The Ventura Parkinson’s Support Group will host Wayne Pickerell, Vice President and Clinical Research Manager of Neurosearch, Inc. at their meeting on Wednesday, January 13, 2016 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at The Lexington Assisted Living at 5440 Ralston St.
Wayne Pickerell has been involved in Parkinson’s Disease for over 15 years and managed Clinical Research for Neurosearch for over a decade. Thanks in large part to the leadership role of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, research is advancing rapidly and there is promising work being done to improve treatments for PD. Wayne will discuss new treatments that are being studied and progress in the search for a cure to Parkinson’s disease!
Please check in at the front desk for directions and sign-in. Extra parking is graciously available across the street from the Lexington in the Baptist Church parking lot. Call 766-6070 for further information. Reservations are not required.
The Ventura City Firefighters would like the thank the generous citizen who anonymously donated these toys at Fire Station 2 for the ‘Spark of Love’ toy drive. We were out of the Station when the toys were dropped off and found them later in the day behind the back fence so we never had the chance to say ‘thank you’ in person. New toys can be donated at any Fire Station for the toy drive.
Happy Holidays and Thank you! ~ Fire Station 2 Ventura City Fire Dept.
The Four Points by Sheraton and owner, Joseph Fan celebrate another year as a major sponsor of the Ventura Harbor Village Parade of Lights.
As part of the festivities, they will host 120 Special Olympics Athletes, their family members, and chaperones from Ventura County, who will be on board three vessels entered in the parade on Saturday, December 19. This is, by far, the largest participation by Special Olympics Athletes.
Joseph Fan, President of Brighton Management, is owner of the Four Points by Sheraton Ventura Harbor and the Holiday Inn Express Ventura Harbor. The hotels are proud sponsors of Special Olympics Ventura County.
“For almost 10 years Joseph Fan and Victor Dollar, Sheraton’s General Manager, have included Special Olympics Athletes in their parade entries. The generosity that they show our Special Olympics athletes, along with meeting space they provide for Ventura County Special Olympics staff and volunteers, is so appreciated. We truly value their support and enthusiasm for our Special Olympics program,” states Regional Director, Peggi Preston.
Special thanks go out to the Channel Island Sea Ray Owners Club who provided the three vessels. The Taiwan Hotel Motel Association of Southern California and its members and friends provided additional funding for the event.
Special Olympics Ventura County (SOVC) offers free of charge year-round sports training and competition opportunities to over 500 individuals with intellectual disabilities, ages 8 years and up, in 10 different sports at over 20 training sites throughout Ventura County.
For more information on Ventura County Special Olympics, please call 650-7717 or visit www.sosc.org/ventura.
Kay contributes to the Ventura culture by using her cooking skills.
by Sheli Ellsworth
Local couple Kay and Jerry Rich never dreamed of a life in the theatre. Nor did they ever envision hobnobbing with thespian types . . . but sometimes life has plans of its own.
The Riches moved to Ventura from Santa Clarita in 2005. They had a beach home on Silver Strand and decided to make it their permanent one when they retired. Kay taught fourth grade and had always stayed busy raising her family and earning a master’s degree. “After retiring and moving to the beach, I wanted to connect and make new friends.”
Kay Rich started volunteering for Assistance League of Ventura County where she met Penny Barnds and Bill Brewer, meal coordinator for Habitat volunteers. “Penny encouraged me to become involved with the Rubicon Theatre’s Grandes Dames and the feeding of the cast and crew.” Since 2007 Kay Rich has been preparing meals for the theatre’s cast and crew. For a couple of years prior to that she helped feed the folks that built Homes for Habitat. “When there are matinees and evening performances, the crew must be fed in between. In addition, we (Grandes Dames) provide meals for the cast and crew’s Meet and Greet and two meals during Tech Week”. The labor of love amounts to a dozen or more meals per year. “When the production is large, like Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady and A Christmas Carol, there may be 40 people to feed.” Rich is not afraid to ask her friends for help and her husband has become a permanent part of the preparation, transport and set-up crew.
How does Rich do it? “I’m not a gourmet chef. I’m an industrial cook, specializing in comfort foods. Costco, Von’s and Ralph’s help me a lot.” Rich prepares the dishes at home keeping in mind gluten-free, non-dairy and vegetarian requirements. “There is always a green salad. After that I can prepare with happy abandon.” Rich says her vegetable soup, meat loaves, enchiladas, lasagnas, beef stew and chicken casseroles are very well received. The Riches then transport the meal and set it up buffet style, see that everyone is fed and then clean up. They receive no compensation or reimbursement for the cost of the food.
