Business Pride and Spirit Recognition - November 2009

  CACTUS FLOWER CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY

   The fall of 1979 found Yucca Valley with one grocery store, 2 dime stores and a bowling alley interspersed with real estate offices, churches, schools, and a handful of Mom & Pop's. It was the quintessential retirement community where the grocery clerk talked to everyone... at length. In this environment a retired couple, local residents for 7 years, Nick & Dorothy Herff and their newly arrived daughter and son-in-law Kathryn & Tom Kenny with young son Gregory, decided to open a business "for something to do". They named it Yucca Valley Farms, adding atmosphere with the treasured items they cherished from the Midwest farms Nick & Dorothy grew-up on and first put out the open sign in the rented building across from the Triangle Park. They have continued to put that sign out 6 - 7 days a week for 30 years now. What they sold was a new concept, "Gift Foods", similar to what a few years later the country recognized as Hickory Farms, along with jellies and wine packaged in a basket. None of them had any self-employed retail business experience, and as Kathryn remembers, "That first holiday season we elected not to display Christmas until after Thanksgiving" ..... the four of them had a lot to learn!

   By the next Christmas, Nick had made a dream come true with the help of Paul Bailey Construction. They constructed a building at the present location, a little out of town, 1 block east of OWS, on the north side of the highway. It was the only building between there and the bowling alley! The building accommodated 2 businesses, one Yucca Valley Farms and the other, that in the years to come, would house Jack Harrington Publishing, Ben Little's Clocks and Candles and Cactus Flower Florist.
In 1991 Mary Cass, the owner of Cactus Flower sold her flower shop to Tom & Kathryn. By 1992 the building was remodeled and presented a new face known as CACTUS FLOWER FLORIST & FARMS. What followed was a progression of changes, an evolution of products and relationships with talented and memorable employees and the best customers anywhere on earth. What stayed the same was the welcome home atmosphere and hospitable attitude so primal to the business. The little family business is a vortex of unique gifts, great fragrances, soft music and welcoming smiles. Besides a full service florist, Cactus Flower offers some of the most unique items representative of our desert area. We offer a wide choice in gifts and home decor, books, and music along with a selection of the original gift-foods and custom gift baskets.

    If you visit Cactus Flower Florist & Farms today you will probably find Tom still trying to manage his flower girls between deliveries, Kathy buying more fun merchandise and wondering where it will possibly fit, Dorothy in the back pricing the new candles and geckos, along with Dottie, Grace, Lindsey and Gladys greeting you with smiles. Our founding father Nick has left us a legacy of old-time business ethics and a tradition that we are proud to share with our community...
 From all of us - Thank you Morongo Basin - you have been the key to our success!

Pride & Spirit Recipient for May 2009

Simi Dabah

The title of Artist is defined as one who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts, we the people of the Morongo Basin are blessed because we get to appreciated multiple pieces of art on a daily basis thanks to the art in public spaces and one of its major contributors Simi Dabah Mr. Dabah first came to the Morongo Basin in 1967 but it wasn’t until 1972 that he purchased eight acres, which is now his open-air art gallery with over 700 sculptures.

Before doing metal sculpture he expressed his talent using a variety of media including painting, ceramic, mobiles, etc. Along the way he got a five minute welding lesson from a close friend. The friend left his workshop after showing Simi how to use the torch. Eager to try out his new skill, he looked around his friends shop and found an empty old metal toolbox. He proceeded to cut it up then weld it back together. The reconfigured toolbox became an object of art that found its way to a home in Beverly Hills. Next he acquired his own welding equipment. This new form of art started as light weight smaller pieces, and then kept getting heavier and larger so he finally had to acquire a fork lift to do his work.

In 2003 Mr. Dabah offered a piece of his art to the Town of Yucca Valley. Since it was the first offer to the Town for a donation of public art, Simi assisted the Town in creating a process and procedure for accepting such donations. After the Town Council approved the procedure, Simi Dabah became the first applicant and first donor of art in public places to the Town of Yucca Valley.

His work can be viewed at the California Welcome Center, the Yucca Valley Park n Ride, at the public works building in the Monterey Business Center and along Highway 62 from Yucca Valley to 29 Palms. You can go to his website at www.gallery29.com/simi to see more. He has created over 1200 sculptures that have been recorded and cataloged. The smallest work is 6 inches tall, the heaviest is 3500 pounds and the tallest is 32 feet tall.

He never sells his works of art; he donates everything for public display or as fund raising auction items to various non-profit organizations. His success in business allows him to pursue his passion in creating these magnificent sculptures and the joy of giving motivates him to share them with the community.

The Community Pride and Spirit committee is pleased to honor this unsung hero, Simi Dabah an artist who has contributed to the beautification of Yucca Valley and the Morongo Basin by continuously creating and donating his stunning sculptures.