Anyone living south of Valencia should heed this piece of The Californians‘ advice at least once in their life: “Go up the 5, go to Magic Mountain, get on Riddler’s Revenge, and never get off!” Really, it’s down the 101 to the 126 for those of us residing in the north. Although I’m much more […]
Caleb Wiseblood
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Spotlight on: Girl Scouts of California’s Central Coast
Rebecca Picek, troop leader
Rebecca Picek’s history with Girl Scouts stretches back further than the existence of the branch she’s currently a part of. Girl Scouts of California’s Central Coast (GSCCC) wasn’t formed until 2007 after the merger of two former branches, but Picek, troop leader of Service Unit 550 in Santa Maria, first ventured into scouting decades ago. […]
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Spotlight on: OASIS Center
Doug Dougherty, CEO
The OASIS Center’s campaign to raise $4 million toward its proposed new location recently reached the halfway point after three years of fundraising. The campaign launched in 2016 after the senior center acquired the 5-acre property where it plans to build a brand new 15,000-square-foot facility, which would include classrooms, a library, and a kitchen. […]
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Spotlight on: Abilities For Kids Inc.
Connie Chan, CEO
Abilities For Kids Inc., a nonprofit that originated as KindredCare Therapeutics in 2010, came to fruition under founder and current CEO Connie Chan, who sought to fill a need in the community she found was severely lacking. “We started the program because we were frustrated with the paucity of pediatric services in our area,” Chan […]
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Season’s greetings: Local workshops celebrate the art of holiday card crafting
There are only two kinds of people in this world—those that start listening to Christmas music after Halloween and those that wait until Thanksgiving is over. I’m a card-carrying member of the former, and I’m pretty sure most of the participants of Suzy McBride’s Stampin’ Up workshops are too. Well, at least the one I […]
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Spirited away: Exploring the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose
I was expecting the Winchester Mystery House to be tucked away in a forest outside the city limits like Wayne Manor. Either that or in the middle of Nowhere, with a capital N (the unearthly, Lynchian wasteland in Courage the Cowardly Dog). You can imagine my surprise upon finding the landmark among bustling streets, sharing […]
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Troy Hernandez
There’s no such thing as “snowboarding season” on the Central Coast. Sandboarding at the Guadalupe Dunes is the closest thing to the sport Allan Hancock College student Troy Hernandez has found. Hernandez, 23, lives in Nipomo, but his heart and soul reside on the slopes of Mammoth Mountain, he said. This year, snowboarding season at […]
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Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians support local museums with golf tournament
The Alisal River Course in Solvang is the same color as the funds raised by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians at the 13th annual Chumash Charity Golf Classic: gorgeous green. The event took place Aug. 23 through 24 this year, when dozens of golfers raised thousands of dollars for local organizations. Since the […]
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Jacqueline Higa
Aug. 21 was a day of celebration for Jacqueline Higa and her softball team—they won the 2017 Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department’s Summer League Championship. What made this particular softball league so much fun for Higa wasn’t the winning but rather the light-heartedness. Teams that play in the Recreation and Parks League are encouraged […]
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Noemi Mariscal
What separates the Color Vibe run from other 5K races is the color, of course—runners are blasted with colored powder just as often as they take water breaks. Noemi Mariscal, 22, has run nearly a dozen 5Ks, but somehow managed to miss Color Vibe every year. That finally changed on Aug. 12 when she ran […]
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Erik Kinnebrew
During the 2016 to 2017 basketball season, Allan Hancock College’s Erik Kinnebrew played in all 30 of the school’s games. Kinnebrew averaged 7.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game overall. If Kinnebrew had to relive something over and over again for the rest of his life, it would be achieving a triple-double during […]
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Lompoc welcomes skaters to College Park for annual skateboard competition
College Park in Lompoc occupies the same land where the original Lompoc Airport once stood, which was also used as a Navy blimp base during World War II. Although planes no longer take off or land at the site, skateboarders get air time there on a daily basis. The 4.6-acre park, which also houses the […]
