Kathy Odell, WEV CEO Elect; Andy Winchester; Caleigh Hernandez, Marianne Partridge, and Marsha Bailey, WEV Founder and CEO at fundraiser event. Photo by Sarita Relis Photography

Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV) raised more than $220,000 to support local entrepreneurs at their Empowerment is Priceless event held October 25th at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. The non-profit’s 14th annual breakfast fundraiser recognized WEV’s 2019 Trailblazer, Business of the Year and Volunteer of the Year award winners. 300 guests interacted with featured WEV clients who shared their personal experiences as entrepreneurs.

Each year WEV presents the Trailblazer Award to a woman who is a pioneer in her industry, exemplifying courage, vision and the tenacity to overcome barriers. This year, WEV honored Marianne Partridge, editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Santa Barbara Independent who was also the first female senior editor of Rolling Stone Magazine.

WEV’s Business of the Year award honors a business owner who demonstrates the unique, inspiring and powerful impact made by local small businesses from the WEV community. Caleigh Hernandez, owner of RoHo, is WEV’s 2019 Business of the Year award recipient.

Andy Winchester, Senior Vice President, Wealth Advisor at Wells Fargo Private Bank and Co-Vice chair of WEV’s Board of Directors, was honored as the 2019 Volunteer of the Year.

For 28 years WEV has been working to help women entrepreneurs succeed. “Nearly three decades later, we have proven that business ownership can provide not only a viable pathway out of poverty, but can also build family wealth and stability, as well as contribute to the economic well-being of our communities,” said WEV Founder & CEO Marsha Bailey.

Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney with hero Sal Flores at Westside Park.

The 2nd Annual Heroes Among Us event hosted by the Ventura Police Community Foundation was supported by CAPS Media. We not only produced heartwarming presentations about the nominees and why they were nominated for such a prestigious award. Our camera crew was there recording the event for those who could not attend.

The award ceremony recognized and honored community individuals or groups who have displayed dedication and made a positive impact to the city of Ventura. The organization has raised funds to supply the Ventura Police officers with bulletproof vests in every car and much more.

Last week CAPS Media and the Ventura College film department started a film studies collaboration. Utilizing CAPS equipment and studio VC students learn the basic skills of studio production, camera and editing skills throughout the semester to supplement their ongoing film studies. These students of all ages are very enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn from the pros right next door.

The ECTV high school students continue to produce their award-winning program and are incorporating radio and audio production into their training. Several of the students are supporting events outside of CAPS using their expert camera and editing skills. Several ECTV graduates are continuing to pursue film and television studies in college.

CAPS has added the College Area Community Council meetings to our scheduled recordings. The community members throughout the city are pleased to be able to catch the monthly meetings on CAPS and streaming online if they are not able to attend. These meetings are broadcast the following Thursday at 8pm on channel 6. Some community council members post the meetings on social media as well. It has proven to be a great way for citizens to meet their city council representatives and keep abreast of issues and events important to their area and the city at large.

CAPS Media’s The Perfect Firestorm – The Thomas Fire Story was screened at the Ojai Film Festival Sunday November 3rd at 1pm to an enthusiastic crowd. The documentary will screen on Friday November 8th at 1pm at the Sane Living Center at 316 E Matilija St, Ojai, CA 93023. The festival wraps November 10th. The public is encouraged to attend. Details can be found at www.ojaifilmfestival.com. David Endaya, Ventura City Fire Chief said “The Perfect Firestorm is an amazing achievement that has had a tremendous impact on so many people in and around this community.  Being recognized by the Ojai Film Festival is well-deserved.  Thank you to CAPS Media for capturing this historic event in such a meaningful way.” For everyone at CAPS Media, The Perfect Firestorm is our way of giving back to the community.

Join our growing community of CAPS Media Member/Producers. If you have an interest in community television or radio production, or are just curious, drop by the CAPS Media Center on the first Thursday of the month and learn how to become a member of CAPS and join our community of enthusiastic and engaged Member/Producers. Go to CAPSMedia.org for more information.

The club attracts a mix of avid cyclists, newbies, retirees, working folks and social cyclists from all over Ventura County.

by Mira Reverente

The allure of cycling and fitness brought members of the Channel Islands Bicycle Club together. Over 300-members strong, the club meets for rides every Saturday, usually at the Mission Park in Ventura.

“The length and route of the Saturday rides depend on the members’ time and availability,” says Margaret Mathews, public relations chair of the non-profit club. “Some would ride further if they’re training for long bike rides and races, but it’s always fun and social.”

The club attracts a mix of avid cyclists, social cyclists, newbies, retirees and working from all over Ventura County. “We like to promote the health aspect of cycling and highlight it as an alternative means of transportation,” says Mathews who joined the club about 10 years ago with her husband.

Beyond Saturday rides, the members advocate for safe streets, bike lanes and tirelessly work with government and non-profit agencies to advocate for bike safety.

