montereycountynow.com/bestof BEST OF MONTEREY COUNTY® 2025 13 AROUND TOWN BEST VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula 700 Jewell Ave., Pacific Grove (831) 375-4454, mowmp.org They say not to play games with your food, but if delivering meals brings you joy, are you breaking that old rule? Maybe, but for a great cause. Last year, 300-plus volunteer drivers covered more than 199,000 miles bringing food—and something even more valuable, a visit from a caring person—to seniors and people with limited mobility. This nonprofit helps keep homebound clients healthy and fed, and also connected. Volunteers might check in, listen to a story, tell a joke, deliver pet food. Hundreds more volunteers help prepare the food and work in the kitchen and serve meals onsite for seniors able to venture out for a community lunch. In this endeavor, both the volunteers and the clients are winners. BEST LOCAL DO-GOODER Elsa Rivera You can find Elsa Rivera on the stage emceeing a variety of events, connecting the audience to musicians or burlesque performers or runway models in the annual Big Sur Fashion Show. But even more often, she is working behind the scenes, providing the administrative glue that holds together so many local charitable events. She’s on the board of the Big Sur Food and Wine Festival, which last year raised and donated $202,000 to 17 local Big Sur organizations. She’s active in the nonprofit All-In Monterey County, providing a free store with food, clothing and essentials to people in need. She helped launch the Big Share in Big Sur, offering a similar type of food distribution. She is a volunteer instructor for surf therapy through GI Josie. All of this volunteerism comes on top of her full-time job. She recalls when she first moved to the area, settling in Palo Colorado, knowing nobody. “I feel like the community helped raise me and my children. It’s a continual paying it forward,” Rivera says. “I feel like it is my life’s purpose to be of service.” BEST LOCAL NONPROFIT BEST PLACE TO TAKE VISITORS Monterey Bay Aquarium 886 Cannery Row, Monterey (831) 648-4800, montereybayaquarium. org In the game of Candy Land, all roads lead to the same place: King Kandy’s Castle. It’s a bright palace covered in candy, a child’s fantasy oasis. In Monterey County, we have our very own version of King Kandy Castle— you guessed it, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a star destination of our very own Candy Land. Swap out the jellybean windows for glass, with an inside look into the deep sea, the sugar paths for the sandy shores where birds burrow or search for bugs. That makes it the best place to visit, and it also has a mission that’s no fantasy: To inspire ocean conservation. BEST RADIO STATION KCDU 101.7 The Beach 80 Garden Court, #102, Monterey (831) 658-5200, 1017thebeach.com How often do you find yourself playing radio roulette? You spin through the presets until you find a song you haven’t heard 80 times already today. There’s a reason this station is called The Beach: because you can spend all day on it and never get bored. Today’s most popular hits interspersed with everyone’s favorites from the past are the perfect soundtrack to your volleyball game, frisbee fest or just lounging on the beach towel. BEST RADIO DJ The Morning Madhouse KDON 102.5 1550 Moffett St., Unit C, Salinas (831) 755-8181, kdon.iheart.com Sometimes your head is just not in the game when driving to work in the morning. You’d rather be in bed but your team is counting on you. That’s where Sam Diggedy and Showbiz come in. Think of them as your pregame pep squad wiping the crust out of your eyes and getting you pumped for your day. With a good mix of equal parts upbeat jams, daily news and gossip along with occasional comedic shenanigans they’ll change you from road-rager rethinking your life choices to the smiley driver laughing at the red light over something you’ve just heard them riff on. BEST LOCAL PODCAST KRML & Alvarado Street Brewery Pub Talk 5-6pm Thursdays 94.7FM, krml.com This station is always in the vanguard of our local airwaves, and this is not your usual talk show, with a recipe of local movers, shakers and arts and music makers along with Best Local Podcast | KRML & Alvarado Street Brewery Pub Talk
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