www.montereycountynow.com december 26, 2024-january 1, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 17 In her youth in Castroville, Leticia Ibarra Anthony sometimes resented going with her family to work in the fields picking strawberries—she would rather sleep in or go to the pool, kid stuff. But she and her brother made it fun; they would have strawberry fights and eat their fill. Fast forward a few years. Ibarra got married, moved to Greenfield, started a family and began her career in early childhood education. Her children had learning disabilities so she wound up homeschooling them, but continued to work and volunteer in Head Start and afterschool programs. She found that she could relate to kids who other teachers found frustrating and uncooperative. “The kids just need to connect with you. That was my passion and still is,” she says. “But sometimes you are called to do something else.” That “something else” has evolved for Ibarra. She started by reaching out to parents of students with disabilities to advocate to get their needs met. Then, as she tells it, “one thing led to another.” She got involved in Community Emergency Response Volunteers (CERV) as a volunteer doing disaster preparedness outreach. She became active in Líderes Campesinos, advocating for the community’s needs, and connected to Celebration Foundation during the pandemic. She then got trained up as a community health worker, sharing information with South County farmworkers about vaccinations and the right to stay home from work and isolate, and distributing masks and food. She now volunteers with Brighter Bites, helping package fresh produce. “I think one person can make a ripple effect,” she says. “If I can’t be over there helping, I’ll be over here helping.” Ibarra lives a life deeply devoted to volunteerism—it’s just what she does. I spoke to her on Christmas Eve and her plan for Christmas was to deliver food to unhoused people in Soledad. Her commitment to the community happens on the ground, face-to-face as a volunteer. She provides muscle to organizations, but she is loathe to take credit. “It’s not about me, it’s about organizations that are willing to put out time and effort and energy,” Ibarra says. I have that network of organizations on my mind as the year comes to an end, partly because people like Ibarra are spending the holiday helping others. It’s also because everyone is invited to make an impact through Monterey County Gives! to raise money for local nonprofits that are out there doing the work that frontline volunteers like Ibarra know needs to be done. MCGives! Is an initiative of Monterey County Weekly in partnership with the Community Foundation for Monterey County and the Monterey Peninsula Foundation. There are 206 participating organizations that all could use your help— and I invite you, whatever your means and whatever your interest, to join in as a philanthropist. Among the many partners that contribute to an overall matching, helping your donation go further, are several local businesses, including Cannery Row Company. I asked CEO Ted Balestreri why. Balestreri spent his childhood in Brooklyn, and remembers spending time at the Boys Club (before it was Boys and Girls). It was less about mentorship than it was simply a place to be, and to play basketball. “It was more like camaraderie,” he says. “This was a place to go that we thought was a safe haven.” Balestreri today is most often moved to donate to organizations that directly invest in training and coaching young people, particularly that help with culinary career pathways. “The most important thing is the human mind,” he says. “If we can capture as many young people as possible and help them to succeed, we’re doing the right thing. It’s the best investment in the world.” You can make your own choice about the best investment by donating, at any amount, to any variety of nonprofits, using a handy online shopping cart checkout system. As of Dec. 23, MCGives! had raised a whopping $9.7 million in challenge gifts and individual donations combined, over $2 million more than this time last year. Joining in—as a volunteer, a donor, or both—is one way to help grow the ripple effect and make a difference. Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. To donate to Monterey County Gives!, visit montereycountygives.com. The deadline to give is midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 31. All In Our community relies on support and services from nonprofits. Join in. By Sara Rubin The People’s McMansion…Squid’s pretty happy with Squid’s modest lair, but a project that came before the County Planning Commission on Dec. 11 makes Squid’s lair look like a speck. On a 0.081-acre parcel—3,252 square feet—in Carmel Valley, at 10196 Oakwood Circle, is a proposal to build a six-story, 12,470-square-foot home, plus an attached garage just over 930 square feet, a 2,124-square-foot accessory dwelling unit, a 483-square-foot junior ADU and around 3,420 square feet of decks. The house is proposed to be built into an oak-studded hillside at a slope of more than 25 percent—in excess of what’s allowed by the county’s zoning ordinances—which is one reason county staff recommended denying a permit for it, and a county report also notes the project application contained “misleading and factually incorrect information.” The applicant, San Francisco-based Rene Peinado, has a separate application into the county, so far deemed incomplete, for essentially the exact same project on the same property, except that the junior ADU would be deed-restricted as affordable. That, theoretically, would allow it to qualify as a “builder’s remedy” project, meaning that county officials would have much less discretion to deny it. What exactly a six-story mansion is a remedy for, Squid cannot tell. Drama Queens…Squid loves a good songand-dance routine, and live theater. So Squid had in mind to ooze over to Golden Bough Playhouse in Carmel to see Jersey Boys, produced by Pacific Repertory Theatre, before it closed Dec. 22. But when Squid went looking for tickets, there were big red letters announcing: Canceled, “due to medical issues and further circumstances beyond our control.” Ticketholders might consider donating to the nonprofit, or they could request a refund, an announcement read. Behind the curtain, people were talking. Squid received a copy of a lengthy email from a cast member who quit, saying he stayed up all night to pen his list of grievances. They include objections to costume-fitting and choreography, among more serious claims, like a performer going onstage with a concussion. In his letter, Jeremy Ingraham noted that some of his concerns had been preemptively dismissed by ex-colleagues, including one who said it was “Gen Z’ers not understanding ‘the show must go on.’” Squid’s colleague reached out to PacRep Executive Director Stephen Moorer to ask if it was just Gen Z crying, and he responded by throwing shade at the Weekly. “In classic tabloid tradition—because who needs facts or credible sources?—they’ve graced us with thirdhand gossip and half-baked slander from a disgruntled out-of-town performer,” he wrote. Do two helpings of half-baked gossip make a full drama? Squid thinks it plays like a tragedy. the local spin SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “I think one person can make a ripple effect.” Send Squid a tip: squid@montereycountynow.com
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