On Thursday, November 8, 2012, the first Water: Take 1 Online Short Film Contest Awards Presentation and Party was hosted by Brooks Institute of Photography on one of the sound stages at their Ventura Campus. SustainableVentura.TV's Maryann Ridini Spencer covered the event attended by Ventura Mayor Mike Tracy and Ventura City Councilmembers Christy Weir and Neal Andrews. Those present enjoyed refreshments and mixed and mingled before watching a special video presentation of finalist and winning films. Also present were local contest winners and representatives from Patagonia, Limoneira, Ventura Water and iThentic, all contest sponsors.

Over 125 people attended the free ceremony, open the public with an RSVP.




WATCH THE VIDEO NEWS STORY

On Thursday, October 25, 2012 from 4:30-7:30pm, The Ventura Chamber of Commerce presented the "Haunting at the Harbor" Business Expo at the Four Points Sheraton on Schooner Drive in the Ventura Harbor. The event featured over 60 local businesses showcased in tabletop exhibits, food vendors, a silent auction and raffles and prizes. The "Sustainable Ventura" TV Series was on hand to talk to attendees.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW EVENT VIDEO

"Sustainable Ventura," hosted by Maryann Ridini Spencer and Ray Olson, airs on Caps-TV VTV's Channel 15, Thursdays at 8:30pm.  It rebroadcasts Monday-Thursday and Saturdays at 9:00am, Sundays at 8:30pm and every other Wednesday at 8:30pm.

Every person on this planet relies on water. In Ventura, our water is from local sources and it's our responsibility to protect it for future generations. To help spark that awareness, Ventura Water is partnering with Limoneira's Limco Del Mar, Patagonia and iThentic for the inaugural "Water: Take 1" Online Short Film Contest. We hope that this exciting initiative will highlight people's relationship with water and promote water awareness, efficiency and recycling programs.
 
"We chose to do an online film contest with a water focus because members of our community, as well as on a national and global level, must begin to recognize the importance of water and its infrastructure," explained Shana Epstein. "With the contest, we hope to engage intelligent and creative conversation between leadership, businesses and the community."
 
Filmmakers worldwide are invited to submit short films of less than five minutes in any genre - drama, documentary, comedy, animation, Sci-fi or experimental - that address the topic of water. Films can be submitted and uploaded at no cost to the contest website, watertake1.com, through September 4, 2012.
 
A panel of environmental and entertainment professionals will choose a winner for the $1,500 Grand Prize and the top winner will be presented at an event hosted by the Brooks Institute later this fall. The film receiving the most votes at watertake1.com will be presented the Audience Choice Award and its filmmaker will receive a Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR camera.
 
Competing in this contest is a great way for Ventura County's high school and college students, among others interested in water and the environment, to do something positive that helps others appreciate our access to clean water while promoting water efficiency and sustainability. Help spread the word to your friends, neighbors and coworkers and get involved by joining the contest and/or join the wave by voting for your favorite video at watertake1.com.
 
The issue of water infrastructure is a global one. In the United States alone, there are large areas of infrastructure more than 100 years old that must be fixed or replaced. However, in many other countries, such as parts of Africa and India, the total lack of infrastructure there has a serious impact on the local health and economy and causes a negative ripple effect worldwide.
 
Water is also an important issue in Ventura, although many residents are unaware of the huge effort and the amount of energy it takes to clean and move our water so it can be used again and again for generations to come.
 
Ventura is among California's oldest coastal cities and has many areas where infrastructure is ending its useful lifespan and will need replacement over the next few decades. While projects and plans are underway to improve this invaluable infrastructure, it isn't without cost.
 
Years ago, much of the infrastructure was maintained using federal grants, most of which are no longer available due to budget cuts. As a result, water customers now bear the full financial responsibility of infrastructure maintenance, replacement and improvement.

 

"Green Drinks" is a term known in the environmental world as a fun,

meet up for like-minded business professionals in relaxing, celebratory

settings where they can network, exchange ideas and forge valuable

working relationships.

