SEEAG’s Mary Maranville and Seth Wilmoth, and Mary Jarvis and Dr. Liz Diaz Querol of Kaiser Permanente.

Kaiser Permanente presented Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) a $10,000 community health grant during SEEAG’s annual Ventura County Farm Day on November 4. The donation will help fund SEEAG’s Ventura County Youth Wellness Initiative.

SEEAG’s Youth Wellness Initiative addresses the nutrition knowledge gaps and food insecurity among a diverse socioeconomic demographic of students in Ventura County, with a focus on Title 1 elementary schools. SEEAG’s program is designed to inspire and empower students to increase the amount of locally-grown fruits and vegetables they eat while improving overall healthy eating habits and increasing physical activity. Since the program began in 2020, SEEAG has reached 15,500 third graders who participated in hands-on nutrition education during in-class learning and monthly Farm Fresh Wellness Fairs.

Each participating student receives a Wellness Swag Bag filled with nutrition information, a jump rope and fruit and vegetable samples that they can share with their families.

“Nearly 20 percent of children are obese in America,” says Mary Maranville, SEEAG’s founder and CEO. “It’s critical that we teach kids at a young age about the importance of healthy eating and exercise so they can apply this knowledge throughout their lives. SEEAG’s Youth Wellness Initiative is possible with the generous support from organizations such as Kaiser Permanente.”

To learn more about SEEAG, go to www.SEEAG.org or contact Maranville at [email protected], 805-892-8155.

Founded in 2008, Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that aims to help young students understand the origins of their food by bridging the gap between agriculture and consumption through its agricultural education programming. SEEAG’s “The Farm Lab” program teaches schoolchildren about the origins of their food and the importance of local farmland by providing schools with classroom agricultural education and free field trips to farms. Through this and other SEEAG programs, over 100,000 elementary school students in Central and Southern California have increased their understanding of the food journey. For more information, visit www.seeag.org or email Mary Maranville at [email protected].

Dancers from Ventura County Ballet performed excerpts from The Nutcracker.

It’s always hard being sick as a child and missing favorite activities with friends and family. But there’s one special holiday tradition local kids don’t have to miss – The Nutcracker!

Dancers from Ventura County Ballet performed excerpts from The Nutcracker at Ventura County Medical Center’s Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Infusion Center on Tuesday, November 14. The free performance for young patients, their families and VCMC staff has become an annual event.

Ventura County Ballet’s full production of the world-famous Nutcracker ballet will take to the stage at Oxnard Performing Arts Center

Kathleen Noblin, Ventura County Ballet founder and executive director, explains, “Ventura County Ballet has always been committed to bringing the best in live dance to Ventura County audiences. As we prepare for our 25th Anniversary season of The Nutcracker, we are delighted to again bring a preview to VCMC.”

Noblin continued, “It’s our mission to bring world-class ballet to the community and to bring the joy of dance to children who might otherwise not be able to experience it. The young patients at VCMC not only enjoyed The Nutcracker excerpts but also met our dancers, tried on a pointe shoe and were up close and personal with the wonder of ballet.”

VCMC Hematology/Oncology Medical Director Dr. Francisco Bracho added, “We’re so grateful to Ventura County Ballet for bringing this special performance to us. Experiences like this are a wonderful way to help our patients and families have a sense of normalcy in their lives and respite from a focus on being sick.”

The performers were:

Clara – Kirra Anderson, 13, Cabrillo M.S., 8th grade
Fritz – Emma Hansen, 12, DeAnza Academy of Technology and Art, 7th grade
Columbine – Sylvie Watts, 14, Ventura H.S., 9th grade
Harlequin – Jonah Tillery, 16, Ventura H.S., 11th grade
Soldier – Carter Gillespie, 17, Newbury Park H. S., 12th grade

Ventura County Ballet is a non-profit organization bringing world class, professional dance performances to our community. They provide top quality performing opportunities and instruction to hundreds of young people as a springboard to universities and careers with dance companies. Through scholarships and outreach, they bring the joy of dance to children throughout our area. https://www.venturacountyballet.com/

The full production of The Nutcracker at Oxnard Performing will be on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 1:00 and 5:00 pm, Sunday, Dec. 10, at 2:00 pm.

