Mission: The Valley Women’s Club is dedicated to community action, awareness and leadership in environmental, educational, social, and political concerns that affect the health and welfare of the San Lorenzo Valley and our community.
Mission: The Valley Women’s Club is dedicated to community action, awareness and leadership in environmental, educational, social, and political concerns that affect the health and welfare of the San Lorenzo Valley and our community.
Community Connection CommitteeThe Community Connection Committee sponsors and participates in selected community events and provides liaison with other SLV organizations and with government officials. Events Redwood Mountain Faire CERT Disaster Preparedness Training Candidate's Forums Hammer-Marcum Awards Halloween Pedestrian Safety Liaisons Education/Cabrillo: Donna Ziel End of Life Coalition: Emmi Schambeck Event: Advance Directives Workshop Felton Library Friends: Michele Mosher, Nancy Gerdt; Sherry Skold MCR Disaster Preparedness: Mary Hammer; Sherry Skold Political Connections (Electeds and County and State Agencies): TBD, and delegates as needed Reproductive Rights, Women’s Commission: Sheila De Lany Community Connections news Winter 2011 The Remarkable Honorees of the 2011 Hammer-Marcum Award Karin Ann Park and Terry Umstead
State Senator, Joe Simitian acknowledges Karin Ann Park at the Hammer-Marcum Awards Ceremony October 23 proved to be a day of emotion and surprise as Karin Ann Park and Terry Umstead, the honorees for the 2011 Hammer-Marcum Award, received recognition for their extraordinary contributions. Their works underscore the interests and concerns that epitomize the San Lorenzo Valley community.
State Senator, Joe Simitian recognizes Terry Umstead at the Hammer-Marcum Awards Ceremony The Senior Center was crowded with family and friends and supporters of Karin Ann and Terry, and everyone was astonished by their accomplishments as enumerated by Sheila DeLany and Donna Ziel, respectively. Our government representatives joined in the Celebration in their honor. Supervisor Mark Stone highlighted the unique spirits of Karin Ann and Terry, and the special nature of their years of work. State Senator, Joe Simitian, came in person, and spoke eloquently of both Karin Ann and Terry for himself and for State Assembly Member, Bill Monning. Congress Member, Anna Eshoo, sent a special recognition that was presented to them by Annette Marcum and Mary Hammer, along with their own personal thoughts about these wonderful people.
Supervisor Mark Stone and Shirlee Byrd The event was special in other ways, including the remarkable generosity of Jeri and Bruce Oneto whose beautiful desserts were so delicious, and the magnificent flowers from Camp Joy turning the Senior Center into a beautiful place. Steve Abrams wonderful piano songs added to the joyful spirit of the event. The honorees each received the Award itself -- beautiful redwood boxes lovingly crafted by Kim and David Okrant – and topped with the shining silver medallions that Jerry DeLany made. And the help of Senior Center President, Carol McQuillan, making the venue the perfect spot for this great celebration. (The Valley Women's Club created the Hammer-Marcum Award in 1987 to honor the volunteer service of Mary Hammer and Annette Marcum, who had already given thousands of hours to improve the quality of life of local residents, and continue to do so 24 years later.) Community Supported Agriculture at Camp Joy Camp Joy Gardens shares the fruits (and vegetables!) of the garden with 25 families from the San Lorenzo Valley through its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. CSA creates a relationship between people who love fresh food and flowers, and gardeners who love to grow it. In the early spring, Camp Joy's CSA members sign up for the program and purchase a share of the gardens produce for the entire season. In return, they receive a basket of Camp Joy's fruits and vegetables every week from late spring to early fall. CSA members are also welcome to spend time at the farm when they pick up their basket. Many people bring their children to check in on the goats, pick a few blackberries, and watch the peaches ripen. Members pick up their baskets on the front porch of the farmhouse on either Tuesday or Saturday morning. The share price for the regular CSA in 2011 was $600 for 19 weeks; the flower share price was $200 for 19 weeks. 