Community

The Ben Lomond Village Alliance (BLVA) is now accepting new vendor applications for the highly-anticipated Wee Kirk Market—an old-fashioned, fun-filled farmers and makers market debuting this summer on June 1. Held at the historic Wee Kirk Church in the heart of Ben Lomond, this charming...

Santa Cruz County is an artist’s haven. From stunning natural landscapes and Open Studios to museums and galleries, local artists have access to some of the most progressive and collaborative venues in the country, and their work is celebrated in a variety of ways. One...

After months of public petitions, contentious meetings and letters to the editor, the planned installation of a pump track at Felton Covered Bridge Park is officially underway. On March 4, local nonprofit Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship (SCMTS) began fundraising efforts to support pump track...

If you have a student within the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District (SLVUSD), you may have seen Deputy April Skalland around campus. As a School Resource Officer (SRO) for SLVUSD, Skalland is a familiar face to students, staff and parents alike. Whether helping direct...

For the past few years, more often than not, you could find Alan Strong perched on a folding chair on break from his janitorial duties at La Placa Family Bakery, sitting under the redwoods, gazing out at the one-story restaurant with the fountain on...

Walk into the Starbucks at Graham Plaza in Scotts Valley on a Friday morning, and you’ll be met with more than just mochas and macchiatos. Each Friday, members of the PerSisters, an all-female grassroots letter-writing campaign group, gather to handwrite 200-250 postcards to voters all...

Get ready to have your heart teased and tousled as Mountain Community Theater (MCT) presents “Steel Magnolias,” opening this weekend at Park Hall in Ben Lomond. Co-directed by Peter Gelblum and Susan McKay, and starring Manirose Bobisuthi as Truvy Jones, Sarah Mitchler as Annelle Dupuy-Desoto,...

Merrylou White, a 70-year-old resident of the Santa Cruz neighborhood of Pleasure Point, had purchased a pass for all three days of this year’s Scotts Valley Alfred Hitchcock Festival, held this past weekend, March 14-16. White grew up in Los Gatos, attending Los Gatos High...

The rich and colorful history of Ben Lomond comes alive in the second of a three-part lecture series, “Tales of Ben Lomond, Gem of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Part 2” on Saturday, March 22. Doors open at 9:30am and the presentation begins at 10am...

Santa Cruz County has been the backdrop for various horror movies, most famously “Lost Boys,” “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” and, more recently, Jordan Peele’s “Us.” But its deepest connection to Hollywood involves the ultimate master of the macabre. Back in the 1940s, director Alfred...