Packaged Snack Bars: What Are We Really Serving our Kids? By Kris Holden I remember when my mom used to pack me a granola bar in my lunch. I think that was the only type of “bar,” back in the 70’s, made by Nature Valley. It was hard, crumbly and sweet. Looking at the same brand of bars today, I counted 11 ingredients listed and 3 are different sources of sugar. I wonder if the original bars had “natural flavor” as the current ones do now? Nowadays, bars go by many different names: Cereal bars, Granola bars, Energy bars, Protein bars, Snack bars, and the list goes on. There are…
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Embers, Sparks, and Fireworks…What You Can Do to Improve Your Home’s Safety
Embers, Sparks, and Fireworks…What You Can Do to Improve Your Home’s Safety Contributed by Fire Safe Santa Cruz County A fire in the wild land creates it’s own local weather conditions. Depending on the fire’s size and intensity, these increased wind velocities and unusual directions can send burning fragments of burning material swirling far and wide, resulting in embers raining down nearly a mile away from the actual fire itself. These embers can and often do cause additional spot fires, depending on the nature and condition of the vegetation in the area, which has often become further dried and flammable by the winds associated with the fire. In the recent…
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How to Get Back in the Saddle and Get Fired Up for Longer Rides
How to Get Back in the Saddle and Get Fired Up for Longer Rides Join groups, train together and step up for the Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge By Karen Kefauver Last month, on the Girls Rock mountain bike ride, I had quite an ego jolt. On a beautiful, sunny Saturday, I joined a dozen gals for a mellow, social ride that started near downtown Santa Cruz. We rolled out slowly and started riding up, up, up towards the university on a combination of dirt and paved paths. It had been several weeks since my last ride, I told my pal. Within a few minutes, I had to stop talking because…
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Your Letters and Thoughts: July 2019
Your Letters and Thoughts: July 2019 Denied Heaven or Saved from Hell? My daughter’s lottery number appeared on the screen! She had gotten one of the 12 spots available in the kindergarten class at the Tierra Pacifica Charter school lottery. There had been 350 applicants to the school! “Welcome to our school, you will love it here, congratulations!” I was assured by a school administrator as I left the room where the lottery was held. They had told me to prepare vaccination reports to send in and proof of living in Live Oak. I bolted out of the school and into the parking lot and staggered to my car. It…
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July 2019-From the Editors
From the Editors: July 2019 Dear Readers, We’re here to help. That could be Growing Up in Santa Cruz’s motto. We want to be a resource for local families to find the things they need to improve life for their kids right on up to adulthood—not just toddlers and below. Take a look at Suki Wessling’s heavily researched story about how to get into great colleges without breaking the law and resorting to bribery. This is the third part of a series Suki has written about the best ways to get your kids into the colleges they want. She will continue to focus on higher education and training programs for…
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Preventing Dog Bites in Children
Preventing Dog Bites in Children How do we keep dogs and children safe together? By Dr. Gabrielle Ravina According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 800,000 people require medical attention for dog bites each year. Of those victims, children are bitten at a rate almost twice that of adults. For this reason, as both a veterinarian and a mother, I often cringe at those “cute” photos and videos on social media, depicting young children hobnobbing with dogs. While I hate to be a “Debbie Downer,” these photos too often depict children in potentially compromised positions, and in the eyes of a trained professional, are bites waiting to happen. You…
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The Answer to “I’m Bored”
The Answer to “I’m Bored” By Mary Gaukel Opportunities for career exploration are abundant in our county and summer is a perfect time to connect your young person with some career exploration. In this month’s article, and in next month’s, I will share examples, from throughout the county, of short-term and ongoing activities with related jobs. Connecting students with experiences that are linked to specific careers help youth become self-aware and real-world aware. Teen Kitchen Project – Culinary, Dietician The Teen Kitchen program offers an excellent opportunity for growth & team building while developing valuable hands-on skills. Together youth prepare meals that are delivered to those in the community who…
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July Pet Photo Contest!
Vote for our July Cover! Which is your favorite kid and pet pair? Leave a comment on this post with the number of the photo of your choice. Only one entry per person. DEADLINE IS JULY 26TH! 1) Bella and English Bulldog Bubba 2) 3) 4) Gabriella and Shimmer the Beagle…also know as “Beagle and the Beast” Sent by Kimberly Gomez 5) Echo guarding her “baby boy” Wyatt, sent by Susan Lorbeki 6) Adalyn who is 4 years old and her pet chicken cupcake. This chicken fallows Adalyn around the yard hoping for chicken treats and also to Adalyn’s delight likes to try and hop in the car. 7) Mason…
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What do you want to see at the dying Capitola Mall?