Well known in international environmental circles, Green Drinks is a network

of unstructured meet-ups where environmental professionals and concerned

locals get together in a relaxing setting to network, exchange ideas,

and forge valuable relationships.  At last count, Green Drinks events

are hosted in over 600 cities worldwide.   

 

The mixture of attendees at Green Drinks events usually include professionals

in the areas of: general business, academia, government, non-profit, medicine,

home décor, construction and other fields.  

On Wednesday, August 1, The Ventura Chamber of Commerce's 

Green Task Force (GTF) organized this year's first Ventura-based Green

Drinks event at EcoLogic Life, downtown's designer showroom for

sustainable home decoration products. The event was a smashing success

with over 50 attendees. Tutti's on Main provided the delicious food.

Alquimia Tequila provided the green drinks, made from organic agave, no food

coloring included.

LtoR:  Diane de Mailly and Courtney Lindberg, Green Task Force Co-Chairs

"Green Drinks has been around for a long time," said Diane de Mailly,

President, DDM Metering Systems and GTF Co-Chair. "Recently, the

GTF was asked to step in and organize these events in Ventura.  We know

they'll be a big success moving forward because Ventura is such an

amazing community dedicated to the environment.  We plan to make

Green Drinks a quarterly event."

"What the GTF strives to do," added Courtney Lindberg, Environment

Specialist with the City of Ventura's Environmental Sustainability

Division and GTF Co-Chair, "is to promote green business development. 

We bring local businesses together and educate them about sustainable

practices, covering such topics as waste recycling, energy, water

conservation, pollution prevention and staff education. We highlight successes and

learn from our mistakes so that we can grow as a community with

green business practices part of our every day consciousness."    

Green Task Force LtoR: Courtney Lindberg (Environmental Specialist,
City of Ventura's Environmental Sustainability Division and Green
Task Force Co-Chair), Janis Shinkawa (Veterinarian, Buena Animal
Hospital), Diane de Mailly (President DDM Metering Systems
and Green Task Force Co-Chair), Kirsten Davis (AdvoCare)
and James Davis (Associated Electric)

 

"If you had to paint Ventura one color, it would probably be blue,

the color of our ocean.  If you added another color, it would be

green," Rick Cole, City Manager, City of Ventura. "This is a

remarkable community and environmentally-oriented to its core.

We all pay attention to the motto 'Think globally, act locally.'

Whether it be on a global scale, or a local scale, waste costs money

and pollutes the planet. It's also something we don't want to pass

onto the next generation."

In addition to Green Drinks, the GTF organizes a series of quarterly

"Best Practices Workshops" where local businesses share their

green ideas and practices with others in the community. To date,

there have been workshops at Red Brick Pizza focusing on sustainable

practices and the YMCA focusing on lighting retrofits.

VIEWVIEW Event Photos on Facebook, CLICK HERE.

 

In May 2012, The Green Task Force teamed up with the office of

Assemblymember Das Williams's for the Second Annual Green Jobs

Summit held at City Hall.

"The Green Jobs Summit brought a number of businesses together to talk

about ideas and sustainable principles," said James Joyce,

Field Representative, Office of Assemblymember Das Williams.

"Through working together on the Summit, our office developed a

great relationship with The Green Task Force.  There's so much

synergy. It's great to be a part of it."

 

Stay tuned and read this newsletter for information on future

Ventura-based Green Drinks events.

VIEW the  GREEN DRINKS TV NEWS STORY, CLICK HERE!

VIEW Event Photos on Facebook, CLICK HERE!

 

 

Lujain Al-Saleh, a student at Ventura's Foothill Technology High School (foothilltech.org), doesn't like trash.  So, this month, as part of her school's senior student community service requirement, she led a Hero project in waste assessment in the school courtyard.