The Nutcracker is truly the lifeblood of Ventura County Ballet as it is for ballet companies the world over. It supports our entire season and enables us to bring a wide range of other works to local audiences. We hope as many people as possible will enjoy our 25th anniversary production of The Nutcracker as we return to the massive stage of Oxnard Performing Arts Center for the first time since 2019.

Two company representative Bertha Avalos and Vicky Ramos volunteer their time to raise CKD. Photos by Richard Lieberman

by Richard Lieberman

The DaVita Health tour campaign has arrived in Ventura. DaVita Health specializes in Dialysis, a life sustaining- treatment for those living with end stage kidney disease. The specialized bus is designed to offer free health screenings and kidney care education to residents of the cities they visit. The DaVita health screening bus visited Ventura on Tuesday October 24, 2023, setting up shop at the Pacific View mall in Ventura.

The mobile testing center is on a yearly tour offering free screenings and kidney care education in communities across the U.S. The screenings are free and designed to raise awareness of risk factors that could lead to chronic kidney disease. The health screenings will consider obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and a family history of kidney failure.

Testing at the mobile center will specifically test certain factors that are indicative of possible kidney disease. The health screening testing will administer: a fingerstick glucose test that will determine diabetes risk, a blood pressure test that will determine hypertension, body measurement testing to determine body mass index, also available is a blood draw to determine a more in-depth measurement of kidney function. A qualified nurse practitioner will review with the participant the details and the results of the screenings.

Bertha Avalos and Vicky Ramos Davita company representatives described the services offered by the company “we deal mostly with patients with kidney failure, and we provide dialysis services for patients,” “The tour bus is a once-a-year event” Avalos said. “This is a totally free service and not intended to bring business into our clinics, but it is to serve the community” she added. DaVita maintains many full-service dialysis clinics all over Southern California. “This program is designed to offer kidney awareness to the community”, Avalos added. The tour bus is in action from September through November each year. “It’s a full nationwide tour, the tour started in Colorado then heads to California and proceeds from Georgia to Michigan and the tour will end around the week of Thanksgiving.”

Both Avalos and Ramos are part of the local team in California and volunteer to cover the tour in the local area. Avalos is the regional operations director for Ventura County and Ramos manages a Davita clinic in Moorpark. The bus can service around thirty residents a day, but numbers differ depending on the community they are in. “The biggest point to make is we are trying to spread awareness to our community members. So that they know what kidney disease is and that they take the steps that are needed to try and preserve their kidney function,” she stated. Avalos also said “We are trying to do our best to spread awareness within the community.

42” diameter pipe was pulled under the Ventura Harbor.

by Patricia Schallert

On November 4th, the 42” diameter 1,450 foot long black pipe that was stretched down Anchors Way was pulled under the Ventura Harbor from Anchors Way to Marina Park. The 42” casing pipe below the Harbor, and the 20” outfall pipe below the ocean, are being constructed by Horizontal Directional drilling (HDD). With the 42” casing pipe now pulled in, the HDD work below the Harbor is completed.

The next step is to insert 4 smaller pipes (called product pipes) inside of the 42” casing pipe. The smaller pipes include the 20” outfall pipe, 2 new 10” sewer force main pipes to replace the existing aging Pierpont Lift Station, and a new recycled water line to irrigate Marina Park.

The contractor’s plan is to assemble these pipes in Marina Park and pull them back to the Anchors Way side of the project. Originally those pipes were going to be stretched along Anchors Way just like the 42” pipe, but the contractor has found a way to perform the work from inside the soundwall at Marina Park to reduce the impact on Anchors Way. This work will be completed in the coming weeks.

The HDD work under the seafloor is still on-going. The initial pilot bore hole has reached more than 4,000 feet offshore and the tip has “poked” out on the seafloor in about 55 feet deep water. This occurred on Nov 8th. The work appears to be progressing as planned and the next step is to connect the pilot bore head to the barge which can be seen from the shoreline in Ventura. There will be drilling equipment on the barge to assist with the upcoming work to enlarge the bore hole by a reaming process.

The onshore segment of the work is expected to start soon as well. That work will be along Anchors Way to Schooner, then on Schooner Dr., and finally along Harbor Blvd to south of Spinnaker Dr. When all the work is completed the 20” outfall pipe will be connected from the City’s Water Reclamation Facility south of the Harbor to the end of the outfall pipe more than a mile offshore.