Thursday May 7: General Meeting
Sunday May 10: Mother's Day
Sunday May 17: Wire Wrapping Class - Paid Members Only
Thursday May 21: Board Meeting
Monday May 25: Memorial Day
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May 2026 Program: "The Mines of Minas Gerais, Brazil"
Presented by: Paolo Sanchez
This month’s presentation, by Pasadena Lapidary Society member Paolo Sanchez, focuses on the famed mineral-rich districts of Minas Gerais, Brazil, following his June 2025 expedition to this region. Paolo spent two and a half weeks exploring gem and lithium-rich pegmatites of grand proportions as part of his research to understand how the melting ancient ocean floor could contribute to the creation of these deposits. This talk will touch upon historic gem mining in the area as well as an international rush for lithium and industrial minerals happening today, with a focus on the mining districts of Linopolis, Araçuai, and Diamantina.
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May 2026 Rock of the Month: Pyrite
Our May rock of the month is Pyrite. Bring in your samples of this beautiful iron sulfide mineral to our May meeting and share them with the group.
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Del-Air Rockhounds 2nd Quarter Shop Class - Paid Members Only
Wire Wrapping with Debbie Schoenmann
Sunday May 17, 2026, 11:30 am - 2:30 pm at Bob & Maxine Dearborn's Home
SUPPLY FEE - $10.00
There will be spaces available for 10 people.
Contact Maxine Dearborn to hold your space.
Please PAY OUR TREASURER - Shellie Van Winkle at the May Meeting to hold your space. A light lunch will be served while you work on your project.
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Report on Rock Sale Saturday April 18, 2026:
WHAT A ROCK SALE! Our club had its advertised rock sale and it was a BIG ONE! 40% of our membership was involved in this project either by advertising, helping to set-up, running the sale, helping take down or just by being there talking to us and our customers. We had other club rockhounds ready to look at our rocks and slabs way before we were ready to open up. So, we just said “the rocks are on the ground, take a look.” And boy, did they! And they bought, too! The rocks got hot in the sun, so we hit them with water and the sale kept going. The purpose of this sale was to dispose of all the club rock stored at Bob Knox’s house and we probably moved 75% of them to other peoples houses. The balance will be taken care of very soon. WE DID GOOD! And we put a little into our coffers at the same time. THE DEL AIR CLUB WISHES TO THANK ALL OUR MEMBERS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS CLUB EVENT AND TO THOSE WHO BROUGHT THE GOODIES FOR US TO SNACK ON THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
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June 2026 Field Trip Teaser: - Paid Members Only
Natural History Museum - Unearthed: Raw Beauty Exhibit
10 am Saturday June 27, 2026
Come join us and experience Unearthed: Raw Beauty, a one-of-a-kind exhibition featuring some of the largest and rarest mineral specimens ever to be displayed in their natural, uncut form, with some on view for the first time. The specimens, including many from the museum's own collection, are truly magnificent in scale and create an otherworldly experience. Parking is $20 so the club recommends carpooling to help save money. Aileen Beckers will provide info on admission costs and full parking details at the May general meeting. Hope to see you all there.
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March 28th - A Great Day For The Del-Air Rockhounds:
Our club participated in the annual DWP Spring Equinox again this year and we had a great time. The DWP provided us with the same booth location as in the past few years with a canopy, table, and 2 chairs. We brought our own extra canopies and tables to make a really nice booth. We displayed many dinosaur fossil items to talk about, had our free educational game, a touch and feel area and a good display of items for sale. There was a Native American Ceremony to open the event, then guests were able to walk around and visit the many non-profit booths in the area. The attendance may not have been as high as in the past, but we were very busy talking about rocks and fossils to many people. We had a good time for the three hours that the event was open. Club members who helped set up, talk to guests and take down the booth were: Jeff Dengrove, Bob Knox, Sandy Lee, Pam Abbott, Shellie VanWinkle, Bernadette Friedman, Dan Farber and his friend Alex, Maxine & Bob Dearborn. Club member Louise Ratliff was working in a booth for California Native Plants directly across from us and we could wave back and forth.
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