What keeps the Riches in love with Ventura (besides all that work)? “There is the fabulous weather . . . the attitude of the people living in Ventura and the surrounding area is relaxed, friendly and community oriented. We are lucky to have some many fields of berries and other produce to keep a sense of connection to the earth.”
If the feeding of the stars isn’t enough, Rich also volunteers for her other passion, the Assistance League of Ventura County, an organization dedicated to enriching the lives of Ventura County’s youth. The Assistance League School helps three to five-year-olds with speech and language delays; their Operation School Bell provides new clothing for needy school age children; the Girls Club/Teen Club is an after-school enrichment program and the B.U.F.F.Y Bear program provides cuddly bears for children in crisis. Rich volunteers at least twice monthly at The Bargain Box an upscale thrift shop, and major fundraiser for the organization.
How does Rich find the energy for her volunteer activity? “I swim a mile at the Pierpont Racquet Club a couple of times a week and attend Sizzlin’ Seniors exercise classes.”
Betsy and Maritza are two extremely kind and strong mothers who both came up with the idea to write a very specific grant. Pacific High School is a project based learning school. Betsy and Maritza are involved in a project known as SPARK. SPARK is a project where you choose your own passion and then create a project out of that passion. Both Betsy and Maritza have 1-year-old little boys who attend the on campus children’s daycare called First Steps where there is a playground outside. Unfortunately the playground lacks equipment that is suitable for their young toddlers and also for infants who attend First Steps. This is what truly inspired these two mothers to come up with the wonderful idea to raise money in order to have an all ages friendly playground for everyone who attends First Steps. They are both truly passionate about making sure that all of the children that come to First Steps have an all-around happy and healthy environment and a large part of that includes having an appropriate playground for them.
Betsy and Maritza both had ideas such as fundraisers and bake sales but they decided that writing up a grant might be a better idea. Once they had made the final decision to write the grant they then contacted Diann Block to get her help in guiding them through the process. “What is truly impressive is that this is a student driven idea that they passionately pursued into a grant that the public can help fund,” said Diann Block, Teacher at Pacific High School.
DonorsChoose has actually come out with a student grant where teachers help students in creating a grant. When Betsy and Maritza discovered this they both thought it was a great idea and decided to go for it. Bill Gates and Staples even combined their efforts in order to match funds for this grant!
These two mothers have such a strong love for their children and want them and the rest of the children at First Steps to have a great experience. It’s a truly beautiful thing to see people with so much passion for this type of selfless change. They have very recently reached the target goal for their grant which is an amazing achievement and everyone involved is thrilled about it. If you would like to learn more about this exciting grant and maybe even donate then please take a moment to read it over (lots of look entering this)!
High surf damages Ventura Pier. Photo by Bob Messina
Due to the recent high surf conditions the Ventura Police Department evacuated the few citizens who were on the Ventura Pier and closed it to the public. The Pier sustained structural damage including wooden pilings, cross-bracings and handrails that were destroyed. City of Ventura Public Works staff are working with inspectors to evaluate the extent of damage, stabilize to prevent further damage and to assess repairs needed. The Pier will remain closed until determined it is safe to re-open.
High tides continued to bring powerful waves from off-shore storms for several days. The public was advised to avoid entering the ocean during the very dangerous high surf conditions, especially near the Pier and the debris.
Also one of the palm trees near Surfers’ Point fell over and there continues to be erosion impacting the bike path and promenade. Visitors are advised to avoid the area until repairs are made.
Opera Santa Barbara will welcome four promising young vocalists for 17 weeks of performances, training, and community events under an expansion of its artist residency program early next year. The company’s new Mosher Studio Artist Program will enable four singers and an apprentice vocal coach to take part in Opera Santa Barbara productions, outreach activities throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and coachings and masterclasses with top industry directors and conductors. The inaugural complement of program participants will arrive in Santa Barbara on January 18. Their residencies will conclude in May.
Under its original artist residency program, founded seven years ago, Opera Santa Barbara would host four singers for about five weeks of training and rehearsals prior to each of the company’s three annual opera productions, culminating in on-stage appearances as secondary performers.
