Michael Boyko, Funeral Director presents grant check to Peter McClintock of the Ventura Boys & Girls Club

Michael Boyko, owner and funeral director of the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home & Cremation Service and Boyko & Reardon Telegraph Road Mortuary & Cremation, both of Ventura has secured a grant from the Matthews Children’s Foundation for the Ventura Boys & Girls Club.  This grant will go towards furthering several of the Boys & Girls Club’s programs helping the youth of Ventura grow into healthy, responsible, productive members of our community.

“The Boys & Girls Club has so many positive engaging programs and I believe that following the Covid 19 epidemic the funds will go to certain good use as our community gets back on its feet with a particular emphasis in helping our young adults rebound from setbacks last year” Boyko said.

The Matthews Children’s Foundation is a non-profit organization that partners with community funeral directors assisting with grants in support of children’s organizations.

The check for $1,000.00 was presented last week by Michael Boyko to Peter McClintock of the Boys & Girl’s Club of Ventura at the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 757 E. Main Street in downtown Ventura.

9th grader Sierra Golden has enjoyed her time at home, but is ready for in person learning. Katie Gordon is a senior and plays softball for Foothill, posing here at a recent game in Thousand Oaks.

by Amy Brown
Part 1 of 2

When local schools closed down in March of 2020, it happened fast, and it was expected by most to last for a few weeks. Then VUSD announced that Fall 2020 would be 100% distance learning, with the hope to bring back students to the classroom in January 2021. Due in part to recent changes in social distancing guidelines from the CDC and health departments, the Board of Education met on March 28^th, 2021 and voted in favor of a model that will allow students currently assigned to a hybrid learning model to return more fully to an in-person experience starting April 12. Students in grades 6-12 beginning on April 26th will return to a full time in-person five days a week schedule through the end of the school year, according to the district. Elementary schools, which have already been open to hybrid learning, will return to a full-time in-person model five days a week on April 12.

How do the students, with a year of not being in the classroom, feel about the news? Sierra Golden had been excited about being in high school much of her young life. “All my friends and I would talk about from kindergarten to 8th grade was looking forward to being in high school,” said the current freshman at Ventura High. Instead, her high school experience started in her bedroom, via computer. “Of course, all of us were excited because we thought we would get to go back quickly, but when reality hit, I was super bummed,” said Golden. “But I’m a homebody; I love being home. But then mental health started becoming a thing,” she said. Golden reports that she realized that some friends started changing–they were getting sad, and not wanting to get out of bed, and that’s when she realized how important it really was to socialize. She says she’s excited about in-person learning. “I haven’t had a chance to be a high schooler, and I’m excited about seeing friends, and I already love all of my teachers.”

Some students had issues keeping their grades up during the past year and can’t wait to get back in the classroom on a normal schedule. Avery Almora is an 8th grader at Balboa Middle School, and said that she struggles with ADD, and that the most difficult part of distance learning is staying focused. “My grades were always good until quarantine happened, and I’m really happy to get back in class and get back on track,” said Almora. “It’s going to be a little difficult, obviously it’s a big change; it’s been a long time since we’ve been in school.  A lot of people didn’t really learn anything, if they weren’t paying attention.” She has been doing a small group twice weekly study hall on campus at Balboa in the meantime that she said has really helped, too.

12th graders lost most of their junior year and all of their senior year so far. No Homecoming, no prom, no face to face with teachers. “I feel really bad for the teachers because it’s so much work on their part,” said Katie Gordon, a senior at Foothill “They’ve had it so rough! No one turns on their cameras, the teachers now have to do both online teaching and in person, but at least they won’t just be talking to blank screens.” Gordon plays center field for Foothill’s softball team, with a truncated season more restricted than other high schools, since they use Ventura College’s fields. That means very few spectators allowed. “It sucks that our parents can’t come to home games,” said Gordon, who plans to major in Political Science and possibly become a lawyer after college.  She says she looks forward to returning to in person learning for what’s left of her senior year. “I feel like if I miss this opportunity, I’d regret it.”

