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.