Under the new Mosher Studio Artist Program, participants will tour elementary schools in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties as part of the company’s Opera Lab, which uses improvisational theatre techniques to encourage children to “create their own operas. To schedule a “pop up” performance, contact Opera Santa Barbara at 898-3890 or [email protected].
Through a related partnership, qualified UCSB voice students will be eligible to participate in the Mosher Studio Artist Program. Mezzo-soprano Molly Clementz, a doctoral candidate at UCSB, will be among the new program’s inaugural participants.
Opera Santa Barbara is seeking local homeowners to serve as housing donors for Mosher Studio Artists. Donors will receive a stipend of $2,000 for the full 17-week period. Each artist requires a private bedroom and bathroom and wireless internet access. For more information, contact Opera Santa Barbara at 898-3890 or [email protected].
New system represents an industry innovation that combines technology with storm water quality runoff regulations.
Harrison Industries, one of the oldest and largest privately-owned refuse businesses in the U.S., has installed an innovative new commercial water treatment system for stormwater, at the company’s Gold Coast Recycling and Transfer Station in Ventura. Taking over four years and more than $1.5 million to develop, the specialized treatment system represents an industry innovation that combines proven technology with strict storm water quality runoff regulations.
Designed in compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA), which makes it unlawful to discharge pollutants into navigable waters without a permit, the system collects storm water runoff at Harrison’s 7.8 acre Gold Coast Recycling and Transfer Station on Colt Street where trash hauling trucks empty their loads before they are compacted into transfer trucks and taken to the Toland Landfill.
Thousands of tons of materials are brought to Gold Coast Recycling and Transfer Station each year from Harrison franchise clients – the cities of Ventura, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Ojai, Fillmore and Carpinteria, as well as unincorporated areas of Ventura County, Naval Base Ventura County and the Channel Islands Beach Community Services District. In addition, it is a full-service facility for self-haulers that also serves as a buy-back center for recyclable materials (aluminum, glass, plastic bottles, paper products, etc.) as well as a free drop-off center for electronic waste (old computers, televisions, copy machines, etc.) and anti-freeze, batteries, oil and paint (ABOP).
Using a customized collection, filtration and disinfectant system, rainwater that has come into contact with industrial activities at the Colt Street site is diverted into a series of filters and 6,000 gallon tanks where it is cleaned and disinfected. The fully automatic system, equipped with measuring devices, process alarms and remote access, removes pollutants before the treated water enters local storm drains and ultimately flows to the Santa Clara River.
Harrison Industries obtained numerous permits to build the storm water treatment system and will work closely with city of Ventura inspectors to have it monitored before and after any rain event. The system, which takes up three quarters of an acre of the Gold Coast property, kicks in day or night when rainfall begins.
Harrison’s immediate goal is to maintain compliance with the current and upcoming regulations. In the future, the company plans to investigate ways to reuse the treated water at their facilities or make it available to other water users.
VCS will now also meet at Silvercrest Senior Residence.
“East Side, West Side, all around the town” may be an old song, but it’s a great new tune for the Ventura Council for Seniors (VCS) reaching out to the people who need its vital services anywhere within the city.
Starting in January, the VCS will alternate its meetings between the two borders of Ventura, starting with the West Side (Ventura Avenue Adult Center (VAAC), 550 N. Ventura Ave.), then alternating each month to the East Side (Silvercrest Senior Residence at 750 S. Petit Ave.). The meetings are between 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. the third Wednesdays of the month.
“This will help us serve the huge population growth of seniors, many of whom live on the East side and are underserved,” said VCS Chair Suz Montgomery. Alternating meetings should get more adults involved in the critical issues facing seniors, she added.
The VCS is now more than ever focused on solving problems, and all ages are encouraged to get on the mailing list and attend the meetings where your voice can be heard and acted upon. While seniors are the focus, the VCS welcomes anyone who has useful services, family members, care-givers and adults who are nearing retirement age.
Issues include transportation, education, recreation, medical and more.
To find out more, obtain agendas or get involved go to: http://www.cityofventura.net/adult.
The schedule is announced in the Silver Tsunami newsletter published by the city; get it by calling 648-3035.
The Ventura City Firefighters would like the thank the generous citizen who anonymously donated these toys at Fire Station 2 for the ‘Spark of Love’ toy drive. We were out of the Station when the toys were dropped off and found them later in the day behind the back fence so we never had the chance to say ‘thank you’ in person. New toys can be donated at any Fire Station for the toy drive.
