There and Back All Around OC

“There and back” can carry myriad meanings—and become more interesting when folks get specific. Take Golden State Foods CFO Bill Sanderson’s mission to go “To the Moon and Back.” How? “If all of our 4,000 associates participate and each walks, runs, hikes, bikes or kayaks 120 miles in 60 days, we will travel a total of 477,710 miles, the distance to the moon and back,” according to Sanderson. The bigger idea is to get sponsors for the action and raise money for the GSF Foundation, which supports more than 600 charities and schools. How serious is Sanderson about the effort? He got Eugene Kranz, the guy who ran Mission Control during the Apollo 13 rescue operation—talk about there and back!—as honorary chairman. Visit gsffoundation.org for more … Ed Thorp got there in 1949, when he visited President Harry Truman in the White House as a teenage national finalist in the Society for Science & the Public’s annual talent search—an accomplishment that kicked off his high-flying academic career. Thorp’s journey back includes an upcoming talk about his new book—“A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street”—at the Beckman Center as part of an event hosted by the same group … Early sales of the book are brisk at 14,000 copies for the first month, and they got there with some help from fellow investing legend Charlie Munger, who was asked for reading recommendations at the recent annual meeting of his Daily Journal Corp. and came back with an endorsement of Thorp’s latest title … Anton Segerstrom was there as a kid in the 1960s when his father, the late Henry Segerstrom, started on his vision for South Coast Plaza. The younger Segerstrom took a crowd back in time during a lovely dinner held last week at Water Grill to mark the start of the luxe shopping center’s 50th year, reminding everyone that his father’s vision was broad enough to identify a couple of other visionaries. Jay Chiat, whose Chiat/Day eventually left an indelible mark on the advertising industry, was a youngster working in Santa Ana when he landed the South Coast Plaza account. Frank Gehry’s deconstructed designs had yet to gain fame when he got the assignment for the Joseph Magnin store there… Best wishes to Lori Whalen and Reginald Durant, who are always there when it comes to going back to what’s natural. Their Santa Ana-based nonprofit Back to Natives Restoration is one 25 finalists for The Atlantic magazine’s Renewal Project, which will recognize “ordinary people creating extraordinary community renewal” with $20,000 grants for the five top honorees … Kudos to Chris Schulz, who went there as a bidder for Orange Coast magazine and is back to regular business in his long-standing role as publisher of the glossy monthly, now part of Hour Media Group (see related Addendum item, page 14) … Steve Churm was there, front and center, getting kudos for his work on behalf of Human Options’ annual Men in Motion campaign during a reception at the artfully appointed offices of Minyard Morris LLP. Then he deflected credit back to Maricela Rios-Faust, who just finished her first year on the job as chief executive of the nonprofit. Visit humanoptions.org for more information … Sullivan says: The UCI men’s basketball team got there for the first time in 2015, and here’s a prediction that the Anteaters will not only win the Big West tournament to get back to the NCAA post-season this year but break through with a first-ever victory at the Big Dance.