Live Your Dream’ Awards Announced • Do you have a Carbon Mon

COMMUNITY NEWS ‘Live Your Dream’ Awards Announced

Soroptimist International of Capitolaby-the-Sea has selected three local women as winners of the 2020 Live Your Dream Awards. At a ceremony March 24, each will be presented with a $2,000 cash award.

The winners are Lorena Miller of Capitola, Celia Montesina of Santa Cruz and the name of the third winner is being withheld for her safety.

The Live Your Dream awards are given to women who are enrolled in or have been accepted into a bachelor’s or technical training program, are the heads of their households with demonstrated financial need.

Miller, a single mother of two children, is a full-time student with the goal of becoming a surgical nurse. She grew up with parents addicted to drugs and alcohol and suffered mental, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of a family member.

After escaping those circumstances, she began her pre-nursing classes. She has a learning disability, requiring tutoring and studying outside the classroom including on weekends and during the summer.

“I know that my future as a surgical nurse will be the most beneficial and most rewarding job that I can do,” she wrote in her Live Your Dream essay. “I look forward to hands-on patient care, providing support and aiding in healing.”

Similarly, Montesina is a single parent raising two children, one of whom has a learning disability. A first-generation immigrant and college student, she also escaped domestic violence.

“Studying offered me a newfound comfort, I was able to escape into the

realm of books and knowledge,” she wrote in her Live Your Dream essay. “Whenever I learned something new, it made me feel competent, capable and most importantly—powerful.”

Currently enrolled in a radiologic technology program at Cabrillo College, she hopes to become a licensed radiologic technologist. She also wants to be an educator as well as a beacon of hope, and an example to her children, single parents and abuse survivors.

The anonymous winner is the mother who is pursuing a degree in social work and has been able to maintain a 4.0 gradepoint average while raising her two children, going to school full-time and working part-time.

“I want to work with women and mothers and help them to overcome difficulties and to enjoy their precious life,” she said in her Live Your Dream essay. n ••• Soroptimist International of Capitolaby-the-Sea is a volunteer organization that provides women and girls with access to the education and training needed to achieve economic empowerment. For information see www.facebook.com/sicapitola, email us at Lorena Miller Celia Montesina

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Do you have a Carbon Monoxide Detector?

By Katie Webb

Arecent poll of Central Fire Protection District residents on Nextdoor showed that 86% of respondents are using a carbon monoxide detector in their home, 9% are not using a carbon monoxide detector, and the rest are unsure if their home is equipped with carbon monoxide detectors.

Besides being required by law, carbon monoxide detectors are a simple and inexpensive way to prevent a potentially fatal poisoning episode in the home.

A carbon monoxide detector detects carbon monoxide in your home and warns you that carbon monoxide is present, giving you time to get out and call 911 for help.