Briana is a happy person who has melded work with joy.

Visit Ventura welcomes their new, talented, light-up-the-room Digital Marketing Assistant, Briana Diamond to the Visit Ventura team. Yes, Diamond has a resume — but she isn’t confined by one. She graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography and Film with a bachelor’s in Visual Journalism in 2014. Which, not coincidentally, is the perfect pairing for a life of trail running, surfing, rock climbing, swimming, horseback riding, and, yes, photography.

“We are so thrilled to have a local photographer join the team,” said Marlyss Auster, Visit Ventura President & CEO. “We had worked with Briana on other projects, so we already knew that her outside-the-box creativity and passion for Ventura was a natural fit for the Visit Ventura team.”

As for Diamond, she is the happy person who has melded work with joy.

“My goal with photo and video is to capture the true beauty and connection nature brings us daily and to get outside,” she said. “I picked up my first camera when I was 7 years old and immediately knew this is what I want to do forever.”

Visit Ventura is a non-profit organization designed to increase visitor expenditures, tourism revenues, and local employment opportunities by promoting Ventura as a travel destination. During the pandemic they have turned their efforts toward doing the next right thing; including helping local businesses stay in business through various creative programs that emphasize supporting local.

With over 2,100 acres, the ever-evolving Harmon Canyon is Ventura’s newest hiking and mountain biking gem because of the selfless and diligent work of the Ventura Land Trust. The nonprofit organization acquired the land and maintains it. The hillside nature preserve is a pastoral heaven to be enjoyed. To visit and hike Harmon Canyon you can park at 7511 Foothill.

Captains Patricia and Juan Torres of the Salvation Army Ventura Corps in the facility’s food pantry.

by Amy Brown

When Captains Patricia and Juan Torres came to lead the Ventura Salvation Army Corp, the married couple had their work cut out for them. It was July of 2020, and the pandemic was in full swing, and like most things in this crisis, established programs and the development of any new ones required some new strategies. The Torres’s had been involved with Salvation Army for more than 15 years, having previously served in downtown Los Angeles working with the homeless and youth efforts, so they were no strangers to developing creative solutions for challenging issues. However, joining a new community during a pandemic did not make transitioning to the new roles easy. “We are very happy here, it’s such a wonderful community and we’ve been welcomed very lovingly, but it’s been very difficult to get to know the community in general, since a lot of meetings and groups that the Ventura Corp is part of is all now done by Zoom,” said Captain Patricia Torres. “That being said, it was an opportunity for us to think outside the box.”

Torres shared that during the holidays, the well-known donation kettles usually seen and heard outside local establishments had to be shifted to operating about 95% online. “It really took an army (no pun intended) to get that accomplished,” she said. “We can’t thank our advisory board and donors enough, they really stepped in at a time when we were new, and they got the online program going.” Since then, the Torres’s have being overseeing the food pantry, and facilitated opening that service two extra days a week to support the community in need; it is now available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They continue to provide rental assistance support and have launched a new utility program with Southern California Edison’s Energy Assistance Fund (EAF), offering support of $100, or $200 for all electric accounts, verified by Edison, with applicants eligible for assistance once every 12 months. There is also a program available for any household affected by Covid-19, with the option to apply for assistance up to $200, with EAF households eligible for up to $300.

Torres reports that the Ventura Salvation Army is now also receiving donations of new clothing for the community, which is a new offering. “We are in the works of trying to get a temporary building to have a clothes closet,” says Torres. “In the meantime, if someone needs clothing, men, women and children, we have many donations.”

Asked how local community members can best contribute and make a difference in the Salvation Army’s current efforts, Captain Juan Torres replied, “We will accept non-perishable food, and hygiene kits (toothbrush, toothpaste, trial-size soap, shampoo, condition, lotion). These items are so important and inexpensive. It can make a huge difference in the lives of those we serve.”