Local Doctor Helps Legally Blind to See Again!

Dr. Richard Shuldiner helps macular degeneration sufferers with reading, driving, TV, and maintaining independence.

Pete T., an 83 year-old retired engineer from Palm Springs thought that his driving days were over. “I could not read the street signs soon enough and it made me nervous.”

Helen T. retired teacher, 74, from San Diego wanted to be able to read and write more easily. She wanted to see her grandchildren singing in the church choir. But she thought those days were over when she was diagnosed with macular degeneration. Neither of these patients knew that a low vision optometrist could help with some of those issues.

“Bioptic telescopic glasses can be used to see signs further down the road,” said Dr. Richard Shuldiner, Low Vision Optometrist and Founder of the International Academy of Low Vision Specialists (IALVS).

“This can allow some people with conditions like macular degeneration to continue driving.”

“Amazing!” said Pete. “I can read the street signs and even see the television better!”

Lee K, 71, of Anaheim called on the advice of a friend. “I wanted to be able to keep driving and do the fun things in life. One of those fun things is baseball. I can see those close plays again,” said the patient.

Bioptic telescopic glasses were prescribed to read signs and see traffic lights farther away. As one patient put it, ‘’These telescopic glasses not only allow me to read signs from a farther distance, but make driving much easier. I’ve also used them to watch television so I don’t have to sit so close; definitely worth the cost. I don’t know why I waited two years to do this.”

Macular degeneration is the most common eye disease amongst the senior population. As many as 25% of those over 65 have some degree of degeneration. The macula is one small part of the entire retina, but it is the most sensitive and gives us sharp images. “Our job is to figure out everything and anything possible to keep a person functioning visually,” said Dr. Shuldiner. “Whether it’s driving, reading, watching television, or seeing faces, we work with whatever is on the persons ‘wish list.”’ Low Vision glasses start at around $600. It is a small price to pay for the hours of enjoyment you can have with better vision and more independence.

For more information and a FREE telephone consultation to determine if you are a candidate for our services, call: TOLL FREE: 888-610-2020

Low vision glasses can help for reading, writing, watching TV, playing card games and more! www.LowVisionCare.com blend of fruit, juice and crust.”

He said it typically takes two hours total to make a cobbler, split between cooking the fruit filling for about an hour, followed by building the cobbler itself and letting it bake for another hour.

“It was tricky for me at first, but I am confident now thanks to my mom teaching me so well,” Jordan said.

Queens of Cobbler encouraged preorders to ensure customers get the exact product they want, when they want it.

For more information, contact 951-306-2393, http://www.queensofcobbler.com, queensofcobbler@ g mail.com or on Instagram @ Queensofcobbler.

DIGIFEST from page A-1

Her passion for workforce development in the arts led her to write two approved curriculums for video production. One is a Title 17 program that is designed for adults with developmental disabilities. The other is a California State approved apprenticeship program for college graduates. These programs provide hands-on training, paid supported internship opportunities, and are designed to help students gain employment in video production, post production and acting.

Strand’s efforts have launched more than 100 video and acting careers in the mainstream entertainment and video production industry. She aims to continuously provide H.O.P.E, helping one person everyday, as she says, DigiFest was originally recognized as the International Film and Music Festival, but has since been reinvented by JDS Creative Academy. Those in attendance at the festival get to experience digital media in varying forms, learn how to pursue a career in the industry, and how to incorporate digital arts into the economic culture.

“DigiFest celebrates multimedia’s unique power to bring together several media forms that share original stories, diverse perspectives, and rich emotional journeys through collaborating digital mediums,” Strand said.

According to Strand, 2023’s DigiFest was their biggest festival to date. She expressed her excitement in finally being back in-person, following the pandemic. They previously had a virtual option for international competition entries, but no local virtual viewers this year Tickets were sold out for events occurring on April 22 and 23.

