UP CLOSE -- Betty Mignanelli

* FAMILY STATUS: Married with two children and two grandchildren

* AGE: Younger than springtime

* EDUCATION: Educated in Massachusetts with a degree in business

administration

* PAST OFFICES HELD: Elected to the Fountain Valley School District Board

of Trustees, appointed by the state Legislature to the Commission of

Special Education and has been involved in many clubs and organizations

* PRESENT OCCUPATION: Chief executive and president of the Fountain

Valley Business Assn. and Chamber of Commerce

* EXPLAIN YOUR JOB IN 15 WORDS OR FEWER: Diverse, broad range of

responsibility, juggling many projects while wearing different hats,

public contact and, above all, rewarding

* YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT: It is still in the making

* PERSONAL MOTTO: “Be the best of whatever you are,” from Douglas

Malloch, and “the best surprise is no surprise.”

* MOST HUMBLING MOMENT: Certainly not in the same category as an act

performed by the late Mother Theresa or walking through a minefield: It

was being proclaimed a role model by my granddaughter. That was the most

humbling moment of my life to date.

* YOUR GREATEST EXTRAVAGANCE: Shoes

* MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOK YOU’VE READ: The last page of the one I have

finished and the first page of the one I am about to start. I love to

read and find some bit in each book I read that influences me in some

way.

* WHAT CASSETTE OR COMPACT DISC IS IN YOUR CAR RIGHT NOW? I do not have a

CD player in my car. I frequently listen to talk radio.

* YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION: My family is my most important

treasure, but one cannot possess a person. So, my most important

treasured possessions are photographs of family and friends.

* WHICH WORDS OR PHRASE DO YOU OVERUSE? “Could you volunteer to....?”

* WHAT CAN YOU COOK? I owned a successful catering business for several

years, and I am a very good cook.

* A HABIT YOU WISH YOU COULD CONTROL: Saying yes when it is not practical

to do so.

* THE COLLEGE MAJOR YOU ALMOST CHOSE: A difficult question to answer

because I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up. If

computers were an option at the time, I would have chosen some related

field.

* YOUR LAST CHARITABLE ACT: A long story about helping a young man in

Montana who saw the “bicycle of his dreams” in a magazine. The only place

he could purchase it was from a bicycle shop in Fountain Valley. He was

unable to make the purchase over the Internet or by other conventional

options. Subsequently, the young man called the Chamber of Commerce for

help. His bicycle has finally been shipped to him in Montana, and again

the Chamber of Commerce was the resource provider.

* AS A CHILD, WHAT DID SCHOOLMATES TEASE YOU ABOUT? Not being able to

carry a tune in a basket. That still holds true today.

* WHAT IS IN YOUR CAR TRUNK RIGHT NOW? Three purses, an extra pair of

shoes, clothes for the cleaners, an emergency road kit, car cover, spare

tire, Windex, paper towels and a supply of Chamber of Commerce membership

enrollment applications. May I send you one?

* THE FIRST THING THAT ATTRACTED YOU TO YOUR SPOUSE? It was love at first

sight, and, after 49 years of marriage, I still feel the same way.

* THE WORST IDEA YOU EVER HAD: Believing that these questions would be

easy to answer

* WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN VOTED IN HIGH SCHOOL: A good friend

* WHO ARE YOUR HEROES? My late grandmother and Eleanor Roosevelt

* FAVORITE ESCAPE FROM REALITY: Anywhere by the seaside

* ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT THE WORLD IF YOU COULD: Tolerance of

our differences

* YOUR IDEA OF EXERCISE: Reaching down to pick up diamonds off the floor.

Keepers, of course.

* PHONE OR ADDRESS WHERE PEOPLE CAN REACH YOU: Fountain Valley Chamber of

Commerce, 668-0542