This Week on the Central Coast...
Several businesses provide grants and scholarships, voting information for Monterey County, a local novelist makes her debut, and more!
Monterey
AIM Youth Mental Health walked for awareness
Last week, AIM hosted a walk in Pacific Grove to raise awareness and money for mental health issues affecting youth. They hoped to improve resources, ranging from coping tools to therapies.
“According to the CDC, 15% of adolescents have had a major depressive episode, 37% have had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 18.8% have seriously considered suicide”. AIM wants to help remove any difficulties there might be for kids to ask for help. And when kids start asking for help, AIM wants to be sure they have the resources to follow through.
Currently, there is a shortage of available therapists, so many mental health organizations are focused on training people to identify when kids need help. If you would like to volunteer with AIM, you can register on their website.
This article lists many important dates to remember as we near Election Day this year: Tuesday, November 8.
Polls open at 7am and close at 8pm.
The article talks about some of the bigger races we will be voting on, such as Monterey County Sheriff (Nieto vs. Moses) and District 2 Supervisor (Church vs. Gage).
Some of the most helpful information is in the descriptions of the various Measures that will be on the ballots.
Salinas
A local cryptocurrency company sponsored a musical instrument giveaway
As part of its community outreach program, Rodeo Coin sponsored an instrument giveaway at Wise Music in Salinas. The cryptocurrency partnered with local schools in both Monterey and Santa Cruz counties to find kids in need of an instrument. “In total, the company planned to help 20 young musicians on Saturday with more than $15,000 dedicated to the effort.’
California Rodeo Salinas awarded scholarships to local students.
This year, the Rodeo Association awarded $30,000 in scholarships to local students, a new record in the past 36 years. The program recently expanded from only being offered via Hartnell College to “an additional program through the Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC).”
The scholarship money can be used to attend any post-high school education program, including trade school.
This year, seven scholarships were awarded, including three to students from South Monterey County.
Salinas City Elementary was awarded a grant to help Spanish-speaking students
A $1.78 million, two-year grant was awarded to nine California school districts to share. Salinas City Elementary is one of them. California has the largest amount of multi-language students in the country. About 95% of Salinas City’s students speak Spanish while about half speak English as a second language.
Last year, the school used its share to partner with West Ed, a nonprofit group that helps analyze student needs and apply the data to new teaching strategies. The results have been significant.
After the last school year, “the district had about 70 sixth-grade students move out of the English as a Second Language program”. Most of the school district’s students come from families who work in agriculture and move every fall to Arizona for work, breaking any consistency in learning. Over the past decade, however, the district seems to have witnessed a shift in the pattern; now only one parent moves while the other stays local to help keep their children focused.
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz native debuts her first novel, “A Very Typical Family”.
Sierra Godfrey’s debut novel is about Natalie Walker, who has become estranged from her family after accidentally getting her brother and sister arrested when they were teens. Now, she receives news that their mother has died and left her a share of a Santa Cruz mansion. However, Natalie and her siblings must claim it in person at the house. “Natalie has buried both guilt and familial love so deeply she doesn’t know if any feelings remain. Nor does she know whether her siblings, now out of jail, will forgive her — or even show up to claim the house.”
In an interview, Sierra emphasized that she wanted to capture the Santa Cruz that she grew up with. She says one of the main themes of the novel is finding what home is.
A Very Typical Family is available in retail stores like Target and Barnes and Noble, as well as on Amazon.
On Saturday, volunteers gathered at over sixty sites around the peninsula to celebrate International Coastal Cleanup Day. Then, on Sunday, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) will celebrate its 30th anniversary with Sanctuary Fest.
Save Our Shores organized the volunteers at all sixty-four sites ranging from Pescadero to Big Sur. Cleanups even stretched inland to the San Lorenzo River, Watsonville Slough, and Arroyo Seco.
Anyone who didn’t make it to a cleanup is encouraged to download “the Clean Swell App to do a self-guided cleanup anytime in September.”
After Saturday’s cleanup, MBNMS celebrated its anniversary on Sunday, which took place at the Santa Cruz Wharf.
Update: Watsonville is moving forward with its Caltrans Downtown Project
Watsonville City Council voted unanimously to support the Caltrans renovation. To recap, the renovation plans to reduce the amount of lanes in Watsonville’s Main Street to make it more pedestrian-focused. This includes plans to create separated bike lanes, parklets for restaurants, and larger sidewalks. To compensate for the disturbance in traffic flow, surrounding streets will be changed from one-way to two-way roads.
I went into more detail of the renovation in last week’s Peninsula Report.