Each of the judges are industry professionals within their field. They range from award-winning directors, content creators, musicians, photographers, and writers from mainstream shows on ABC, HBO, Disney and Netflix. Guests who appeared included Ryan O’Nan and Eileen Grubba. Featured on the directors’ panel were Alex Bram, Pryde Pierce, Rachel Nee-Hall and Chris Nolan. Appearing for the voice actor panel were Bob Bergen and Candi Milo. them. Some of the students, who range in age from two through kindergarten, cleverly filled plastic eggs with pinto beans and then placed the eggs between two plastic spoons. After taping the handles together, it formed a rattle. Still others made rattles from empty toilet paper tubes filled with beans and taped up on both ends.

This year’s DigiFest had a podcaster and influencer panel from across the country, and a presentation on artificial intelligence, which was followed by the competition evening screenings. On Sunday, workshop day, they had an Adobe certified trainer and award winning music composer, Bryon Fry, alongside television host Diane Forster. They held a workshop on how one creates their own television show.

The awards celebration featured Adrian Paul and Honorable California State Treasurer, Fiona Ma. Over 97 entries were submitted this year. Ten Digi awards, 22 Honorable Mentions, People’s Choice awards and Special Standout Achievements in acting, writing and growth, were all bestowed upon contestants. The weekend also featured entertainment from Lee Coulter, Sean O’Brien and Sammy Listoe’s band.

Plans for next year’s DigiFest will begin in September, while the competition submissions will open in October. The categories are open for K-12 or higher education students and professionals. Submissions can range from videos and films, music or music videos, podcasts, animation, graphic design, photography, virtual reality and scripting. For more details, visit digifesttemecula.org.

Ava Sarnowski can be reached by email at valleystaff@reedermedia.com.

Shaking their instruments to “I Love My Planet (The Earth Song)” that they learned in class, proud parents videotaped and photographed the budding musicians who learned an important lesson about recycling.

Aceves said this was definitely his favorite part of the whole event.

“Getting the youth involved is always an achievement because they are the next generation that will play a pivotal part in environmental stewardship,” he said.

Students at Noli Indian School, which serves sixth through twelfth grades, used their science class time to create posters that matched this year’s Earth Day theme of “Invest in Our Planet.” Each visitor at the event was given a voting dot upon check-in to place in front of their choice for favorite poster.

Noli science teachers Jay Dagostino and Sabrina Sobel tied the project into their lesson plans on Ecology. “I liked the creative art mixed with science and community involvement,” Dagostino said. Aceves said the class that created the winning poster will be treated to a pizza party, courtesy of STED. The second-place class will receive an ice-cream party.

Junior Nataly Lemus worked with two other classmates to create the “Help Save the Earth” poster that stresses reduce, reuse and recycle.

“We collaborated on the whole design and then I put it together,” she said. Nataly made tree “leaves” out of pieces of green plastic soda bottles.

Seniors Sienna Goff and Bella Resvaloso, along with sophomore Jacklyn Ramirez, created their poster during chemistry class. Their artfully crafted message offered ways to help save the earth – use less water, plant more trees and stop pollution. The Earth was shown as green and vital on one side where nature was key and the other half as brown and polluted where factories and poor air quality prevailed. Their poster earned them second place.

Sixth-grade students pointed out that if we don’t invest in our planet now, we might not have one to live on 20 years from now. They wrote, “If we don’t protect our environment and animals, future generations won’t be able to enjoy it.” A list of possible solutions included carpooling, planting more plants, turning off lights when not in a room and using cooling and heating systems less.

Another poster read, “Investing in our planet is important for our future because without our planet, there is no future. A healthy planet isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.”

Members of the Soboba Foundation, Tribal Council and Tribal Executive Offices are looking ahead to summer’s outdoor activities and provided water pool toys and kites to guests. Marketing team associates from Soboba Casino Resort had a fun watercolor craft for all ages. The younger artists were impressed with the “magic” that took place when Cheyanna Perez sprayed water on the paper plate they colored with blue and green markers to create a muted “earthy” masterpiece.

There was information on electric cars and solar energy. GRID Alternatives and ONYX Power shared details about the current solar backup project they have at Soboba. Current Home focuses on residential solar projects and offered games for the children who attended.

