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S AT U R DAY, SE P T E M BE R 5, 2 0 2 0
Breaking the rules
No lying around on beaches Health order forbids non-exercise activities during holiday weekend By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
This is not the weekend to be lazy at the beach. Those who planned on going to Santa Barbara County public beaches over the Labor Day weekend should make sure they stay active to comply with the latest Public Health Officer orders. To reduce crowd sizes and slow the spread of COVID-19, the Health Officer order rules that individuals will be prohibited from passive recreational activities such as sitting, lying,
standing, sunbathing, sight-seeing and picnicking at the beach. Water sports like surfing, boogie-boarding, swimming, paddle-boarding, and kayaking will be allowed, and beaches can also be used for running, walking and cycling. According to Santa Barbara County Community ServicesParks Division superintendent Jeff Lindgren, beaches will be enforced similar to how they were when closed over the July 4 weekend. Parks staff, Harbor Patrol, Sheriff’s Office and Santa Barbara Police Department Please see order on A3
Girls Inc.’s digital benefit to honor Mary Crowley By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
ANNELISE HANSHAW / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Julia Gonda and Wilton Wooliever relax on the beach Friday morning, unaware of the signs posted behind them prohibiting lying down. They are backpacking through Los Padres National Forest this weekend, an activity planned to avoid crowds.
Tourists sunbathe and more at beach despite restrictions By ANNELISE HANSHAW NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Signs poke up from the sand alongside the running path and the beach. It outlines beach restrictions for Labor Day Weekend: No sitting, standing or sunbathing. But still, people are sitting, standing and sunbathing. The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department issued an order Aug. 26 to address this weekend. It aims to divert crowds off the beach as Santa Barbara County tries to limit the spread of COVID-19. This order mirrors the one enacted for the weekend of the Fourth of July. During a press conference Friday, Gregg Hart, chair of the Board of Supervisors, said crowds were “not a problem” during the Fourth of July, and officers roamed the beach enforcing the restrictions. He expects the same this weekend. It isn’t as busy as a normal weekend, nonetheless a three-day weekend, but the warning issued seems to have not perturbed a collection of beachgoers in Santa Barbara. Kids are still making sandcastles, though “beach toys” are on the list of prohibited items. Sunbathers snore on the beach, towels flopped over their faces. A group of three friends in town for “boys’ weekend” were Please see BEACH on A10
Corrugated plastic signs line the beach, designating the public order. A group of three beachgoers didn’t notice, as they were shocked when told of the restriction.
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Girls Inc. of Carpinteria’s annual fundraising auction, dinner, and dance — “An Evening in Bloom” — has been driven to a virtual format due to COVID-19. The nonprofit has replaced its one day of fundraising with an entire month, culminating with a virtual wrap party on Sept. 25 in tribute of the late Girls Inc. of Carpinteria board member Mary Crowley. When it became clear that “An Evening in Bloom” couldn’t go forward the same as usual, Girls Inc. of Carpinteria started thinking of ways to make its digital alternative fun and engaging to the community. According to Executive Director Jamie Collins, this ultimately materialized as the “Challenge for Change,” an online fundraising competition between teams of people involved with Girls Inc. of Carpinteria. The online fundraiser started on Aug. 24 and will conclude on Sept. 25, throughout which teams can win prizes by meeting certain benchmarks like $10,000, $15,000, and $20,000. There will also be a special prize for the team that raises the most money. According to Ms. Collins, Girls Inc. of Carpinteria wants each team to raise $25,000, and the fundraiser as a whole to raise $250,000. This goal is $100,000 higher than the one the nonprofit normally sets, to cover its costs from switching Girls Inc. programming from in-person to digital. Prior to COVID-19, Girls Inc. of Carpinteria held programs after school and during school breaks aimed toward a mission of “inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.” These programs include early literacy and STEM education. Once the pandemic hit, Ms. Collins and her colleagues saw a need for increased childcare services in Carpinteria. Since one of the two childcare centers in town closed when lockdowns went into effect, Girls Inc. of Carpinteria decided to not just serve its girls in the afternoon, but in the morning as well. Under the current arrangement, in the morning Girls Inc. of
The nonprofit has replaced its one day of fundraising with an entire month, culminating with a virtual wrap party on Sept. 25 in tribute of the late Girls Inc. of Carpinteria board member Mary Crowley. Carpinteria provides its girls with distance learning support, which is done in coordination with the girls’ schools and teachers as much as possible. This combined with their regular afternoon enrichment program makes Girls Inc. of Carpinteria a full day program, necessitating a higher than usual fundraising goal. The month-long “Challenge for Change” will conclude with an online wrap party on Sept. 25, this year’s “An Evening in Bloom,” which will be in honor of Ms. Crowley, who died in January after a long battle with cancer. She never had the opportunity to work with Ms. Crowley on the Girls Inc. of Carpinteria board, but Ms. Collins told the NewsPress that she knew the late board member her entire life, having grown up just down the street from her. She said of Ms. Crowley, “She was just one of those women who had an unbending passion for creating opportunities for all girls in Carpinteria.” In a news release, she also said Ms. Crowley was “an exceptional example” of the three qualities Girls Inc. of Carpinteria tries to cultivate in its girls, “strong, smart, and bold.” Though “An Evening in Bloom” has changed in many ways from how it was originally intended, its honoring of Ms. Crowley isn’t one of them. “We knew right away that we were going to honor her,” Ms. Collins said. “Even prior to COVID, we knew we were going to be honoring her at this event.” email: jgrega@newspress.com
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