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Spring Flowers
Spring Flower Grand Prize Win 4 Tickets to Ride the Train at Roaring Camp Deadline MAY 20 Submit your coloring entry to [email protected] and win prizes, and a grand prize of 4 tickets to Roaring Camp! You can also mail them to Box 3505, Santa Cruz, 95063 Previous Coloring Pages and Winners
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March Editor’s Note
March Editor’s Note By Brad Kava Teens may be having the toughest time of all during the lockdown. They are in the years where they are starting to break away from their families and enjoy some independence and responsibility. Not to mention, this is the time when hanging out with friends is hugely important to them, and the best thing about being in school is being around peers who influence, teach and share. Instead, they are locked into a Zoom world, right at the age when we are begging them to get off their computers, turn off social media and get out and do things. Well, our writers have found…
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Jelly Beanz
The Community Says Goodbye to Another Local Gem But There’s Still Hope by Sarah Hirshland Items that don’t sell before Jelli Beanz closes will be donated back to the clothing bank. Citing a sharp decrease in buying since Covid, the owners of the popular used clothes and toy store, Jelli Beanz, are in the process of closing the 14-year-old business. Since 2007, Jelli Beanz has been a local treasure for parents and families to buy, sell and exchange new and gently used goodies. The store has been a go-to for new and seasoned moms and dads. “I’ve been coming here since my kids were little, it’s such a fabulous place”,…
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Flower Girl Coloring Page
Ballerina Kitty Coloring Contest Deadline APRIL 20 Submit your coloring entry to [email protected] and we will select one to win a a prize! You can also mail them to Box 3505, Santa Cruz, 95063 Previous Coloring Pages and Winners
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Salesian School
Salesian School Photo Essay by Kevin Painchaud On Feb.4 Salesian School joined the nationwide celebration of Catholic Schools Week. Salesian School’s focus was on celebrating the community. With help from many parents that are in the medical field, they were able to organize numerous first-responders including the police and fire to come on-site and to drive around the campus twice, like a parade. The kids from all grades, while social distanced, had the wonderful opportunity to show their support and say thanks. Many of the kids were dressed as their favorite profession, which included doctors, nurses, fire fighters, cooks and more. Read More Local News Articles
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Little League Returns
Little League Returns by kevin painchaud Next month will mark the one-year anniversary that all sports have been shut down. From Major League Baseball, college sports and even Little League. With more and more vaccinations being given and more people following the strict mask policy and 6-foot social distancing, Santa Cruz County has been able to bring the infectious rate of the coronavirus down. The next couple of weeks will be crucial to see if Santa Cruz is able to bring our levels down far enough to allow team sports for schools to finally start. Until then, sports are having to make the shift to follow the California Department of…
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Teaching During COVID
Teaching and Learning in the Time of COVID-19 By Patricia Lucas, Spanish teacher at Gateway School As a teacher of over forty years, I felt I had “seen it all” — every educational trend, methodology, pedagogy, and innovation. This most recent challenge sent this “maestra”, a World Language middle school teacher at Gateway School, into a near free fall. The educational challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic have caught all educational constituents off guard scrambling for the best ways to move forward. My students’ varying responses to Distance Learning have brought me new insights, unexpected innovation, flexibility and challenges. It is my belief that the most critical need for all students is…
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Climbing Mountains
Climbing Mountains My School Year Ups and Downs By Grace Timan, 11th grade Priorities have changed, that’s something I learned in my Values in World Thought class this year. Yes, I do miss the way the world once was, and I pine for the classic high school experience. What I now want most, however, is the health of those in my community. Gazing at the faces of my peers displayed on their pixelated webcams, I reminisced on 2020 and years past. Dial back to September, a new school year and what was supposed to be a fresh start, that instead put us right back where we were six months ago…
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Make Some Music
Family Fun Time Make Some Music by Jan Pierce Exposure to music of all kinds is one of the best gifts you can give to your children. Finding activities your whole family enjoys can be challenging. But you can’t go wrong with music. Listening to and making music are some of the most enjoyable parts of life. And the endless variety in music ensures you can find something for everyone in the clan. The benefits of enjoying music are many. In infancy and even in utero babies are calmed by music. Young children can focus attention and complete a task while listening to a song. They can wind down with…
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Colostrum for the Win
Colostrum for the Win! By Laura Maxson, LM Colostrum is high in protein, meaning there is a lot of bang for the buck inside each of those tiny swallows in the first minutes and hours after birth. Babies do best with skin-to-skin and the opportunity to receive the rich, wonderful substance called colostrum through early access to breastfeeding. Most parents expect to give birth and have their baby in arms for bonding and breastfeeding right away; however, that’s not always the case. Giving birth is full of unknowns; birth plans are made and classes are taken, but no one knows exactly how their birth will turn out. Some families have…
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Pandemic Parenting
Pandemic Parenting And the Power of Perspective By Erin Beck Maver Sometimes, when I deliver life lessons to my kids I think I’m partly delivering that lesson to myself. Today was one of those days. Somewhere during the course of my life I was presented with this analogy, and it really stuck with me and made an impact. I’ll attempt to summarize: Imagine you’re sitting at a table with three other people, each occupying a space that corresponds to “North”, “East”, “South”, and “West”, on a compass rose. From your perspective, sitting in the “North” position, you see the number “3” written on a piece of paper. Sitting to your…
