Hasan Nouri was the on the Weekly's Dec. 12, 2008, cover for raising awareness about the plights of his native Afghans and Orange County's polluted Aliso Creek. Manager of the Stormwater Engineering Division of URS Corp. in Santa Ana and recipient of civil engineering's prestigious Herbert Hoover Medal for humanitarian work, Nouri years ago co-founded International Orphan Care, which first helped children who lost their parents amid endless war in Afghanistan before being expanded to other countries around the world.
Landmines are a horror of war that has made some children orphans, and Monday night Nouri will be raising awareness about them. The Virginia-based Marshall Legacy Institute, named in honor of Gen. George C. Marshall of Marshall Plan fame, provides mine-detecting dogs, training and supplies to war-torn regions around the world. The institute's Legacy of Hope fund-raisers help make the world safer by allowing communities to thrive without fears from landmines and unexploded ordinance. The second annual Legacy of Hope golf tournament is Monday at Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, and Nouri is the post-tournament dinner speaker.
Special guest will be Mohibullah Ahmad Shah and his dog Meme, who were MLI's 2008 Mine Detection Dog Team of the Year. Upper echelon event sponsors–we're talking the people and companies that kick in $25,000 to $50,000 each–also become sponsors of one of these teams. That and less generous support is gladly accepted. Visit here for more details.

OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.