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Book Review
Sarah and the Big Wave By Jeanette Prather In a pandemic-friendly, COVID-ridden world, it can be hard to fill seats at an in-person event. That wasn’t the case for the authors of Sarah and the Big Wave, the parking lot at Vintage Faith Church, and Sarah Gerhardt – the first woman to surf the revered Mavericks. “I’m amazed that we sold out of books!” Said Gerhardt about the original ten books that turned into 28 when Gerhardt’s husband, Mike, had to run out and get more. Those sold out as well. “There are so many people. The turnout is great!” What was the secret sauce in Gerhardt’s…
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YFTB
Teens: Your Future Is Their Business By Suki Wessling We live in a world that tells teens they need to prepare now for college or a career—but according to Morgan Matthias, who’s now a product manager at Roku, many of them have no clue. “Most students start with ‘I don’t know what I want to do but I kinda like this’,” Morgan says. She would know. As a Cabrillo student with a firm plan for her own future, she became the first intern with local nonprofit Your Future Is Our Business. She and then-director Mary Gaukel Forster took a 20-year-old organization and pulled it into 21st-century expectations. Just in time…
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Give a Gift Give a Class
The Best Gift This Holiday Season is a Class by brad kava Maybe all those ships stacked up from San Diego to Los Angeles is a good thing. Perhaps it’s time to wake up and realize there’s something more valuable than all that plastic junk manufactured in China. The ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus counseled. “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” We seem to have forgotten that the joy of celebrating the holidays is the joy of being together—for a good time—but there’s something else we suggest this season. What about giving your loved ones time to learn something new. There are so many great classes in…
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Cruzin in a Santa Cruz
Cruzin’ in a Santa Cruz By Brad Kava You may have seen some of the commercials for it, which feature locals, including skateboard artist Jimbo Phillips, surfer Matt Rockhold, and the Lady Lurkers skate crew If you are going to name a car for our beloved surf city, it sure as heck better be cool. Hyundai’s new adventure vehicle, the Santa Cruz, really is. I got to spend a week with one, the high-end model that lists for $38,000, and I fell in love. (The base model is a more affordable $24,000.) They call it an SAV, Sports Adventure Vehicle, rather than a Sport Utility Vehicle. It’s got a pickup…
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Help for the Neediest
Help for the Neediest Acts of Hope Children’s Ministry is a small orphanage in Kampala Uganda. The children face many challenges such as not having enough food, clothing, school supplies, clean water and health issues such as HIV, Typhoid and Malaria. Currently they are experiencing flooding and the children are in need of rain boots and rain jackets but they also need everyday jackets, clothing and shoes. There are 55 children raning in age from 1 to 14. If you can donate gently used or new items, including toys and educational supplies please leave them in marked cans at 3849 Mission Drive in Santa Cruz, 95065. (Drive to the top…
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New Restaurant during Pandemic
How Crazy is it to Open Restaurants During Covid? By Suki Wessling What do you do if you just bought a cafe and Covid hits? If you’re a member of the Santa Cruz multi-generational Whiting family, you roll with the punches.“We took a wild guess that [outdoor eating] was going to be the near future with all the Covid stuff,” explains Dave Whiting, 61, of Santa Cruz. He’s the co-owner of The Farm Bakery and Cafe and owner of the Pixie Deli, both in Aptos. Starting when takeout was the only option restaurants had, the Farm–situated near Cabrillo College– was transformed from a bustling indoor cafe and bakery with a…
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Santa Cruz Gives Web
Coming Soon to a Website Near You: Santa Cruz Gives By Jeanne Howard At a recent meeting of 80 local nonprofit organizations, Karen Delaney, longtime Executive Director of the Volunteer Center, shared the results of a 2021 study on charitable giving trends. “National research conducted with more than 5,000 adults shows numbers we have not ever seen before,” she said. By “ever,” Delaney means not in the more than 30 years since she has been a local nonprofit leader. “People understand that where we are in our communities, where we are as a nation, requires them to do more. There is a great yearning to engage.” When study participants were…
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2021 Baby Photo
James Powars Wilder Named after his grandpa Jim Wilder and great grandma Patricia Powars. He’s known around town as Sweet Baby James. He was born March 15th 2021 and just turned six months. Both his parents were born and raised in Santa Cruz and he has a huge extended family that are all close by! He has two older sisters whom he absolutely adores (and vice versa) He loves to laugh and be the center of attention. His smile, baby rolls and chubby cheeks bring joy to all that cross his path!
