Grace | Age 7.5 Noah| Age 4 Henry | Age 6.5 Ioela Isala Johnie | Age 5 Koji Honda | Age 6 Luna | Age 5 Nevaeh | Age 10 Noah | Age 4 Oliver | Age 6 Owen | Age 6 Weylyn | Age 6 Find More Coloring Pages
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Firecracker
Fourth of July Submit your coloring page for a chance to be in our paper [email protected] More Coloring Pages
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Real Estate
Is the Santa Cruz Real Estate Market Toast? By Seb Frey What a difference a few months makes! It was just this past March when I wrote an article for Growing Up in Santa Cruz asking if the Santa Cruz real estate market was boiling over. As I write this in June, nobody’s asking that question anymore. Instead, everyone seems to be asking if the market is headed for some kind of crash. And that’s a fair question, because anecdotally and numerically, it’s apparent that the Santa Cruz County real estate market – and every market across the country that I’m aware of – has hit the brakes. Whether it…
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Wildfire Season
5 Easy Steps to Prepare For Wildfires by Susan Tatsui-D’Arcy Children, and adults, are anxious about the negative effects of wildfires and climate-related disasters. The uncertainty of when they will strike and the restrictions it puts on after-school activities, family vacations, and even on-site classes are taking its toll on all of us. I recently hosted the North Rodeo Gulch Firewise event to encourage residents to take action to mitigate wildfires. With over 17 expert speakers from Supervisor Manu Koenig to Central Fire’s top brass to SC County Sheriff to ARES (ham radio), they addressed concerns and offered excellent tips on how to navigate the upcoming fire season. My daughter,…
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Community Loss
Help Save Watsonville Community Hospital Not only is it the place most babies are born, but it provides invaluable emergency services countywide. By TONY NUÑEZ When news broke late last year that Watsonville Community Hospital was facing imminent closure there was a panic among people that understood what the loss of the 106-bed acute care facility would mean for local health care. Quickly, a coalition of public entities and nonprofits—now known as the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project—formed to purchase the hospital and stave off what would have been a catastrophe for the Central Coast. The hospital employs 620 people and has a medical staff of over two hundred physicians.…
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LGBTQ+ Booklist
Task Force Releases LGBTQ+ Booklist for School Libraries by Santa cruz county BOARD OF EDUCATION A task force convened by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education has released a booklist called the “Top 40 LGBTQ+ Books that Every School Library Should Have,” a project undertaken as part of a commitment to safety and inclusiveness for LGBTQ+ students The final list of 40 books includes fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, anthologies and picture books. Ten titles were selected for each of the gradespans of PreK-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. “When students see themselves reflected back in culture, curriculum, and media they are empowered to work harder and dream bigger,” said Santa…
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Letter From Managing Editor
You Are Not Alone A Letter From the Art Director|Managing Editor by christy Shults It’s like screaming and fighting in a dream, but you have no voice, and your flailing arms have no force. I’m helpless; I have no control.. The day the paper was to be sent to the printer was also the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade and gave guns more rights than women in one fell swoop. I cried for my daughters, nieces, and every other person born with a uterus—the day consumed by anger, frustration, fear, sadness, and discouragement. A numbness fell over me between the tears and commiserating with female friends. What…
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History in the Making
Students Witness Supreme Court History by Grace Timan Being too young to vote, and old enough to be affected by a policy puts you in an interesting position. At this in-between age, it can feel helpless at times. Throughout my teenage years, one thing that has characterized my interests is a passion to fight for what I believe in, in any capacity possible. As I move through life I am learning what exactly this means for my life and how to get involved in a productive manner. When I found out about the recent leak of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, I was on a school…
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Scary World
Helping Children Cope With Traumatic Events by Nicole M. Young, MSW This month’s article is a re-run, partly because I’m on vacation, but mostly because the topic is still very relevant. According to the Gun Violence Archive — which defines a mass shooting as four or more people (not including the attacker) shot or killed in a single incident —there were at least 230 mass shootings in the US between January 1 and May 30, 2022. The shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas was the 213th incident, which means 17 (!) more mass shootings occurred in the week after that. We may have different beliefs about the problem…
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Community Kindness
Editor’s Note By Brad kAva You want to make America great again? How about focusing on kindness? I know, it sounds hippy dippy cliché, but when people put aside business as usual and do great things for each other the world really becomes a better place. It happened to me last week.My engine lights were flashing and the warning signals looked like a missile was pointed at the Starship Enterprise. “Oil pressure low,” it blared. Luckily, I was near the Valvoline in Watsonville, by Target. I coasted in, thinking I just needed an oil change, but no, the oil had all leaked out and even a mechanical dolt like me…
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El Vaquero
Trivia Night by brad kava Here’s something for families to do that’s free or low cost. El Vaquero Winery in Corralitos has trivia night at 7 p.m. on Thursdays and unlike some alcohol serving places, it’s kid and dog friendly. Sometimes there are more kids than others. Host Michael Gaither often throws in questions that the tykes can answer. (How did we miss the name of Sponge Bob’s home town, Bikini Bottom, even aided by a 6-year-old?)It’s outdoors, there’s food catered from the pizza joint across the street (or bring your own), excellent reasonably priced wines and apple juice and a fun couple of hours for all. El Vaquero is at…