What do you want to see at the dying Capitola Mall? About 200 people showed up for a meeting with planners about what could and should happen to the Capitola Mall, which is largely deserted, but still has some great places for kids, including the Museum of Discovery and Giggles and Wiggles. Here’s what the Sentinel wrote: “Capitola and Santa Cruz County residents were not hesitant to give their input about the future of the mall in a community meeting Tuesday night in the Sears building. “Mall owner Merlone Geier Partners, who purchased the mall from Macerich in 2016 and owns 67% of the property, shared its plans for the…
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Dignity Health Dominican Hospital Expansion
Dignity Health Dominican Hospital Expansion Dignity Health Dominican Hospital will undergo a $360 million renovation and expansion to ensure that the growing Santa Cruz County community can access world class health care now and into the future. The project will allow for advanced technology, new state-of-the-art facilities, and even more innovative healing spaces. The Dominican Hospital Pavilion expansion and improvement project, slated to begin in late 2019, will add 84,000 square feet to the existing hospital—without increasing the hospital’s current footprint—and will include construction of a three-level parking garage with 410 parking spaces. “Dominican Hospital has been taking care of our community for generations, and this expansion will mean increased access…
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The Worst Day for a Family Lawyer, Addressing Domestic Violence
The Worst Day for a Family Lawyer, Addressing Domestic Violence By Bob Derber and Judge Paul Marigonda At times, being a Family Law attorney can really suck. Today is one of those days. What do you do when a parent threatens the health and safety of their child? Where does the other parent turn for help? The challenge can be drug or alcohol addiction, physical violence, sexual abuse, or neglect. The child can be 4 or 14. The result is often not obvious but is always devastating. The mental and emotional impact of abuse on a child can last a lifetime. And yet to the child, the offending parent is…
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Screen Time in Summertime: Ask Nicole June 2019
Screen Time in Summertime: Ask Nicole June 2019 By Nicole M. Young, MSW When I was a young child, the only TV shows my parents let us watch were Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, or anything else on PBS. Occasionally, we watched The Brady Bunch, until my mom declared the show off limits. She was convinced that the more my siblings and I watched The Brady Bunch, the more we fought with each other. I remember being upset at her decision – how could life, and my mom, be so unfair?!? Now that I’m a parent, I can understand she was doing her best to keep four kids busy, healthy, and…
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June Coloring Page
June Coloring Contest There is so much to discover under the Santa Cruz Wharf in this drawing by Trisha Wolfe. Want to win Beach Boardwalk tickets? Color this in, send it to Box 3505, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 or email it to [email protected] and sign up for our newsletter and we will select five winners for the passes.
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Stars Therapy Services: Supporting Children and Families
Stars Therapy Services: Supporting Children and Families The relationship between you and your child is at the heart of our intervention services. We focus on parent education, family involvement, and natural routines to encourage a child’s growth across the five areas of human development. The staff at Stars Therapy Services are on a mission to empower and support parents because parents know their unique little one best. When your child feels safe and loved, they grow and learn! Social and emotional development describes children’s ability to experience and express their feelings, form relationships, and explore the world around them. Social and emotional development is the foundation for all other learning.…
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Looking Down on the World From Up High: Extreme Adventures June 2019
Looking Down on the World From Up High: Extreme Adventures June 2019 By Kevin Painchaud You ask most people what they are afraid of, the most common answer is heights. Most people tend to get a bit of vertigo when standing on a tall ladder or peering over a bridge. For 15 year old Sophia Park, she has no fear of heights — In fact, she craves it. For the last four years, Sophia has been a competitive rock climber. This has lead her to compete all over California and Nevada. Sophia has won many competitions and consistently ranks high in the standings for her age division. Last year in…
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Potential and the Value of Sitting on the Bench
Potential and the Value of Sitting on the Bench By Lisa Catterall I would never have thought I was capable of sitting on the bench as the number two man. And it showed me that you can really achieve everything in life, even the unthinkable, as long as you’re willing to work on yourself a little bit. – Oliver Kahn Some of my students were particularly distraught today because a friend of theirs quit a varsity sports team after one of the biggest games of the season. There was a speculative consensus that this students’ reaction was because they felt slighted by the coach for being on the bench too…
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No Kids Wanted
No Kids Wanted I’ve never wanted to be a father, but sometimes I wonder, ‘What if?’ By John M. Glionna I might seem an outsider among all you Santa Cruz parents, an unlikely voice for these pages, because I hail from a foreign tribe: those who have chosen not to have children. While I’m not a father, I am an uncle to nine nieces and nephews, aged 4 to 40. I cherish each of them on their own terms and, along with their parents, am celebrating the adults they have, or soon will, become. But I still grapple with my decision not to have my own children. For many years, it was an easy call, this…
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Parasites Punching this Summer: Talking Pets June 2019
Parasites Punching this Summer: Talking Pets June 2019 By Dr. Nichole Brooks Those creepy, crawly blood sucking parasites are popping up everywhere! Its tick season around here and everyone needs to be ready. What is a tick? Ticks are considered an arthropod ectoparasite and are an arachnid. They are related to spiders, mites and even scorpions. They feed exclusively on the blood of the animal they land on. On the central coast of California the type of ticks most often identified are the American dog tick (dermacentor variabilis), the Brown dog tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus), and the Western Blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus). In brief, the tick has a relatively short life…
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You Can Bypass a Lot of Medicines if You Feed Kids Healthy Food
You Can Bypass a Lot of Medicines if You Feed Kids Healthy Food By Kris Holden As a parent, we strive to keep our kids safe and healthy. When our kids are young we’re able to feed them (or at least attempt) pretty much what WE want them to eat; fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, etc… But as they get older, and they get introduced to (in school, friend’s houses, etc…) processed foods, fast foods, candy, and those neon-colored cupcakes, their taste buds seem to change. I’ve always tried to feed my kids “healthy” food at home. Now “healthy” can be defined in many different ways and look different from…
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Letter from the Editors: June 2019
Letter from the Editors: June 2019 Dear Readers, Game of Thrones is over and Summer is Coming. That opens up a whole world of possibilities that don’t include dragons or beheadings. We’ve got some new features that should make Santa Cruz brighter for you. Check out our new Talking Pets column where a veterinarian will answer your questions and help make life better for your animals. Nichole Brooks’ first topic, timely and important is…ugh, gross…ticks. It has what you need to know. Next up is a new regular feature by Kris Holden, who specializes in healthy eating for kids, with recipes that will make good eating also fun eating. On…
