do make a difference. They really do help.”

The following groups of people are especially encouraged by the Centers for Disease Control to obtain a flu shot:
• Anyone 50 years of age or older
• All children and adolescents 6 months through 18 years of age
• All health care workers and essential community service employees, such as police and firefighters
• College students who live in dormitories
• Any other adults living in a dormitory or other institutional setting
• Anyone not vaccinated within the past year who is planning a trip between April and September 2009 to the tropics or the southern hemisphere
• Anyone planning travel with a large group
• People with chronic medical conditions including asthma, diabetes, HIV and others
• Pregnant women
• Anyone who lives with or cares for a person who meets one of the above conditions


Patients on Medi-Cal, Medicare and many insurance plans will receive their immunizations at no charge. For anyone else, the fee at LaSalle Medical Associates clinics is a mere $15.

As Dr. Arteaga says, “It takes just 30 seconds and a very short, minor sting to possibly save weeks of discomfort and potential serious complications. Is it worth it? You bet.”

Dr. Albert Arteaga graduated from medical school in 1976, completing his pediatric training at Loma Linda University in 1984 and starting practice that year in Fontana. He expanded into San Bernardino four years later, and in 1996 formed LaSalle Medical Associates, an IPA, comprised of primary and specialty care physicians serving more than 105,000 patients in the Inland Empire and East Los Angeles.

According to founder Dr. Arteaga, the primary mission of LaSalle’s clinics is “to offer high quality medical care to the whole family with courtesy and respect.” And, right now, a big part of that is to provide flu shots for people.

The LaSalle medical clinics are at 17577 Arrow Blvd. in Fontana, 1505 West 17th St. and 565 N. Mt. Vernon Ave. in San Bernardino, and 16455 Main St. in Hesperia

For additional information about LaSalle Medical Associates, call (909) 890-0407 or go on line to lasallemedical.com.
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Interior Design Students Bringing Kitchen Back to Life for Benefit of Boys & Girls Club

The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire began a partnership with the San Bernardino Boys & Girls Club in 2007, including the design work done by Summer Studio ‘07 participants to create the club’s Teen Center, plans of which San Bernardino Councilman Rikke Van Johnson is viewing here. The partnership will continue into 2009 as four students in the Interior Design program are currently designing a kitchen remodel for the club’s youth building.

(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) A kitchen at the Boys & Girls Club of San Bernardino will soon come back to life in a bright and colorful way, thanks to help from students at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire.

Four Interior Design students are beginning plans for a kitchen remodel that will bring the 1960s-era kitchen back into use. Actual construction will likely begin in December or January.

It’s quite an undertaking. Not only is the kitchen more than 40 years old, the Boys & Girls Club hasn’t even used it for the last several years. That means the remodel will require bringing it up to current building and safety codes.

“Since they have a kitchen already there are some bones to work with,” said Tamara Stevenson, student team leader for the project. “But they’re not necessarily good bones. We are putting together a commercial design that will give them what they need to better serve these boys and girls.”

Stevenson and her classmates Nancy Marquez, Patrice Bodell and Sonja Fallahian are enrolled in the Human Factors course of the Interior Design program at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire. They have already learned most of the basics of Interior Design. In this course they get what is for most of them, their first opportunity to put their knowledge to use by actually working with a group of people to create a design for them.

Stevenson, however, also recently worked with local businesses including Dameron Communications to design a color scheme for an office building undergoing remodeling. A kitchen remodel is a much more involved project, she notes.

“It has been a learning experience,” she said. “But I’m very interested in commercial design, so I find it interesting.”

The students began this learning experience by meeting with Boys & Girls Club leaders to discuss what was needed, what was wanted and how much they could afford. The students then came back with two separate ideas for how to complete the entire project for about $20,000 not including labor. The Boys and Girls Club was thrilled as this was way under budget. They told the team they still had another $15,000 to $20,000 to spend.

“They loved it,” Human Factors instructor Marie Feuer said of the Boys & Girls Club leaders. “They couldn’t believe they could do it for that low and they loved having two design plans to choose from. From that point they were like kids in a candy shop picking out more design ideas.”

“The support of the Art Institute has been overwhelming,” said Dolores Armstead, a member of the Boys & Girls Club’s Board of Directors. “They have provided us with the expertise, drawings and estimates needed to get the kitchen renovated. We are excited about being able to partner with them to offer nutritional classes and meals to the community.”

Meetings continue with the Boys & Girls Club leadership, contractors, vendors who can sell or donate materials and city and county officials who are involved in the design review process. The student designers have learned the ins and outs of doing business with all these people along the way.

The Interior Design program at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire focuses heavily on teaching students to design “green” projects. That is, when putting together design plans, students rely on such things as energy conservation and using materials that can be easily recycled.

As it turned out, the Boys & Girls Club kitchen already has “green” features. While the original kitchen designers may not have planned it that way, the stainless steel countertops already in place are one of the greenest surface materials available today.

“Stainless steel is a reusable product that's often overlooked. It can withstand extreme temperatures, doesn't stain or rust, and it can be melted and recycled Feuer explained. “This makes it a sustainable material, and green design is all about using sustainable materials.”

