VENTURA, CA. - On Saturday, April 16, the Ventura Family YMCA is encouraging all kids and parents in Ventura County to come to the Y for a play date and commit to being active every day. It’s all part of the YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day™ – the nation’s largest health day for families. The free event will take place at the Ventura Family YMCA from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. where families can enjoy a free lunch, meet local vendors and explore a real fire truck.

As a leading nonprofit strengthening community through healthy living, the Y holds Healthy Kids Day to teach healthy habits to kids and inspire a lifetime love of physical activity. At a time when one in three children in the United States are overweight or obese (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), developing healthier habits that include increased physical activity is more important than ever.

“At the Ventura Family YMCA, we know that parents struggle to find the time to incorporate more active play and healthier habits into their kids’ daily routine,” says Jacob Munyon, Child Care Director at the Ventura Family YMCA.“Doing so doesn’t have to require extra money or resources. It’s as simple as making a play date with your kids, with two key requirements – be active and have fun!”

As part of Healthy Kids Day, the Y encourages families to make play dates everyday as a simple way to become healthier, more active and connected. The Ventura Family YMCA recommends five simple activities families can do to play together:

1. Schedule a Game Night: Play games with the kids that incorporate physical activity, such as Charades.
2. Dance, Dance: Turn on your favorite party music and dance! Make this activity more fun with a dance contest.
3. Go Riding: Find a new bike path or park for a fun afternoon outdoors; grab your helmets and go rollerblading or bike riding.
4. Channel Your Inner Youth: Remember playing hopscotch, jump rope, Simon Says or freeze tag as a kid? Teach your favorite childhood game to your kid(s) and play them together.
5. Play Outside: Visit your neighborhood park or camp out in your backyard for some outdoor fun. Get everyone moving with fun sports like soccer, basketball or baseball.

Healthy Kids Day will be celebrated at nearly 1,600 Ys across the country, with more than 700,000 families expected to attend this year.

Healthy Kids Day is supported by Child Health & Disability, Farmers Insurance, Goofytoofy, Oxnard Children’s Dental Group, Healthy Families, Santa Paula Medical West Clinic/Youth Wellness Clinic, Ventura Fire Department, and Vitality Chiropractic. Oxnard Children’s Dental will be doing an activity on oral hygiene at 10 a.m. as well.

Families can even be part of a live audience for the YMCA After The Bell Program’s filming of the Catie and Katie Show. Filming will start at 10 a.m. and will be running in 15 minute segments so people can participate in different parts of the show.

Nationally, Healthy Kids Day is supported by the Dodge brand, PepsiCo and Sam’s Club.

For more information, contact Jacob Munyon at 805 642 2131 or visit ciymca.org/ventura.

About the Ventura Family Y
The Ventura Family YMCA serves over 20,000 individuals annually through facility memberships, before & after school childcare, day & resident camps, youth sports, swim lessons, teen programs, and many more healthy lifestyles and community enriching programs throughout Ventura, Oxnard, Ojai, Santa Paula, and Saticoy. Through the Open Doors program the YMCA ensures that no one is ever turned away due to their inability to pay and facility memberships without contracts or join fees makes the Ventura Family YMCA accessible to everyone. The Ventura Family YMCA is located at 3760 Telegraph Rd., Ventura, CA 93003. log on to ciymca.org/ventura.

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

Moorpark Police Department is participating in Project ChildSafe.

Project ChildSafe is a nationwide program whose purpose is to promote safe firearms handling and storage practices among all firearms owners through the distribution of key safety education messages and free gun locking devices (safety kits).

Since 2003, Project ChildSafe has distributed more than 35 million safety kits to gun owners in all 50 states and five U.S. territories and continues to help its law enforcement partners promote firearms safety by providing educational materials and support services.

To get a Project ChildSafe safety kit, or to help promote the safe and responsible use and storage of firearms through Project ChildSafe, please come to the Moorpark Police Department, 610 Spring Rd. Moorpark and request your free gun locking device safety kit.

