Community

The First Aloha Music & Arts Festival, inspired by the spirit of aloha and Hawaii, will take place at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds July 31, and Aug. 1. The free event will feature music, art and crafts, and food that celebrates Hawaiian, Polynesian,...

The City of Watsonville, Watsonville Wetlands Watch (WWW), and Community Arts & Empowerment are teaming up to design and install a new mosaic mural for the entrance wall of the new Nature Center scheduled to open in Ramsay Park in late 2025.  The artwork includes...

Michael Rozen said Aug. 1 he would rather be playing sports with his friends than attending the weeklong Bruce W. Woolpert Algebra Academy offered by Graniterock.  While Michael stopped short of admitting an affinity for math, the 13-year-old admits the experience will prepare him for...

Water fills the newly constructed sentiment drying beds on Holohan Road Wednesday as part of the College Lake Pipeline Project, which was designed to develop College Lake as a new water supply for the Pajaro Valley. Six miles of 30-inch water main will transport treated...

The Never Forget Memorial Relay was held Sunday in Aptos Village Park. The eighth annual  event featured 33  teams of four from police and fire departments, California State Parks, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office, the county Probation Department and others whose teams...

The annual Mexican Independence Day Festival is set for Sunday in downtown Watsonville Sunday. Put on by Fiestas Patrias, the free event will feature live music, food booths, arts and crafts and information tables spread out around Watsonville Plaza and surrounding streets.  This year the...

On Aug. 14, about 400 students will return to Pajaro Middle School, more than a year after flood waters forced the campus to close. This includes seventh-graders who spent their first middle school year at a different school. On Friday, several workers were continuing to...

A collection of images from the Watsonville Strawberry Festival from Aug. 2-4.

Elaine Johnson was 15 before she realized that the “aunt” who lived with her grandmother was actually her grandmother’s partner of four decades. In those days, LGBTQ largely had to live in the shadows, lest they draw scorn from a society not yet evolved enough...

On March 28, local artist Judy Stabile was among seven people who were honored for community service during the annual Cesar Chavez Awards ceremony. Stabile, who volunteers with Pajaro Valley Arts, said she was honored to receive the award. “The awardees were nominated for community service,”...