2012 pricing has not been set yet but if you are interested in learning more about Camp Joy's CSA, please call in January-March at 338-3651. (Camp Joy is a 4.5 acre, non-profit teaching farm in Boulder Creek, established in 1971, located on Camp Joy Rd., off of Irwin Way, where individuals come to live and learn successful organic gardening methods as Apprentices – a true in depth, hands-on experience. Graduates of the program are having a far-reaching impact as they in turn establish organic farms and gardens.) Public Safety Realignment: An opportunity to get smart on crime Effective October 1, 2011, a new law known as AB 109, or the Public Safety Realignment Act, set new sentencing rules to channel non-violent, non-serious, non-sex offenders into county jails rather than state prisons. The motivation for the passage of this law was both the state's ongoing budget crisis and, perhaps more importantly, a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision that required California to sharply reduce its prison population to address overcrowding and medical inadequacies. When fully implemented, AB 109 will shift corrections responsibility for roughly 60,000 mainly low-level prisoners and parolees from the state government to local government. In the first year of implementation in Santa Cruz County, we estimate that AB 109 will divert about 120 people who would have gone to state prison to county jail facilities, and an additional 120 are expected to be received during the second year. Though we typically send fewer people to state prison and thus will have fewer people returned from prison than many other counties will experience, our local facilities are often at "full" or "exceeds capacity." This shift will impact our county jail system. AB 109 proponents claim that the law will stem the flow of new, lower-risk offenders to state prisons and allow counties to better and more effectively deal with this inmate population. They argue that county agencies – not the state – are best equipped to develop and utilize the types of wraparound services needed to end the chronic cycle of reincarceration, or "recidivism," that plagues nearly 70 percent of our offenders. In contrast, opponents have painted dark pictures of dangerous prisoners being released too early, rising crime rates, overwhelmed law enforcement officials and human service providers, and cash-strapped county agencies struggling to house and monitor this new population. Who's right? Will realignment improve public safety by creating a more efficient justice system? Will granting local jurisdictions the legal and financial support to implement education, reintegration and reentry services for lower level offenders pay dividends in the form of reduced recidivism? Alternatively, will local jurisdictions find themselves too overwhelmed and too underfunded to provide anything other than a local version of the overcrowded, unsafe, and unsuccessful penal system offered by the state? Do we here in Santa Cruz County have reason to fear that our own public safety will be jeopardized by this realignment? Although the long-term implications of AB 109 are still unclear, Santa Cruz County prepared for and successfully implemented the start-up phase of our Public Safety Realignment this past October. This is the first phase in a multi-phase implementation plan crafted through a highly collaborative process involving experienced and energetic public sector and community-based personnel. The county's plan develops, offers, and deploys a variety of coordinated services focused on changing the behavior and outcomes of our incarcerated population, while also maintaining the level of public safety our residents expect. The plan seeks to integrate Evidence Based Practices (i.e. programs that have actually been proven to work) to link offenders to programs to help rehabilitate them and reintegrate them into society, rather than affixing the "nothing works" label to their prison garb and marching them off to the state's prison industrial complex. Elements of the county's plan include the increased use of home arrest and electronic monitoring, and the implementation/augmentation of services providing drug treatment, housing placement, job training, and other programs. Provisions call for extensive data collection and analysis, as well as ongoing evaluation to ensure that we are making wise and sustainable decisions. The "tough on crime" movement of the last generation is a failed experiment. It's time now for us to get "smart on crime." Public Safety Realignment makes sense: to become law-abiding citizens, most offenders need housing, jobs, mentors, drug treatment, and health care services — all of which are best delivered at the local level. Additionally, keeping offenders closer to home encourages stronger family ties that have been proven to facilitate a successful return to a productive role in the community, which is clearly a benefit for them and a benefit for the community. SLV Profile: Richard Goldberg You don't need to be rich or famous to make a difference in the world. Some people do it in small ways that add up to make a big difference. One example is 16-year San Lorenzo Valley resident Richard Goldberg, who has focused his whole life on showing people how to solve health problems--or to avoid them altogether--with nutrition and herbs rather than pharmaceuticals. Once he had learned that $500 billion worth of pharmaceuticals are sold world-wide, and that Americans - 5% of the world's population – spend half of that, he decided to spread the message that there are alternatives to