Location: Moorpark Police Department
Unit Responsible: Moorpark Crime Prevention
Officer Preparing Release: Senior Deputy Bob Berger
Follow-up Contact: Senior Deputy Bob Berger (805) 532-2707
Date of Release: Friday, April 1, 2011
Approved By: Captain O’Hanlon

(l-r) Alexus Galassi, Brooke Aguirre, Brandon Pina and Ashley Jackson at the South Coast Regional Spring Meeting.
Enlarge Photo

On March 18th Fillmore FFA members attended the South Coast Regional Spring Meeting which was held at King City High School. At the meeting members competed in public speaking contests, regional officer elections and received awards for their hard work throughout the year. Each FFA chapter keeps a record of their events and activities by having a chapter scrapbook. Chapters put everything from meetings to showmanship practice information in their scrapbook. The scrapbooks are judged on not only appearance but on how well they inform the reader. Along with other scrapbooks from the region, Fillmore FFA’s scrapbook was judged at the meeting and looked wonderful! Alexus Galassi ran for the Regional Reporter position as well as competed in the Job Interview contest. Brooke Aguirre ran for the Regional Vice President for Ventura Section position and also competed in the Prepared Public Speaking contest. Ashley Jackson and Brandon Pina represented the Fillmore Chapter as voting delegates for the officer elections. Although the chapter scrapbook wasn‘t awarded and neither Alexus nor Brooke placed in their competitions or won an officer position, the students had an amazing time seeing friends and meeting new ones!

Oh how this past year has flown by so quickly! It’s already time for chapter officer elections. This past week the three graduating officers read over applications and interviewed individuals who would like to run for this year’s officer team. At our next meeting, these students will be slated into officer positions and will present speeches. Then, members will vote and the new officer team will be revealed at our End of Year Banquet in May.

It’s definitely spring time out at the School Farm! Brittany Gurrolla’s heifer Millie gave birth to her calf! After waiting approximately nine months, Millie had a black bull calf on the afternoon of March 24th. Just like any other animal, heifers can have difficult labors, but lucky for Millie the calf was born in several hours. Congratulations to Brittany and Millie!

On March 27th, Fillmore FFA members went to Rio Grande High School to receive their State FFA Degrees. Those who received the degree are Sierra Blankenship, Marc Zavala, Craig Harvey, Candace Stines, Hilary Vigil and Brandon Pina. The State FFA Degree is the third highest ranking in the FFA Organization. Members must complete the requirements which include being in FFA for two years, have received the Chapter degree and have had an approved Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) project. Along with members receiving their degrees, two Fillmore FFA members were given proficiency awards for their hard work. Riley Wright received her award for Vegetable Production and Alexus Galassi received her award for Agricultural Sales. In addition, Mr. Mike Bush was awarded the Gold Star Administrator award. Congratulations and good job to those who attended the Proficiency and State Degree Awards Ceremony!

Brooke Aguirre is Fillmore FFA's Chapter Reporter

Spring time is here! The Fillmore Community Farmers Market is Back! Grand re-Opening, Wednesday April 20th and every Wed. there after market hours every Wed. 3:30 to 7:00pm, for more info contact Scott or Laura Beylik @ 524-5533 or tomatoman1969@yahoo.com, facebook Fillmore Farmers Market

Sunday, May 15th Fillmore Memorial Building 1:00PM. Registration Cost: $40.00 per entry.
This pageant is open to Girls ages 0 – 12 yrs and Boys ages 0 – 7yrs. Contestants will be judged on beauty and personality. Applications may be obtained at the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce or by calling #805-340-6222 or #805-630-3987.

We have the Storage Yard so we can keep them together. We have a small storage container that has been loaned to us until THE CITY gets the 2 storage containers they were directed to replace by the City Council in Feb. 9th of this year...We are collecting Yard Sale items for our Yard Sale April 23rd. Call me 407-5759 or 524-4909 for collection, thank you. Mrs. Chaney.

Vision 2020 Civic Pride Committee announces a “Creative Design” workshop that will be led by Charlene Smith on April 6th at 4 pm. The workshop will be held at 233 4th Street. This workshop will be for 4H, Scouts, other youth groups & open to the public at large.

Bring some flowers, clippers & an interesting container & most importantly, your willingness to enjoy creating!
This workshop will help prepare people for the Fillmore Flower Show coming April 16,17 at the Senior Center on Santa Clara Street.