Every year, on the 3rd weekend of August, the club also partners with the Kiwanis Club of Ventura to produce the Cool Breeze Century, which is going on its 26th year next summer. “It’s a really cool event with over 1,000 riders and a few hundred volunteers,” says Diane Stein, co-volunteer coordinator of the ride.

For the past five years, Stein has been coordinating the volunteers at the rest stops, ensuring that the rest stops are adequately staffed and riders have everything they need for a smooth and safe ride through Ventura, Ojai, Goleta and the coast.

Says Stein, “It’s a good problem to have but we’ve never had a shortage of volunteers. Both clubs pull their weight and then some. Several members also ride and volunteer or the other way around. It’s really a pleasure to put the event together due to this abundance of help.”

Proceeds from Cool Breeze go towards a grant program, to help Ventura public schools start bicycle safety programs for 6th grade students. Says Mathews, “We believe that teaching children at a young age to be safe cyclists will hopefully carry over and teach them to be safe drivers.”

The giving nature of members propels the club to seek other ways to make a positive impact in the community, such as their recent $20,000 donation to help construct the San Antonio Bridge from Ventura to Ojai, for both cyclists and pedestrians to enjoy. “I don’t believe there was a bridge there before,” says Mathews.

Their contributions to the environment are growing by leaps and bounds. The club is the first bicycle organization to adopt a bicycle path. The cleaning of the Emma Wood- Fertig bicycle path can also be attributed to them.

Through bike rodeos, the club partners with grassroots organization Bike Ventura to teach underserved children safe cycling and basic rules of the road. “It’s all over, not just one venue. We go to different venues and schools,” says Mathews.

At large bike rides and festivals, members volunteer as bike valets, helping riders safely store their bikes during registration or festivities.

Last year, they partnered with Giant Bikes and Bike Ventura, and distributed bikes to people affected by the Thomas Fire.

The Channel Islands Bicycle Club meets every second Wednesday of the month, starting at 6:30 pm, at the Museum of Ventura County, 100 E. Main St, Ventura.

For more information or to join: www.cibike.org.

A Day in The Park from Spain to be shown

Ojai Film Festival’s 20th Anniversary introduces an award for Best Locally Produced Film, alongside 81 film contenders from around the world in competition for top prizes. This year’s World Premiere films include:

• (t)here
• After Parkland, Healing a Community and a Nation
• In The Campfire Light
• My Daughter Yoshiko
• The Vow From Hiroshima
• Truth in Recruiting
• Nowhere

Screeners selected contenders from record breaking submissions of nearly 500 films.

“According to several of our festival Judges, this year’s selections are the best we ever offered,” the 20 year running film festival’s Founder and Artistic Director Steve Grumette said. “Despite economic and trade sanctions against their country, Iranian filmmakers are flourishing. We have 13 Iranian films in this year’s festival, more than from any other country except the U.S..”

The eclectic batch of films includes narrative features and shorts, animations, and feature and short documentaries. Many indie films premiere at this year’s festival. Other selections received honors at other venues.

One award winning animated film A Day in The Park from Spain, directed by the up and coming Diego Porral Soldeville depicts a grandfather who reminisces about ‘the good old days’ while his grandson zones out with his holographic visor. As the grandfather revisits old classics like Facebook and Tinder or waxes nostalgic about relics like the iPhone, he provides some much-needed perspective on our hyperconnected digital society.

In celebration of twenty years in Ojai, the festival added a new category honoring local filmmakers in the Gold Coast Series. The 14 local films in this competition include Mamma Mia: From Auditions to Opening Night, a film by Ventura High graduate Ryan King, that follows Ventura High’s production of Mamma Mia; Camarillo director Miguel Orozco’s Oxnard-Set film Mixteco Boy; and God Send, a thoughtful feature by Ojai director Levi Holiman. The Gold Coast’s full day of screening runs on Monday, November 4, from 10 am to 10 pm.

Continuing a longstanding tradition of spotlighting environmental films, the festival’s series Focus: Earth presents two screenings each of eco-conscious shorts and features throughout the festival. A full day of ecological films, seminars and special events happens on Sunday, November 10. Among the highlights, director Sylvia Rokab screens scenes and answers questions about her film Love Thy Nature. The day tops off with Living in The Future’s Past, narrated and produced by Jeff Bridges, Q&A with director Susan Kucera follows

The 20th annual Ojai Film Festival also offers Lifetime Achievement Awards for Pat Boone and Eva Marie Saint, the new Sergio Aragones Animation Award presented by Sergio Aragones, Hawk Koch Memoir Debut, Women in Film Legacy Series, Screenwriting Competition & Live Table Read, seminars and speakers, industry insiders, parties, and much more.

For complete schedule of screenings go to ojaiifilmfestival.com.

