Frank Doyle navy veteran is close to the heart of Alicia Doyle.

The Kid Gloves Boxing Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is presenting the First Annual Operation Get Fit, a fundraiser that will benefit Veterans and active duty military personnel.

Veterans can benefit emotionally as well as physically from a no-contact, boxing-style fitness regimen that helps release stress, according to Alicia Doyle, a Ventura resident and Two-Time Golden Gloves Champion who trained at Kid Gloves Boxing in the late 1990s when only a few hundred women were competing in this male dominated sport.

“This cause is close to my heart,” said Doyle, whose father, Frank Doyle, was a Navy veteran who passed away on September 21 at the age of 84. Her father, who earned his Master’s Degree in engineering on the G.I. Bill, was considered a brilliant rocket scientist who reaped many accomplishments – most notably approving the launch of the Cassini Satellite that studied Saturn and its moons.

“Our main objective with this effort is to get Veterans into the gym to release stress, frustration and anger, which helps diminish Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” said Doyle, who serves on the Kid Gloves Boxing Foundation board of directors.

Veterans with PTSD are more likely than typical Americans to die of causes including suicide, according to Robert Ortiz, a Marine Veteran and founder of the Kid Gloves Boxing Foundation, which is the umbrella nonprofit organization for the Vet2Vet Veteran Education & Training Fitness Center in Simi Valley.

“Exercise in the form of a boxing workout can play an important role in helping Veterans with PTSD to recover and regain confidence,” Ortiz said. “It also has the added benefit of addressing many of the mental and physical health problems commonly associated with chronic PTSD, including cardiovascular disease and depression.”

Vet2Vet – Ortiz’s nonprofit peer networking group for Veterans, armed force members and families – also provides advocacy and support for Veterans by helping them apply for benefits they deserve.

“This helps Veterans avoid homelessness,” Ortiz said. “This fundraiser is not just about getting fit, but helping Veterans obtain the benefits they deserve because many of them don’t know the process of applying.”

In an effort to help these individuals, donations in the amount of $250 are being collected for Operation Get Fit. Each tax-deductible $250 donation will include the following:

● A gym bag filled with boxing gloves, hand wraps, towel, water bottle, and other necessities needed to work out

● Gym fees waived for the first month, with subsequent months discounted at $80 per month (reduced from $139 per month)

● Training with professional boxing coaches, including Robert Ortiz, a Marine veteran and founder of the Kid Gloves Boxing Foundation; and certified coaches with Rock Steady Boxing, which empowers people with Parkinson’s disease to fight back through a non-contact, boxing-style fitness regimen and emotional support

● Advocacy and support for Veterans who need assistance with obtaining military benefits

Donations can be made via check, Venmo or credit card. For more information, contact Robert Ortiz at 805-206-9403 or [email protected]; or Alicia Doyle at 818-817-1421; [email protected].

St. John’s Regional Cancer Center (SJRCC) is pleased to offer a proactive lung cancer screening program to those with a high risk of developing lung cancer, the number one most dangerous cancer for both men and women in the United States.

In recognition of National Lung Cancer Awareness Month, SJRCC is urging community members to determine whether they are a candidate for our lung cancer screening program, which is now covered by most insurance providers. Although screening is not appropriate for everyone, current and former smokers over the age of 55 are at the greatest risk of developing lung cancer. If you meet these qualifications, talk to your physician about getting a lung cancer screening referral.

An individual deemed at risk has the option to meet with our oncology nurse navigator, who will facilitate a low-dose computerized tomography scan of the chest, commonly called a CT or CAT scan. The screening, which only takes minutes to complete, produces detailed images of the lungs and other structures inside the chest.

If any abnormalities are present, the scan will be reviewed by a dedicated multidisciplinary team of physicians that specialize in the treatment and diagnosis of lung cancer. Once reviewed, our physicians will discuss options for further evaluation and treatment with you and your primary care physician, if necessary.

Early-stage survival rates are high; however, many small cell lung cancer (SCLC), which accounts for 10% to 15% of all lung cancer cases, are detected in the distant stage when it has spread to parts of the body, such as the brain, bones, liver, or the other lung, with a survival rate of 3%. Early detection can save lives, and that is why SJRCC has developed a screening program for those deemed at high risk for lung cancer.

A lung cancer screening could be life-saving and proactive screenings can detect early signs of lung cancer, when treatment options have the greatest chance of success. Under the leadership of local physicians, the lung cancer screening program at SJRCC was created to diagnose patients at a treatable stage, before symptoms develop. For questions about the program, or to find out if you are a candidate, please call (805) 988-2641.

Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett spoke at the rally.

Child care providers were joined by parents, advocates and elected officials outside the Ventura County Government Center on Saturday, October 24, to demand state leaders stop ignoring California’s child care crisis. With scores of child care businesses closing in California each week, they rallied to demand Governor Newsom and legislators take action to support early educators who have taken on the added responsibility and expense of supporting distance learning for children who don’t have technology at home or whose parents are working in frontline roles.

Steve Bennett, Ventura County Supervisor stated “The United States is one of the worst countries of all the industrialized countries of the world in terms of how much we fund child care. It is one of the major reasons why we have growing income inequality in the United States.”

“Childcare was already in a crisis before the pandemic. Quality childcare can be hard to find, or too expensive, for hardworking families. All while more than 2.7 million children who are eligible for state subsidized childcare fail to receive it and fall through the cracks…More than 5,000 family child care providers have been forced to shut their doors in 2020. That’s fifty to seventy thousand less children being served.” said Jack Hinojosa, CEO of Child Development Resources.

Maricruz Ruiz, who opened a new childcare in Ventura in the past year has had multiple family members test positive for COVID-19 and lost both her uncle and her grandmother to the disease:

“It’s been an incredibly difficult year. As we all know, starting a new business is never easy. It’s especially difficult when tragedy strikes; not only for our family, but for the world as a whole.”

COVID-19 has made California’s childcare funding crisis into a full-blown catastrophe. More than 5,000 family childcare providers have been forced to close their doors since the start of the year, and that was before an additional state pay cut was triggered on September 30. What we know from the Great Recession is that without assistance from the state, many of these small businesses will likely never reopen, impeding California’s recovery.

With physical classrooms closed to slow virus spread, home-based providers have taken on the added costs of distance learning (such as upgraded wi-fi and additional staff) to support school-aged children so their parents can work on the frontlines of COVID-19. Yet while they are now caring for children all day, family childcare providers are only reimbursed at the same rate they were paid for these children during school breaks and vacations, not when such intensive learning was required.

A recent study showed provider costs associated with the pandemic and move to distance learning have increased by up to 75%. Without increased investment from the state, providers will no longer be able to continue spending their own money to support children in distance learning, if they are able to keep their doors open at all.

Child Care Providers United California (CCPU) is a union of family childcare providers across the state who are members of SEIU Local 99, SEIU Local 521, and UDW/AFSCME Local 3930.