A new 80's musical written by FHS's own Josh Overton! This fun musical features some most excellent singing and dancing to tunes you'll remember from this gnarly decade. The hair styles and costumes are easily worth the price of admission!

The show opens this Friday, April 1st at 7pm. Other performances include: Saturday, April 2nd at 7pm, Sunday, April 3rd at 2pm, Friday, April 8th at 7pm, Saturday, April 9th at 7pm, Sunday, April 10th at 2pm.

Tickets are $5 for students and seniors, $7 for adults, and $15 for our new Anytime Ticket - good for unlimited admissions. Come see this Totally Rad show as many times as you want! Contact Josh Overton at 276-6070 or Janet Foy at 524-2757 for more info.

The City of Fillmore in conjunction with the County of Ventura & Clean Harbors will be hosting a household hazardous waste collection day Saturday April 2, 2011 between the hours of 8:30AM – 1:15PM at the Fillmore Public Works Yard located at 711 Sespe Place, Fillmore.

This collection event is open to residents of Fillmore, Piru & Santa Paula as well as the unincorporated areas of western Ventura County. The household hazardous waste facility accepts paints, stains, thinners and solvents, kitchen & bath cleaning products, lawn & garden products, photographic chemicals, oil, antifreeze, automotive and household batteries, fluorescent light tubes, mercury thermostats, mercury containing products, electronic waste & more. This event is FREE to the public and the perfect opportunity to get rid of those items you otherwise cannot throw into the trash.

For questions or to schedule a drop-off appointment, please call (805) 658-4323.

Location: Thousand Oaks High School 2323 N. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks, Ca.
Date & Time: Thursday, March 31, 2011 @ 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.

The problem when you chase a dragon is at some point he might turn his head and kill you. There are many metaphors for opium abuse, but the reference to “chasing the dragon” is a grim example of how serious the consequences can be.

Prescription pill and heroin abuse has increased in many communities throughout the United States, and the reason may surprise most people. Many of the young people who find their way down a path toward opium addiction began the treacherous journey in a medicine cabinet at home.

Most prescription pain medications derive their potency from opium. With pills being commonly prescribed, they are easily accessible both at home and on the street. The transition from pills to either smoking or injecting heroin is inevitable, given ample supplies and relatively cheap prices.

The physical and psychological need to maintain the addiction is the bridge that leads from prescription pills to heroin.

The communities in the Conejo Valley are no exception to this growing problem. There were 26 heroin overdoses reported in Thousand Oaks and the surrounding unincorporated areas between Jan. 1, 2009 and March 15, 2011. Four of those cases resulted in death. There were 245 arrests related to heroin abuse during the same time period. Of those arrests, 197 of the cases involved people between the age of 16 and 25.

Thursday evening, officials from law enforcement, the medical field, and behavioral health community will host a forum that is free to attend and open to anyone interested in learning more about this disturbing trend in our community.

In addition to the panel of professionals, there will be several members of the community on hand to share their experiences of how prescription drugs and heroin have affected their lives.

The event will take place in the performing arts center at Thousand Oaks High School.

Anyone with expired or unused prescription drugs can properly dispose of those items in a bin that will be provided at the event by the Thousand Oaks Police Department.

SANTA CLARITA, CA. - The U.S. Postal Service is hosting a series of Passport Fairs throughout the Sierra Coastal Postal District on Saturday, April 9, 2011 to provide passport information to U.S. citizens and to accept passport applications. The Postal Service is joining the U.S. Department of State in celebrating “Passport Day in the USA,” a national passport acceptance and outreach event.

“We are happy to leverage the convenience of the Postal Service and partner with the Department of State to help our customers apply for passports,” said Michael Madrigal, manager of retail for the Sierra Coastal District. In 2010, the Postal Service accepted 6.7 million passport applications at retail locations across the country.

Information on the cost and how to apply for a U.S. passport book and/or passport card can be found at www.usps.com/passport/ or www.travel.state.gov. U.S. citizens also may obtain passport information by phone, in English or Spanish, by calling the National Passport Information Center toll free at 1-877-487-2778.