 

Ten students dumped the contents of all the trash receptacles at the school on the lawn onto huge tarps, dividing the waste into categories such as 1-Styrofoam (or cardboard) trays, 2-spork packets, 3-milk and juice boxes, cartons and non-recyclable beverage containers, 4-fruits and vegetables, 5-trash, 6-litter and 7- recyclable items (cereal cups, recyclable bottles, pudding cups and snack-ables).

 

 

Lujain plans to write up a "how to manual" for other students who want to do the same at their schools. 

 

"I started getting interested in trash reduction when I attended the Ventura Charter School," says Lujain.  "I want to get other students engaged and aware of waste and its impact on the environment."

 

The assessment conducted on March 23 provides a baseline estimate for how much waste is generated at Foothill annually.  From this one assessment, it can be estimated that about 22.7 tons of trash is sent to the landfill each year from the trashcans located within the common areas in the main quad, not including trash from individual classrooms or other buildings.

 

Foothill Technology High School Waste Assessment Data (3/22/12)
Items		Total (lbs)	Average Daily Total					lbs/yr
Cardboard		6.6		26.4
Disposable Utensils/Spork Packets		0.8		3.2
Milk Cartons & Juice Boxes or Pouches		5.2		20.8
Fruits & Vegetables for Composting		15.2		60.8
Trash		24.2		96.8
Recyclable Items		11		44
Total Amount:		63		252				45360

 

Lujain has already set up a CRV collection and recycling program and has initiated recycling programs at school events such as track meets and other sporting events.  Her Hero project advisor, Rick Villano, was also present at the waste assessment.

 

When Rosie Ornelas, from the City of Ventura's "Volunteer Ventura," found out Lujain was interested in protecting the environment, she was introduced to Environmental Specialist, Jill Sarick, who provides environmental education classes and leads regular waste assessments at the Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) elementary schools.

 

"It's important to engage students at their level of understanding and then build upon that knowledge in a creative and entertaining style," said Sarick.

 

The waste sort program is a recent collaboration between VUSD Healthy and Green Schools Partnership and the City's Environmental Sustainability Division. In the program, already conducted at 10 of the 16 elementary schools, 5^th grade students help Sarick sort through lunchtime trash to glean information that could help reduce waste.  So far, it is estimated that roughly 297 tons of material from only the lunch waste is set to the landfill each school year from these 10 schools alone.

 

At one school, the sorting team discovered a significant number of unopened milk cartons and uneaten apples from the school lunch program discarded in the trash.  Further analysis showed that one cause could be students' impatience to get to recess, which immediately followed lunch.       Some schools have students go to recess first and then come in to eat lunch. In fact, a lunchtime waste assessment at another school, where recess precedes lunch, showed almost no such waste. 

 

"These educational waste assessment programs, as well as other educational programs teach concepts of recycling, composting, water conservation, stormwater pollution prevention and other environmentally friendly "best" practices to more than 4,000 students per year," said Sarick. 

 

Environmental Education Programs are provided FREE to all schools in the City of Ventura. Curriculum used in the classroom presentations aligns with State curriculum guidelines for all grade levels. For more information, contact:  Jill Sarick at (805) 652-4501 or email, jsarick@cityofventura.net.

 

-Maryann Ridini Spencer for VC Style/Sustainable Ventura

###

 

Business Grant Opportunity

Reusables Funding up to $30,000

Apply by April 1, 2012!

 

Reusable Grants requests up to $30,000 are available for businesses and other organizations that are planning to incorporate reusable packaging into their transport and distribution.

 

Eligible Projects should focus on waste prevention and specifically reusable transportation (projects that replace single - or limited - use transport packaging with durable pallets or bins, reusable pallet-wrap, expanded use of intermediate bulk containers, IBCs).

 

To be eligible, programs need to be implemented within six months of application or have already been implemented in the six months prior to application.

To find out more, Visit the City of Ventura's Environmental Sustainability Blog.

CLICK HERE!