Unlike other horse rescues, their work doesn’t just benefit horses. 

A Lotte Opportunity Foundation is a local nonprofit horse rescue, located in Santa Paula (it seems like Ventura), unlike other horse rescues, their work doesn’t just benefit horses.  Begun in 2016, with the belief that horses and children do better together, ALOF works to provide riding lessons to children who are from low income families; they have some of the cutest rescue horses, like Finn and Ole, a couple of Fjords, a small but very strong breed, who are lifelong friends, and that can’t be separated!

ALOF believes that the calming effect of horses is good for children, where they learn respect and responsibility, how to be firm while being kind, and how to take a tumble but get back up again. Horseback riding can be costly, and has been called “the rich man’s sport.” buying a horse is expensive enough, but then tack onto that all the equipment needed, maintaining an adequate living space, food and veterinarian bills, most parents can’t afford, no matter how much their kid begs for a pony.  ALOF seeks to remedy that situation by granting low income kids riding lessons.

ALOF is more than a horse rescue, it is a much needed chance for children as well as horses, taking in horses that are unwanted, and from all walks of life. Some are off-the-track Thoroughbreds, horses that made thousands of dollars in the racing industry and tossed aside due to injuries or underperformance. Some are last chance babies, that never got the chance to have a loving home before they found themselves in the lineup headed to a slaughterhouse, others are old ponies that once raced cross country courses for the owner’s children, only to be outgrown and passed onto retirement.  ALOF welcomes all ages, breeds, sizes and lifestyles as a safe place to land, if these horses can go into the riding program, they will, carefully walking their young charges, the children, around the foothills of Santa Paula. If they are not able to be ridden, they are still teachers. Ole can’t be ridden, but spends his days teaching the kids what to do when a horse lets himself out of his house and goes for a slow speed march on the quest for food, they learn, do you run after him begging him to come back or do you offer him a bucket of something even tastier than what he’s munching?

ALOF relies heavily on volunteer help to care for the horses and their living environment, and in addition, provides paid riding lessons to members of the public at large to supplement as well as putting on fund-raising events. If you, or someone you know, would like to volunteer at ALOF please contact Claudia Gilman at [email protected].  Please Visit ALOF’s website at www.alotteopportunity.org.  ALOF is seeking donations to improve the horse stalls for winter and has set up a GoFundMe account, contributions, great or small, would be greatly appreciated.

Sergio Aragones will present the newly christened Sergio Aragones Award.

Opening weekend features a throwback tribute to the days of big studios and contract players.

The Ojai Film Festival celebrates twenty years of bringing film to Ojai. This year the festival runs October 31 through November 10 and pays tribute to vintage Hollywood with Lifetime Achievement Awards honoring actors Pat Boone and Eva Marie Saint.

Opening weekend features a throwback tribute to the days of big studios and contract players. Pat Boone will attend the screening of his 1962 movie State Fair on Saturday November 2, at 7 pm, followed by a reception at 9 pm. On Sunday, November 3, at 4 pm, veteran director/producer Hawk Koch will screen his 1973 classic movie The Way We Were, starring Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, with a Q&A and signing for his new book following.

Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Eva Marie Saint will screen her Academy Award nominated 1959 film North by Northwest on Sunday, November 3, at 7 pm, followed by a reception in the Ojai Art Center Gallery.

Sunday morning’s Awards Brunch on November 3 at 10 am honors Lifetime Achievement recipients, and awards filmmakers of the top films screened at the festival, as well as best screenplay.

For the first time the festival added a Gold Coast Award for the winning local film to the program this year. Local Ojai artist and legendary Mad Magazine illustrator Sergio Aragones will present the newly christened Sergio Aragones Award for Best Animation.

After the brunch, professional actors perform a Live Table Read of the winning screenplay at 1 pm. This year’s winner is a quirky journey of discovery titled A Place Called Knock, written by Colleen Craig of Los Osos, CA. Actor-director Will Wallace will helm the live read.

“We added a screenplay competition to the festival in order to celebrate the very starting point of the creative process — the story,” said Bruce Novotny, Screenplay Competition chairman

The Gold Coast Film Series on November 4, 1 to 10 pm, features films and shorts from local filmmakers in the Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties.

Women in Film presents their Legacy Series on Saturday, November 9 at 4 pm, highlighting the career and legacy of women in film. This year they will present a retrospective on the career of the late, great, Penny Marshall.

The kickoff of the twentieth annual festival falls on Halloween this year, and will screen a sing-a- long version of Tim Burton’s cult classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.

A Halloween Fun Faire and Pre-Show dubbed “Carnivale!” precedes the movie.

Admission to the Faire is free and includes fun for all ages with face painting, pumpkin art, fortunetelling, and a wheel of fortune to win prizes and free tickets to the film festival.

A second free community screening offers The Red Turtle on Wednesday, November 6. https://ojaifilmfestival.com