On April 9, customers can visit one of the following locations to apply for a passport without first having to make an appointment:

Post Office
Address
City
Passport Hours

Moorpark Post Office
100 West High Street
Moorpark
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Oxnard Main Post Office
1961 North C Street
Oxnard
9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Santa Paula Post Office
111 South Mill Street
Santa Paula
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Simi Valley Main Post Office
2551 North Galena Avenue
Simi Valley
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Goleta Branch Post Office
130 South Patterson
Goleta
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Bishop Post Office
595 W Line Street
Bishop
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Antelope Station Post Office
43824 20th Street West
Lancaster
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Robert Munoz

The Lion’s Club held their Zone Speech contest on March 9th at the Boys and Girls Club in Camarillo. This year’s winner was Robert Munoz of Fillmore. This year’s Topic is “Protecting our Borders, Federal Rights vs. State Rights”. He now has the opportunity to compete at the Region Lever on March 14th. He was accompanied by Fillmore Lions representative Bill Edmonds and by his proud parents and brothers.

Roberto is a junior at Fillmore High School and is active in the Marching Band, Jazz Band, Boy Scouts, Cross Country and will appear in the musical “Totally Rad”.

Residents are encouraged to recycle appliances, refrigerators, electronics, tires, wood trash and recyclables
Got clutter around the house? Bring it to Fillmore’s “City-Wide Clean Up Day” on Saturday, March 26, 2011.

City residents and small-business owners are encouraged to bring their unwanted clutter that day to Well No. 4 located at 728 Goodenough Road, across the street from Ameron Pole Products, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Trash, recyclables, furniture, appliances, old tires, refrigerators, computers, television sets, stereos and cathode ray tubes are among the materials that will be accepted, free of charge.

Note, however, that oil, gasoline, diesel fuel and household hazardous waste such as cleaning solvents, pesticides, fertilizers, batteries and paint will not be accepted during “City-Wide Clean Up Day.” However, the City of Fillmore’s next Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) collection is April 2, 2011.

For more information on the “City-Wide Clean Up Day,” call 524-3701.

El 26de marzo es el día de limpieza de primavera de toda la ciudad en Fillmore

¿Tiene demasiada basura en su hogar? Tráigala al día de limpieza de toda la ciudad el sábado 26 de marzo, 2011.
Invitamos a los residentes de Fillmore, y los propietarios de pequeños negocios para que traigan sus artículos no deseados al pozo #4 (well #4) que está en 728 Goodenough Rd. al cruzar la calle de Ameron Pole Products. Será de las 8:00 a.m. hasta las 2:00 p.m. Sin costo alguno se aceptará: basura, reciclables, muebles, artefactos eléctricos, llantas viejas, refrigeradores, computadoras, televisiones, estéreos, y tubos de rayos catódicos.

Nota: por favor, tenga en cuenta que durante el Día de Limpieza de toda la Ciudad lo que NO se aceptará es lo siguiente: aceite, gasolina, diesel, y desechos peligrosos como: solubles, pesticidas, fertilizantes, baterías, y pintura. Sin embargo, El 2 de abril, 2011 es el día de primavera para Deshacerse de Desechos Peligrosos (HHW) en Fillmore.

Para más información del Día de Limpieza de toda la Ciudad de Fillmore llame al 524-3701.

Ventura, CA. - Pain management and fibromyalgia – a type of arthritis which includes widespread muscle and joint discomfort – will be the focus of a free seminar the Community Memorial Health System is holding on Tuesday, April 12.

Dr. Nelly K. Mac, a Ventura anesthesiologist, will lead the seminar that will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in Community Memorial Hospital’s eighth-floor Nichols Auditorium.

Dr. Mac will discuss symptoms of fibromyalgia, which can also include fatigue, depression and social isolation, as well as diagnostic and treatment options. They include pharmacotherapy and non-pharmacologic care.

Dr. Mac received her medical degree from the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, Philippines and is an active member of the Community Memorial Hospital staff.

Admission is free, but space is limited, so reservations are suggested. Call (805) 652-5436, or visit www.cmhshealth.org/rsvp.

Community Memorial Hospital is located at 147 N. Brent St. in Ventura.

Community Memorial Health System is a not-for-profit health system, which is comprised of Community Memorial Hospital, Ojai Valley Community Hospital, and nine family-practice health centers entitled Centers for Family Health. The health system is located in Ventura County, California.