Another way the Boys & Girls Club kitchen remodel will incorporate environmentally responsible (and more easily affordable) planning is with used appliances. They’re working with a local vendor to supply the Boys & Girls Club with appliances that saw limited use elsewhere, but are still relatively new.

Green – along with blue and purple – is also important to the color scheme the Interior Design students have put together for the Boys & Girls Club kitchen.

“The design uses a lot of primary and secondary colors,” Feuer said. “In addition to being bright and festive the design students wanted to incorporate the color scheme from the Boys and Girls Club facility and their Triple Play program. This program uses similarly bright-colored graphics to teach the children how to care for their mind, body and spirit.”

One way people can take care of their body is to use the food pyramid. Since kitchens are all about food, Triple Play’s brightly colored, cartoon character-enhanced version of this pyramid will be a focal piece of artwork in this kitchen.

Since the Interior Design students’ plan came in far under budget, the Boys & Girls Club leaders decided to add another innovative feature. The kitchen will include a large-screen television set, and a small camera so that the Boys & Girls Club leaders can project real-time cooking techniques to teach children how to safely handle food preparations and how to cook.

“We’re not designing a kitchen just to serve food,” Feuer said. “We’re designing a kitchen to promote the overall programs of the Boys & Girls Club.”

The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Game Art & Design, Culinary Management, Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Interior Design, Fashion Marketing & Retail Management, and Media Arts & Animation and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Fashion Design. There are also Associate of Science degrees in Graphic Design and Culinary Arts. Each program is offered on a year-round basis, allowing students to work uninterrupted toward their degrees.

It’s not too late to start the new year at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire. Courses begin Jan. 12 and classes are offered in the day, evening and on weekends for new and reentry students.

For more information or a free tour of The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire call (909) 915-2100 or go on line to artinstitutes.edu/inlandempire.

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Dr. Albert Arteaga Receives Ethnic Physician Leadership Award

(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) Dr. Albert Arteaga, founder and CEO of LaSalle Medical Associates received the Ethnic Physicians Leadership Award for 2008.

The California Medical Association gives the Ethnic Physician Leadership Award annually to a doctor who has done outstanding work within an ethnic community. As is the case with Dr. Arteaga, who is Hispanic, the award also often recognizes a doctor who is a member of a specific ethnic community.

“I want all of my patients to feel that going to the doctor is no more intimidating than going to the grocery store,” he said in accepting this award. “This is much easier to succeed in when our patients understand that we are here to answer any and all of their questions and provide them with individual recommendations based on their current situation.”

Almost 25 years ago, Dr. Arteaga founded LaSalle Medical Associates as one clinic in Fontana. Today, it has grown to four clinics and an Independent Practice Association serving more than 100 doctors.

From the start, Dr. Arteaga has operated LaSalle Medical Associates with the principles that all patients deserve quality medical care, and all deserve dignity and respect. He accepts and even reaches out to not just his largely Hispanic clientele, but also to elderly, low-income and disabled patients who must rely on Medicare and Medi-Cal.

“As the son of an Adventist minister, I know I have an obligation to help whenever I can,” he said. “That is what we do.”
The LaSalle medical clinics are at 17577 Arrow Blvd. in Fontana, 1505 West 17th St. and 565 N. Mt. Vernon Ave. in San Bernardino, and 16455 Main St. in Hesperia
For additional information about LaSalle Medical Associates, call (909) 890-0407 or go on line to lasallemedical.com.

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Dreamworks Technical Director Kevin Carney Coming To Art Institute

(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) Dreamworks Technical Director Kevin Carney, whose work appears in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Kung Fu Panda and a dozen other movies will give presentations Tuesday, Nov. 25 and Wednesday, Nov. 26, at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire.

The presentations both take place both at 11:45 a.m. in Room R-2123 at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire, 630 E. Brier Dr., San Bernardino 92408. They are open to the public.

“Kevin will talk to us about the technical side of animation and his job working character effects and technical direction,” said Santosh Oommen, academic director of Game Art Design and Media Arts & Animation at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire.

Carney has worked as a digital artist, animator and technical director on 14 movies over the last several years. His most recent is Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa where he worked as a character effects artist. Also released this year was Kung Fu Panda, in which Carney was the character effects technical director.

Other movies featuring his work include The Simpsons, Night at the Museum, Garfield: Tale of Two Kitties and The Polar Express, to name a few. Prior to his work with these movies, he was an animator for the “South Park” television series.

The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Game Art & Design, Culinary Management, Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Interior Design, Fashion Marketing & Retail Management, and Media Arts & Animation and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Fashion Design. There are also Associate of Science degrees in Graphic Design and Culinary Arts. Each program is offered on a year-round basis, allowing students to work uninterrupted toward their degrees.

It’s not too late to start the new year at The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire. Courses begin Jan. 12 and classes are offered in the day, evening and on weekends for new and reentry students.

For more information or a free tour of The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire call (909) 915-2100 or go on line to artinstitutes.edu/inlandempire.


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