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Sea Walls Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Gets 19 New Ocean-Themed Murals by Bridget Lyons Photos by Bridget Lyons During a week-long flurry of “artivism”—activism through art—Sea Walls Santa Cruz transformed 19 outdoor walls into vibrant murals. The festival was the latest edition of the PangeaSeed Foundation’s Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans program that invites engagement with ocean advocacy. You’ve likely already noticed some of the murals, since they’re located in high traffic areas, such as along Mission Street on the West Side, on either side of Soquel Avenue in Midtown, and in various locations downtown, including the bus depot and the Front Street garage. Taylor Reinhold and the Made Fresh Crew, the local artist…
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2021 Halloween
Pumpkin Picking Sunnside Produce Pumpkin Patch2831 Daubenbiss ave, SoquelArata185 Verde Rd, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019Post Street Farm122 Post St., Santa CruzCapitola Produce Pumpkin Patch700 Bay Ave., CapitolaRodoni Farms4444 Coast Road (Highway 1)Crystal Bay Farm40 Zils Road, WatsonvilleGizdich Ranch55 Peckham Rd, Watsonville, CA 95076Live Earth1275 Green Valley Road, Watsonville Halloween movie countdown Addam’s Family Beetlejuice Casper Coraline Corpse Bride Hocus Pocus It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown Frankenweenie Nightmare Before Christmas Paranorman EVENTS Saturday 2Roaring Camp: Harvest Faire & Steam Festival 11:00 AM-5:00 PM Step into the incredible world of steam power at the Harvest Faire & Steam Festival presented by Kinetic Steam Works and Roaring Camp Railroads. Welcome Fall…
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A-Mazing Halloween
A-Mazing Halloween in the Fields By Brad Kava When you think about a corn maze, unless you are a big Stephen King fan, you figure you can get though one in five or 10 minutes—if you get out at all! Not at Hollister’s Swank Farms, where last year’s record time was a speedy 25 minutes and that was by some people who really worked hard to get through seven acres of twisting turns. Others may want to bring a picnic to survive. The Swank family, who manage 25 acres of fun, have let their imaginations run as wild as their crops and, besides their two Sunflower Experience weekends in September…
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Santa Cruz First
A Santa Cruz First Children Receive College Funds for Going to the Dentist Did you know children from low-income households with savings of just $1-$499 for post-secondary education are three times more likely to go to college—and four times more likely to graduate? Starting children with savings early in life can improve their social-emotional development, a proven predictor of increased academic achievement later in life. College Savings Account programs send all children the message that they have the potential and the support needed for academic success and economic mobility, regardless of where they come from or their family’s finances. Dientes Community Dental and Santa Cruz Community Ventures (SCCV) have announced…
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Youth Action
Bringing Youth to Where the Action Is United Way Helps Teens Find Their Voice By Suki Wessling Amanda Gamban Natalia Galdamez Andrea Magdaleno Once upon a time, Andrea Magdaleno was hesitant to get involved with youth groups. Now a student at Cabrillo, she’s a leader in Jóvenes SANOS, a youth group that promotes health and well-being in Watsonville. Natalia Galdamez says she was a “troublemaker” when she joined Salud y Cariño, a girls’ empowerment organization, in the fifth grade. Now she’s a youth leader in three groups who advocates for her community. Both young women are now on the Steering Committee for a new program sponsored by the United Way,…
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MusicalMe Turns 25
MusicalMe Turns 25 By Jeanette Prather Within three years we had 500 students, and over the past 25 years we’ve serviced over 75,000 students! “When MusicalMe first started, we had 35 students, then we went to 80 students the following session, and all the way to 150 students the next spring,” said Lizz Hodgin Weihrauch, Director of MusicalMe, Inc. “Within three years we had 500 students, and over the past 25 years we’ve serviced over 75,000 students!” MusicalMe, a local and family-owned business under the parent company Music Together, specializes in offering developmentally appropriate music classes for children from birth through eight years old. “Music Together has communicated its basic…