current health care. Richard is perhaps most well-known locally for his expertise as the primary nutritionist for fourteen years at the Felton New Leaf, and then at Felton Nutrition, and for his column entitled 'Food & Nutrition News' for the Press Banner from 1996 to 2004. He covered topics relevant at that time, such as nutritional and herbal cures for common winter maladies, and on specific herbs that are beneficial for a number of reasons, yet, surprisingly, are not well-known. Recently, Richard has decided to branch out to more pro-active methods to show how nature has provided ways for us to keep our bodies healthy. He will be giving a series of free workshops on health issues that many people are experiencing these days: diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, depression and weight problems. Richard will be discussing how to decrease weight by natural methods - safely increasing the body's metabolism, rather than trying to rely on will power. Another of these workshops, held at Felton Nutrition in Felton Fair, will cover issues specific to women. These include ways to decrease the hormonal effects of PMS and three different herbal and nutritional remedies for the three different phases of menopause. Richard said, "Lots of women are suffering, and they don't need to, because we can treat them. According to Richard, "Women make up eighty percent of our customers at Felton Nutrition. They are more into health and how it affects them, and they're also better at giving feedback." In addition, Richard is currently working on a series of documentaries, two of which star Danny Glover. Two of these documentaries, available for viewing in mid-2012, discuss interesting observations, like the fact that Americans -- a relatively small percentage of the world population, consume 35% of the natural resources in the world. Another shows the reversal of roles these days, as children become teachers of their parents based on what they're learning in school, such as ideas for recycling, reusing, and composting. Having discovered some of the newer studies about nutrients and minerals which many Americans were lacking, Richard established a website entitled, "Remarkable Redwood Remedie." On the website he describes the value of magnesium for dealing with heart disease and high blood pressure, autism, and PMS since 80% of American don't have enough magnesium in their diets. The name of the website does not refer to cures for redwoods, but rather to the grove of redwoods surrounding his home where he learned about these natural remedies. One of the other facts that Richard learned in his grove of redwoods is the efficient and inexpensive natural resource known as hemp, causing him to open his shop, The Hemp Store, across Hwy 9 from the Rite Aid in Felton to promote the concept of legalizing hemp in the U.S., which was outlawed as marijuana, thus losing an important industrial resource. Hemp--one of the most unused natural resources in the America--is an inexpensive and uncommonly sturdy material for making paper, clothing, rope, shoes, backpacks, and even parts of cars. Betsy Ross' famous American Flag is of hemp fabric, and the original Levi's were of hemp. In 1942, Henry Ford used hemp for paneling and other parts of his cars. Ironically, even though, as Richard points out, "it grows like a weed, can be harvested like a crop, and is ideally suited for California weather, we have to import it from China and Canada. We could save a lot of trees if we were to legalize hemp." Richard Goldberg contributes a good deal to our community! Community Calendar VWC Board Member Jim Coffis invites you to provide information on events of interest to the SLV community for his excellent online news site, www.slvnews.net. Check out the calendar here.
Mountain Community Theater's (MCT) new production of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Our Town, is designed to make the play come alive in an intimate, transformed, Park Hall setting. The play runs from December 2 through 18; show times are 8 pm Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 pm Sundays, at Park Hall in Ben Lomond. MCT is using Wilder's original script, rather than the sweeter version that is usually performed. This production retains all of Wilder's biting commentary on human foibles, as well as his powerful insights into the human condition. Talented local performers, under Director of Peter Gelblum, bring new life to the residents of Grover's Corners. You can purchase or reserve tickets here. MCT Turns 30 in 2012 The other exciting news about MCT is that it is turning thirty in 2012, and there are plans for an extraordinary year of performances and special events, including a very special celebration in June, according to Rita Wadsworth, MCT performer and director, who is leading the planning. It will be important that local residents, including those reading this Newsletter, become subscribers to MCT – supporters of their thirtieth anniversary season. Plan to do so!
|
|||
|
