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Thousands crowded the street from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Cocoanut Grove to the Santa Cruz Wharf.This year’s annual Wharf to Wharf race took place on July 26th. The six-mile race that was run from the Santa Cruz Wharf to the finish at Capitola’s Wharf Road began at 8:30 a.m.Other racers were there to do their best while enjoying a fun atmosphere. Many wore costumes or carried flags, like San Lorenzo Valley High School graduate Kaila Gibson who raced with the elites and was decked out in Superman running gear.Organized by expected finish time into corrals of runners, the competitors chatted, prepared, and warmed up with the help of upbeat music and warm-up dancers.It was 43 years ago when Santa Cruz’s Wharf to Wharf was only able to claim 273 runners. “I was here at the very first one in 1973,” said Ken Thomas, President of the race’s Board of Directors, “Today we’ve registered 16,000 runners.”This year’s race was especially important to the race’s future. “We are evaluating start and finish lines to see if we can add more people or if it’s going to stay the same,” said Race Director Scott McConville.“The elite athletes are really fast this year,” said McConville, “The depths of the men’s field is probably it’s strongest in the past ten years.”Elite level competitors come from around the globe to compete in Santa Cruz’s Wharf to Wharf, and many are hosted by local families. “The country that’s had representatives with the most success has been Kenya,” according to Thomas.One of these international runners, Shadrack Kosgei, hails from Kenya. This year’s race was not Kosgei’s first run in Santa Cruz, “I’ve won three times, second two times it’s going to be my sixth time [racing],” Kosgei said while warming up in front of the Boardwalk Bowl.Kosgei came in second behind Sam Chelanga, just missing what would have been his record-winning fourth win.Kosgei, Chelanga, and Risper Gesabwa, the women’s winner, all come from Kenya.Local volunteers play a huge part in making this race happen. Many of them come from the county’s high school sports teams. In the spirit of giving back, some of the proceeds from the race are given to help fund our local high school’s sports programs including San Lorenzo Valley Middle School, Scotts Valley’s Middle School and many other schools.The race also sponsors two scholarship funds. Two students are awarded scholarships annually from each fund; one fund is for two-years and the other for four years. Scholarships are awarded to high school scholar-athletes. Two recent recipients are San Lorenzo Valley’s Claire McMillan in 2014 and Scotts Valley’s Vanessa Fraser in 2013.Whether running for gold or to have a good time, the festive atmosphere of the race brings runners back year after year.

On July 23rd, the City Council of Scotts Valley held a Town Hall dedicated to supporting local business through the latest string of closures, which they predicted would be enforced within a week.  The meeting took place just in time, as five days later, Santa Cruz County was placed on the COVID state monitoring list for three days.  As of July 28th, for three weeks, indoor activities taking place in gyms, worship centers, hair and nail salons, non-essential offices, shopping malls, and protests are canceled.  Throughout the meeting, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Danny Reber, City Manager Tina Friend, Vice Mayor Derek Timm, and Mayor Randy Johnson spoke of ways to support our community through these next trying weeks, and also answered questions from small business owners.

For the second time this season, the Soquel Knights exploited weak spots in the visiting Falcons’ game to topple the defending league champions, 44-29 on Friday, Feb. 3.

Four San Lorenzo Valley boys track and field runners qualified for the first California indoor track and field invitational, which will be Feb. 6 at Fresno State University.

These past couple of months have ignited quite the discussion throughout Santa Cruz County. Between colder weather, the spontaneous reopening and closing of Ross Camp, the Harm Reduction Coalition’s proposals for new syringe exchanges, and the Santa Cruz County Syringe Services listening sessions, most dinner tables in our community are abuzz with this difficult topic.  How can we best help, while limiting, the homeless population, syringe litter, and high rate of drug addiction in our county?  How do we provide shelters and services for healthier injections, but not enable a surge without progress?