Jonathan Reinig, the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority Reserve Manager, and Jonathan Marin with Riverside County Transportation Commission tag teamed discussions about land and wildlife habitat conservation.

“We have 146 species in Western Riverside County and 34 are considered threatened or endangered,” Reinig said.

Climate Science Alliance and Inland Empire Waterkeeper nonprofits have programs geared toward youths and showed them how they could get involved. River KATS (Kids Activism Through Science) is a program that offers workshops and field trips to teach children firsthand about our watershed.

The Soboba Fire Department had a booth where they shared the importance of signing up for wildfire alerts and things that can be done to mitigate damage to homes and other property as fire season approaches. There were also plastic firefighter helmets in pink or black for the children as well as crayons, a coloring puzzle and more.

The Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians gave a demonstration of a do-it-yourself water filter and representatives from the Sierra Club, Master Gardeners, the Forest Service Volunteer Association and other agencies shared hints on protecting wildlife, preserving resources and investing in our planet.

Southern California Edison Community Crew members Torrie Brandon and Jose Soto, who work with vegetation management, were passing out potted plant starters for those that wanted them while also sharing the important job SCE does in making sure trees are kept trimmed away from power lines. To learn which tree species are utility friendly, contact safetrees@sce.com before planting.

Trequitta Jennings and other members of the SCE Community

Outreach Team gave away resiliency kits, explained ways to be energy efficient and how to sign up for the service that sends out alerts regarding power outages and other informative messages. To sign up, visit sce.com/ outagealerts

Hosea Jones and Taylor Hart with CalFresh talked to guests about eating healthy by growing fruits and vegetables, such as celery.

The Cultural Resource Department’s cultural garden is going strong and members shared fresh produce from the Soboba Indian Reservation garden. Other department representatives shared the importance of pollinators to help bees. They offered pollinator kits to plant the types of flowers enjoyed by bees, bee-shaped bookmarks and a list of the native plants at the reservation that bees like: black sage, brittlebush, buckwheat, chia, cottonwood, elderberry, sagebrush, sycamore, white sage and yerba santa.

They shared that we should invest in our planet with native plants, those that occur naturally in a region in which they evolved. They are the ecological basis upon which all life depends. To learn more about the native plant species in your region, visit https://calscape.org. They further explained the benefits of native plants, such as promoting biodiversity by providing shelter and food for wildlife, supporting pollinators, reducing the carbon footprint while minimizing pollution as they require little to no maintenance, saving water since native plants are able to sustain themselves and controlling erosion due to their strong, deep and varying root lengths.

Mike Perez with the Riverside County Department of Waste Resources shared the many ways people can learn how to recycle and be more eco-friendly. Free in-person and virtual classes about composting, sustainable landscaping and zero waste are just a few that are available through www.rcwaste.org

“We teach people how to keep things out of the trash that don’t belong there,” Perez said. He started out as a volunteer in 2017 and is now Volunteer Services Coordinator.

“We also offer the longest-running composting class (since 1996) and the biggest one is the state.”

With the help of more than 10 volunteers, although they are always recruiting more, Perez said they work with schools and attend many community events, such as this one, to help educate others on the importance of recycling and how to do it properly.

Guests were also treated to a raffle ticket for some great prizes, a free cup of Kona Ice and a meal ticket for the In-n-Out food truck.

Aceves said the most beneficial thing the average person can do today to make a great impact in the future is to adopt sustainable practices. This can include carpooling, recycling, limiting single use plastic, reducing water use and many more.

“Adopting sustainable practices into your everyday life may not seem like a great impact but over time these practices really add up,” he said. “The environment rarely changes overnight; it’s the small changes over time that often make the biggest impact.”

Peripheral Neuropathy Breakthrough!

“My feet feel like they’re on re.”

“Each step feels like I’m walking through wet paint.”

“I live in constant fear that I’ll fall.”

“I can’t sleep, my hands and feet tingle all night.”