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WiFi 101
Wi-Fi 101 Luigi Oppido As time has gone by, the need for Wi-Fi has become greater and greater, and the protocols have followed this need by becoming faster and faster. All these digital devices we use in 2021 need a connection of some type. Your experience is only as good as your connection, and that comes from either a cellular data connection coming from a tower-based somewhere in your town or it comes locally from your local Internet connection. That local connection we fondly call Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi service is broadcasted a number of different ways from those little antenna coming out of your router. As time has gone by, the…
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Jasmine Alinder
Jasmine Alinder Dean of Humanities, UCSC BY suki wessling This monthly series from Growing Up will highlight some of the moms in our community who are out there making things happen while also caring for kids at home. We’ll feature teachers, healthcare workers, business owners, coaches, and more. If you know of a mom who has made a difference, please email [email protected]. This month’s mom, Jasmine Alinder, is a mid-pandemic transplant to Santa Cruz just before the start of the school year. A dean who can’t get to know her faculty is also a mom who had to uproot her children in the strangest year of their lives. Thank you,…
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Lonan Dickinson Artist of the Month
Lonan Dickinson Artist of the Month My name is Lonan Dickinson and I’m 13 years old. My house recently burned down in the CZU complex fire that happened in Boulder Creek, California. After the fire I had to move to a new neighborhood which was difficult because I was separated from my community and friends. Shortly afterwards, I found out I had two good friends in my new neighborhood, Stella and Brooklyn, who showed me fun places to explore in Mount Hermon. During my free time I enjoy fishing, surfing, skateboarding and scootering at the skatepark with my friends. Before COVID, I played on the middle school basketball and flag…
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Benefits of Home Ownership
Non-Financial Benefits of Home Ownership BY seb frey Spring is in the air, a time when everyone’s fancy is turning to looking at homes for sale. Or so it seems to me, anyway! The last two articles I wrote for Growing Up in Santa Cruz dealt with some of the financial aspects of home ownership – specifically, how to actually get the money together to buy a home, and why renting a home is, in the long run, calamitously more expensive than owning one. So much of the discussion around homeownership revolves around the money, but there are many other well-documented, but less well-known, benefits to homeownership. In this month’s…
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The Future 2035
What Will Santa Cruz Look Like in 2035? If You Have a Baby Now, Here’s What Their Future Will Be by Jeanette Prather With all the question marks that came along with 2020 – and, let’s be honest, 2021 so far – it might be ambitious to try and tackle what the world has in store for the coming decades. But let’s indulge this topic for the sake of our future generations, anyway! What might the world look like in 2035, for instance, for a child born now?“We hope that the culture of our community in 2035 is a vibrant town square of open communication and critical thinking, fueled by…
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March 2021 Celebrations
GUiSC accepts listings for family-oriented events that are free or cost less than $10, to be considered in the monthly calendar of events. Events costing more than $10 for non-profit originations or benefits will also be considered. GUiSC does not guarantee that a submitted event will be included in the calendar. The calendar editors will select calendar entries and photos. Photos for the calendar may be submitted by email. Digital images must be high resolution, 200-300dpi. Calendar Deadline: 15th of the month prior to publication. (i.e. May 15 for June issue) SUBMIT EVENT Monday 1March is Hummingbird Month at the UCSC Arboretum! You’ll find fun facts and activities to download…
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Painting the Town Purple
Painting the Town Purple BY BRAD KAVA If the profusion of purple porch lights around the county has made you smile, you have an inspiration from Terry Ballantyne Brezsny to thank.The current realtor—and Jill of all trades around town—made a big house sale and wanted to do something to better things around her. How about painting the town purple? “During the election I was so frustrated with all the negativity,” says the vivacious 69-year-old. “Everybody was sliced and diced into one label or another and the identity politics was overwhelming. “ She wanted to erase the red and blue factions, combine them and make the county purple, the color that…
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Teens Stepping Up For Community
Teens Stepping Up for Community By Jeanette Prather There are no shortages of communities needing help in a variety of ways, and it seems no shortage of organizations ready to meet those needs.. Santa Cruz teens and tweens haven’t just been sheltering in place during the pandemic—they have been getting out to help the community. “I like volunteering because it feels good to know that I’m helping out, and that I can make people happy, especially during this pandemic,” said 12-year-old Zoe Robinson. “Making cards for seniors was a fun and easy volunteer project to do from home.”Robinson, referencing the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County’s YouthSERVE division’s recent Cards…
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Santa Cruz Skate Shops
by Hugh McCormick COVERY STORY | SKATE PARKS | RETURN OF SKATEBOARDING Bill’s Wheels1240 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz210AM-6PM Monday-Sunday831-690-9045BillsWheeels.comIt’s been a good 44 years for Bill’s Wheels. When industry OG Bill Ackerman opened the first incarnation of his legendary skating emporium on East Lake Avenue in Watsonville in 1977 he was just starting to get into skateboarding seriously. He had always intended on following in his dad’s footsteps and becoming a cop, but the stars aligned and Ackerman dove fully into the skating industry. The demos in the parking lot of Bill’s Wheels (Watsonville) – which he called “Skate Jams” attracted 400-500 kids each month. Ramps were set up and…