The Jeffrey Foundation (TheJeffreyFoundation.com), a non-profit Child Care/Resource Center offering educational services, childcare and counseling for special needs children, was founded by Alyce Morris Winston in 1972. 

Over the past 40 years, the Foundation, which strives to improve the quality of life for special needs children (ages 18 months through 18 years), serves children with such diseases as muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and autism.  Other children enrolled in their programs have a variety of physical impediments or are victims of abuse, neglect or in utero drug exposure.

At the Foundation, children and families are served through a variety of community-based therapeutic, recreational, educational and social programs including childcare, preschool, K-12 educational programming, speech therapy, occupational therapy, life skills, parenting education, after-school activities and social events. 

While the Foundation serves the greater Los Angeles area, Morris Winston is also involved in a national and international outreach program, Special Child USA.  Via Special Child, Morris Winston consults with other cities, states and even countries that are interested in developing similar childcare and resource centers.

"There are over 30,000 disabled youth in Los Angeles County that are in need of special interventions," said Morris Winston.  "Our Foundation is the only one of its kind in LA and we only have a capacity of only 124 children per day, and 40 families per month.  So the need is great -- not just in Los Angeles, but everywhere."

Morris Winston, whose adopted son Jeffrey, was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was two, abandoned her career as a Max Factor model and began the Foundation after discovering that there was not enough appropriate child care, resources or support for families with special needs children.  What began in her living room is now housed in two professional buildings on West Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Most of The Jeffrey Foundation's students are referred by Child Protective Services or a Regional Center," said Morris Winston.  "Many of the families are headed by single mothers with multiple children.  In the Foundation's Parent Training program, over 85% of the children are in foster care and 10% are living with a parent who has lost custody at least once due to child abuse, neglect, maltreatment or abandonment."

The emphasis of the classes and programs, which are inclusive, aim to build core competencies such as cognitive skill building, language development, gross and fine motor skills and social and emotional development, as well as provide health and nutrition education. 

"We also strive to enrich our student's lives by giving them the opportunity to enjoy some recreation and special events.  We encourage them to learn and appreciate art, music and nature.  Our mission is to improve the quality of every aspect of their live as well as serve as a support for their families," said Morris Winston. 

The current economic climate, and cuts in federal and state funding, are severely impacting the Foundation's ability to keep some of their programs alive.  To offset some of the negative impact, Morris Winston recently came up with the creative idea of "Project 40" in honor of the Foundation's 40 years. 

Project 40 will be a series of 40 events and happenings to fight the economic turndown.  Last night, one of the Foundation's friends, Lladro Boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, hosted a kickoff reception and launch of the YES! Network (Executives for Special Needs Children and their Families).   The YES! group will spearhead many of the Project 40 programs which will take place in Southern California as well as nationally.

Morris Winston hopes that through the YES! Network, different members of the business community will also become engaged to network, cross promote, as well as lend their expertise and support in developing new programs and fundraisers to sponsor and boost the Foundation's needed programs.

 "We support the community, and we need assistance from those in the community and beyond," said Morris Winston.  It does take a village and we want to be around for the next 40 years!"

To find out more about The Jeffrey Foundation, Project 40 and the YES! Network, visit:

TheJeffreyFoundation.com

Images from the YES! Network Launch Party at Lladro Boutique in Beverly Hills on November 17.  Photography by Maxine Picard Photography.

VC Style's "Roving Eye" (aka me with video camera!),  recently attended the "Haunting at the Harbor" Business Expo at the Four Points Sheraton in Ventura Harbor. It was a great event presented by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce.   There were approximately 59 local business tabletop exhibits, a variety of food vendors, a silent auction, and raffle.  I had fun doing some business networking -- not to mention enjoying some pre-Halloween cheer.

During the evening, I caught up with the Environmental Sustainability folks at their booth.  Environmental Specialist Christine Wied shared some recycling tips.  Next door at Ventura Water, "Aunt Sally" compared the price of water per gallon to other must-haves.