Our Community Reads: Trivia Night March 4 • New Executive Director

COMMUNITY NEWS

Our Community Reads: Trivia Night March 4

This season, Friends of Aptos Library has chosen “Red Letter Days” as the book and events represent collaboration with Friends groups in Capitola and La Selva Beach.

The goal of these events is to create a shared experience that will increase appreciation for community libraries and for 24 local bookstores; foster pride in the varied experiences that our area offers; and the enrichment — culturally, intellectually, and emotionally — that comes from the joy of reading! • All events will be free and open to the public. • Attendance at in-person events will be limited due to Covid restrictions and require preregistration. • Masks will be required for in-person events.

For up-to-date details on registration, locations and links to online events see: https://www.friendsofaptoslibrary.org/ our-community-reads-2022.html •••

Thursday, Feb 17: La Selva Beach Film Night: Trumbo Introduction by Robert Strayer, La Selva Beach Community Church, 7 p.m.

In 1947, Dalton Trumbo (Academy Award nominee Bryan Cranston) was Hollywood’s top screenwriter until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs. Trumbo (directed by Jay Roach) recounts how Dalton used words and wit to win two Academy Awards and expose the absurdity and injustice of the blacklist, which entangled everyone from gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) to John Wayne, Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger. The film also stars Diane Lane, John Goodman, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Robert W. Strayer, Ph.D., taught African, Soviet, and world history for many years at SUNY College at Brockport, New York. Since moving to California in 2002, he has taught world History at UC Santa Cruz, CSU Monterey Bay, and Cabrillo College. He has written many books, including Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? (1998), The Communist Experiment (2007), and Ways of the World: A Brief Global History (now in its fifth edition). He has also been published in the Journal of World History, and has served as co-editor of the McGraw-Hill series, Explorations in World History.

Thursday, Feb. 24: Red Diaper Babies: Growing Up During the HUAC Years of the 1950s Bettina Aptheker, Julie Olsen Edwards and Dena Taylor at 7 p.m. via Zoom.

Growing up closer to home than the London scenes depicted in “Red Letter Days,” three “red diaper babies” discuss how their lives were impacted by the McCarthy era and the House Un-American Activities Committee. They will share lessons learned that they have carried into the present.

Bettina Aptheker: distinguished professor emerita, Feminist Studies Department, UCSC.

Julie Olsen Edwards: Cabrillo College Early Childhood faculty (retired), writer, Anti Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, consultant, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture .

Dena Taylor: Cabrillo College program manager (retired), author, poet. Dena’s most recent books are Tell Me the Number Before Infinity: the story of a girl with a quirky mind, an eccentric family, and oh yes, a disability (co-authored with Becky Taylor) and Exclamation Points: collected poems.

Monday, Feb. 28: What’s Black and White and Red All Over? With Claudia Sternbach, 7 p.m. via Zoom.

We will focus on the hunt for communists in the world of writers and filmmakers in the 1950’s, in particular on the role of women in that time period, and the hidden meaning in the popular TV series Robin Hood.

Claudia Sternbach, former Santa Cruz Sentinel columnist, is the author of three memoirs: Now Breathe, (Whiteaker Press), Reading Lips (Unbridled Books), and her most recent, Dear Goldie Hawn, Dear Leonard Cohen, released by Paper Angel Press in December 2021. She has often published in The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, and The Chicago Tribune. She is former editor-in-chief of the literary journal Memoir.

Thursday, March 3: Trivia on Tap Steel Bonnet, 20 Victor Square, Scotts Valley. 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Hosted and moderated by Jenn Hooker, librarian with the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Trivia on Tap will feature questions selected from Red Letter Days, challenging teams of no more than six persons to answer 30 questions.

You can get snacks at Steel Bonnet, or at outlets in the same complex, or make food at home and have a picnic-style meal while you ponder the questions. Winners get the grand prize of a $25 gift certificate to the Steel Bonnet. n

Claudia Sternbach

New Executive Director at Watsonville Family YMCA

Robin Schnekenburger of Hollister is the new executive director of the Watsonville Family YMCA. She’s worked for the Central Coast YMCA since 2011.

“I’ve always known I can take on a challenge,” she said. “So when they asked me, I said yes in one day. It comes kind of easy for me because it’s youth and families, so it’s not a huge transition for me.”

As a mother of three daughters (all who have worked for the Y), and with a decade of experience running youth and education programs in Hollister, Salinas, Monterey, and now Watsonville, Schnekenburger was ready.

“There’s much more on my plate,” she said. “But I feel like I’ve settled in, the members have been receptive, the community is really nice and the staff is amazing.”

Her first experience with the Y came when a friend asked if one of her daughters needed a job since the Hollister Y was looking. “I didn’t even know we had a YMCA,” she said.

She decided to apply, got an interview, and was hired on the spot, working for the after-school program.

“Being a mother, it came very easy to me,” she said.

She ran the After School Education and Safety program in Salinas, then moved to the Monterey Y, working with after-school programs with the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District.

Santa Cruz Sentinel’s Readers Choice Awards voted the Watsonville Y as Best Youth Recreation 2021. There were over 26,000 ballots cast.

Look at the smile on her face.

“What you give, you get back,” she said. “I must be doing something right!” n

Robin Schnekenburger