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Good Shepherd Success
Story of a School’s Success Good Shepherd School’s Survival During the Pandemic By April A. Muzzio While public schools in the area were forced to close, our Good Shepherd School thrived based on 5 key factors: 1. Pivot The lockdown was mandated on March 13, 2020 and we were ready for full distance learning the following Monday, March 16, 2020. The 13th was a scheduled professional development day and we used that day and the weekend to prepare for distance learning. Our school didn’t miss a beat! Due to the small class sizes, we had a ThinkPad and/or Chromebook for every student!For the 2020-2021 school year, we were able to…
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Buddy lessons
Buddy Lessons Supporting Students’ Learning and Social and Emotional Well-being By Sarojani Rohan With so many parents seeking out positive learning experiences for their children, teachers and administrators are often asked just what it is that sets their school apart. At Mount Madonna School (MMS), located atop a mountain overlooking the Monterey Bay, the inspiring natural environment of 375 acres of redwood forests and oak meadows is one significant and unique offering for students and their families. To enhance its pillars of academic excellence, positive character development and creative self-expression that infuse all of the classes (Pre/K through grade 12), MMS maintains a particularly successful buddy program to support students’…
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Cover Story Jimbo Phillips
Parenting 101 for Artists: The Phillips Family Nurtures a Third Generation By Suki Wessling The making of a dynasty might not seem obvious when you’re in the middle of it.“He started off where his kind of art was a little underappreciated, so he wasn’t making very good money when I was little,” says artist Jimbo Phillips of his dad, artist Jim Phillips who is famous for his Screaming Hand and Santa Cruz logos. “He’d be like, ‘You should go to college and be a doctor or something and make good money’.” Good thing Jimbo didn’t take his dad’s advice. The Phillips family has nurtured three generations of artists, so we…
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Slow Streets Santa Cruz
Slow Streets Santa Cruz By Jeanette Prather I’m continuing to roll out two streets per month in the county. The ones that are up are Nova (off Portola and 41st) , Bain, Adrian, 9th, Moosehead Drive and we had to group them. What’s up with the slow street signs that were in the middle of various residential locations throughout Santa Cruz during the pandemic (and some that have stuck around)? The Slow Streets program is designed to limit through traffic on certain residential streets and allow them to be used as a shared space for people traveling by foot and by bicycle. On these Slow Streets, signs and barricades have…
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Kids Back to School
By Mikayla Shults Oasis I only got a few months of regular, in person high school. A lot of these students missed their first year of middle and high school. Like most people, I struggled with online school and the isolation from the outside world. At some point, after I had stopped participating in school almost completely, I realized I need a different way to learn. So I joined Oasis, an independent studies school on the Cabrillo campus. I haven’t been in any classes there and the only students I know are the people I got to transfer there. While most of the people I interviewed said they will be…
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Let Us In
From Selling Floors to the Hollywood Ceiling Santa Cruz Grandfather Sells Successful Movie Plot By Jeanette Prather Callero, who explains he loves a strong female character that kicks the butts of the male character, wants to have a theatrical screening of Let Us In at the Rio, and 100% of the proceeds go to charity. “I like storytelling,” said Joe Callero, co-writer and executive producer of Let Us In, a family-friendly movie released in 2021. “I’ve got a bunch of screenplays and for several decades have been a frustrated writer who likes to think logically about plotlines.” Callero mentioned that his most recent production, Let Us In, will see performance numbers by the end…
