Spotlight

As Santa Maria approves more housing as part of the Downtown Revitalization Plan, new creative spaces are bringing residents a unique set of experiences, including Flow: a co-working space where residents can rent out office space with the goal of bringing people together and forming a professional community, said Flow’s co-founder, Matt Ladin.  Individuals can […]

Buellton recently received $425,000 in state funding to take a big step in connecting the Santa Ynez Valley through outdoor recreation.  “We live in the valley in particular because we love the outdoors, but we’re not walking and biking because we don’t have the infrastructure to support that, and people really want that,” Santa Barbara […]

Shelley Klein embarked on a journey gathering stories from local Santa Marians about their personal or family history in World War II and received more than she expected for a new exhibit at the Santa Maria Valley Historical Society Museum.  “I told my board, ‘I think I bit off more than I could chew.’ It’s […]

Robby Hargreaves started skateboarding when he moved to the Central Coast. Landing in Vandenberg Space Force Base with his family, he had a skateboard but no place to skate, he said.  “We didn’t have a skate park and my parents didn’t feel comfortable with me at 14 going to Lompoc skate park and staying there,” […]

Five years after retiring from the Santa Barbara Unified School District, Mitch Torina got a call from the Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District asking for a few extra hands on campus, he recalled.  During the turmoil the school district faced last spring semester, the district superintendent reached out to local administrators for administrative […]

Sheila Gibilisco grew up in the San Fernando Valley and was a massage therapist for the movie industry. She would work on movie sets to help the actors and crew members rejuvenate and recover after long days of filming.  When her son was in first grade, Gibilisco and her family moved up to Orcutt, and […]

Over the years, Santa Barbara County families have become more interested in enrolling their children into dual language immersion programs—where students split their day learning in two languages and eventually become bilingual, Dr. Carlos Pagán said.  “It just opens the door for more jobs, for more communities, to explore, and to travel. Learning a second […]

When you take a bite out of a sandwich or sip on a coffee, how often do you think about where that food comes from? It’s a question that served as the genesis for lauren Ornelas (Ornelas does not capitalize her first name) when she founded the Food Empowerment Project. “I founded the Food Empowerment […]

From dressing and eating assistance to working with kids with severe autism or helping people recover from injuries, occupational therapists help with the activities of daily living.  “My mission is to get kids as functional as possible,” said occupational therapist Stephanie Foster. “I tend to see kids intensively for six months to a year, and […]

Between now and mid-October, locals can give their two cents on a multi-year economic plan for the Central Coast designed to bring in and support a wide range of industries throughout the region. The plan was developed by the Regional Economic Action Coalition (REACH), a nonprofit organization with the goal of growing economic prosperity in […]

From listening to kids read to visiting seniors in bed care, Kelli the liver-spotted Dalmatian has provided a lot of joy on the Central Coast.  “She loves everybody. When we work with kids, she will lay down while the kids climb all over her,” said Toni Perez, Kelli’s owner and handler. “I adopted her when […]

Walking in Copenhagen’s Pride parade and attending its weeklong celebration felt surreal, said Santa Ynez Valley Pride President Lauren Lastra.  “I think in many ways we’re still digesting the trip because there were so many takeaways, so many perspectives—life-changing moments that you still need to digest and be intentional and mindful for what that means […]