What do all of these people have in common? ey su er from peripheral neuropathy. It’s estimated that more than 20 million people in the United States have peripheral neuropathy. Unfortunately this gure may be signi cantly higher as the disease is o en misdiagnosed because of its wide array of symptoms.

Sarika Connor, L.Ac, of Soma Acupuncture & Wellness in Temecula shares this belief. “I’ve been treating neuropathy, in all its various forms, for about a decade now and so o en my patients come to me because of the symptoms, not because of a diagnosis. ey see me on television, or read the testimonial of another patient and say to themselves ‘hey, I feel the same thing’.”

Frankie M. of Murrieta testi ed to this. “I remember my husband driving me to my consultation and I saw a woman running just outside our neighborhood. I was so envious - I just kept thinking ‘I would give anything just to walk again’. My primary care doctor told me my troubles with pain and balance were just symptoms of old age and gave me a prescription. I was so depressed.”

Fortunately Frankie would eventually see Sarika on the local news talking about similar symptoms and how she o ers a real solution at Soma Acupuncture. “I just knew I had to see her. She was my last hope.” ey’ve been everywhere else. ey’ve been told there’s no hope. ey’ve been told ‘it’s just part of getting older’.” shares Amanda, a Patient Care Technician at Soma Acupuncture. “It just breaks my heart but I know how much we can help people like Frankie so I’m always so happy when they walk through our door.” ose diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy o en face a very grim reality; Western medicine declares that there is no solution while most alternative therapies carry large price tags and o er little to no resolve. Which is why Sarika and the sta at Soma Acupuncture pride themselves on being ‘the last resort with the best results.’

“Almost all of our patients come to us with a story similar to Frankie’s.

Peripheral neuropathy is a result of damage to the nerves and this damage is commonly caused by lack of blood ow in the hands and feet. A lack of blood ow results in a lack of nutrients; the nerves then begin to degenerate and die which causes pain ranging from discomfort to debilitation. Because neuropathy is a degenerative condition, once those nerves begin to deteriorate they will continue to do so until they are completely expired, leaving those su ering with crippling balance issues. “In this case, the absence of pain is not necessarily a good thing,” shares Sarika. “ is usually indicates that your nerves are hanging on by a fragile thread.”

So how exactly is Sarika able to reverse the e ects of this degenerative disease? “Acupuncture has been used to increase blood ow for thousands of years which helps to get the necessary nutrients to the a ected nerves. But the real magic happens when I integrate ATP Resonance Bio erapy™. is is tech that was originally developed by NASA to expedite recovering and healing.”

“I just can’t say enough about Soma Acupuncture,” Frankie shared through tears of joy. “My husband and I moved here 3 years ago and he’s gone hiking almost every day. I always stayed home because of the pain and discomfort. Yesterday I walked the trail with him! And next week we’re starting ballroom dancing lessons. I am truly living life these days.”

“According to Frankie’s test results, she has seen a 74% improvement in pain and functionality, which is on par with a majority of our patients.” shares Amanda. “But more important than those test results is the joy she’s expressed being here and hearing about all the amazing things she’s able to do because she feels great!”

By seamlessly blending the ancient science of acupuncture with modern medical solutions Sarika has achieved a 90% success rate in reversing the e ects of neuropathy. She starts each patient with an initial consultation during which a sensory exam is performed. “ is not only aids in making a proper diagnosis but it helps to de ne just how much nerve damage has occurred” tells the practitioner. “ is is important because if a patient has su ered more than 95% damage, there is little that I can do to help them. I’m familiar with the medical miracle but I know my limits as a practitioner and the limits of my medicine.”

When it comes to treating peripheral neuropathy, regardless of its origin, early detection greatly improves your chances of a full recovery.

If you or someone you love are su ering with chronic pain that presents as burning, tingling or ‘pins and needles’ or you’ve recently been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, it’s important to know that there are options. ere is hope.

Call (951) 597–0488 to schedule an initial consultation or visit SomaAcuWellness.com to read more incredible success stories.