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YAN Pop-Ups
Santa Cruz County Youth Action Network “Pop Ups” Bring Together Local Youth and Community The Santa Cruz County Youth Action Network and United Way of Santa Cruz County are “popping up” at various Santa Cruz County destinations to offer the community a new, fun, and meaningful way to bring youth, community members, and youth-serving organizations together. The Youth Action Network Pop-Up events are family-friendly and focus on offering games, activities, food, and fun for middle – high school youth while connecting them with local youth programs, resources, and community leaders. The Youth Action Network consists of organizations focusing on youth well-being and committed to amplifying youth voices from across the…
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Swanton Berry Farm
Delicious Berries by brad kava If you are heading north on Highway 1, you have to stop at Swanton’s Berry Farm for a real make America great experience. First time visitors usually end up standing at the cash register waiting for someone to collect their money for the great berry pies, coffee, jam, short bread, berry baskets and more. They wait, and wait and wait…until someone tells them, “It’s donation only.” Ooops. Happened to me. You pay what you want. And as the manager there told me, they end up making more money by asking for it than they would with a cashier. It’s like stepping back to a country…
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Kermit
Kermit – the Bikemobile By Santa Cruz Public Libraries Mission Statement: To have fun, to meet the community wherever the community may gather, and to provide library services wherever possible. Kermit arrived in Santa Cruz in 2016 and was made possible through a Pacific Library Partnership grant, the Burgeon Group, and the Spokesman Bicycles shop in Santa Cruz. You can check out books, get a library card, and talk with a library staff person whenever Kermit is out and about. Kermit can usually be found at community events, farmer’s markets, parades, and, sometimes, helping the many Little Free Libraries by providing donated paperbacks. And, although Kermit is a bit…
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June’s Local Artist
Madisyn Huntress Hein I’m a recent SLVHS graduate attending Cabrillo College. I’ve lived all over the Santa Cruz Mountain areas. My interest in art started at a young age, and my first art teacher, Lisa Alexander, sparked my passion for creating art. She was encouraging and helped me believe in myself as an artist at a young age. Many of my skills are self-taught, with some instruction from various high school art teachers. I paint mostly plant life and landscapes. I also enjoy focusing on bringing my imagination of fairies and magic to life. I’ve been oil painting on and off since my sophomore year of high school. While I…
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About to Pop?
The Santa Cruz Real Estate Bubble By Seb Frey The talk of a real estate bubble has been getting louder and louder for the past several years. Lately, it seems to have reached, if not a fevered pitch, something of a dull roar. Memories of the 2008 mortgage crisis and subsequent collapse of real estate prices linger. Prices are now considerably higher than they were at the prior peak, and housing affordability is as bad as it has ever been, and quite possibly worse. It seems everyone is asking, “Are these prices sustainable?” and “should I wait for the market to correct before I buy a home here?” Those are…
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Summer Reading
Avoid the Slide by diane cowen Summer Slide is the term used to describe learning loss that children experience over the summer when they are out of school and away from structured learning activities. Children and teens who do not read over the summer lose some of the achievement gains made during the previous school year. These summer setbacks are particularly problematic because early education serves as the foundation for the achievement, work habits, and perceptions about self-confidence and schooling that impact performance for years to come. The Santa Cruz Public Libraries (SCPL) can help with that! The Library Summer Reading Program provides educational, fun enrichment activities, and they’re free!…
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Young Volunteers
Proving That Anyone Can Make a Difference How a Group of Third Graders is Taking Small Steps to Change the World By Kim Hickok It’s amazing how all the kids have come together to be a part of Be the Change, and they’re very proud of it. For the most part, Aarav Patel is a typical third grader. He’s a little shy, enjoys playing video games, swimming, and playing tennis. But what makes this 8-year-old stand out from his peers is his unresounding desire to make the world a better place. “I was, and still am, inspired by Gandhi and his passion for wanting to change the world,” Patel said.…
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Erin Buchla
Cruising to a New Career Suki Wessling Erin Buchla, like anyone who worked with small children for many years, is good at problem-solving in the moment. Faced with a devastated customer, a boy who had lost his Pokémon cards after leaving them on top of the car, she got to work. “I invited all these parents to come out with their kids and bring a couple Pokémon cards,” Erin recalls. “We put them out on this 14-foot table and the kids all shared a couple cards with the boy that lost them and he was just so happy.” Erin owns Cruise Coffee Cafe in Scotts Valley—a drive-through and a full…
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Defining Gender
Banned in Florida, but Freely Talked About Here Gender Isn’t Always What You Think It Is By Suki Wessling Most of today’s parents grew up with what’s called the gender binary, which assumes the existence of two distinct genders. Most of today’s kids learn about changing gender norms from their peer groups, for whom gender is seen as fluid and as a spectrum. But for many families when they’re at home, gender is simply not an issue…until it is. “My child is 14 and was assigned female at birth, and that’s how we raised this child—as a female, you know? Because that’s how it’s done.”Goldi’s child came out as nonbinary…
