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HOMETOWN
NEWS
Westchester • Playa del Rey • Marina del Rey • Playa Vista
October
your community newspaper • your community • WESTCHESTER • PLAYA DEL REY • MARINA DEL REY • PLAYA VISTA • your community newspaper • your community
Chamber “Connects to Tech” in effort to attract new members The LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce is taking a new approach to help tap into one of the area’s fastest growing industries—technology. With the recent influx of businesses like YouTube, Microsoft, Facebook and many tech start-ups moving into Playa Vista and the Westside, the chamber has had to take notice of the area’s changing business demographics, and has had to rethink how to engage these types of businesses with the traditional chamber model. The chamber, which was created in 1953, is a membershipbased business organization that is known for its networking mixers, ribbon cuttings and business advocacy. The chamber is also responsible for community events including the
Teacher Eddy Awards, ChamberFest and the annual Fourth of July Parade along Loyola Boulevard. When the Chamber held its quarterly Technology Meeting and no one showed up, they knew they had to change their strategy for attracting the tech industry to its membership ranks. “We needed a strategy to get the technology industry to see that we had value. Tech people didn’t want to come to our technology meetings to learn about LinkedIn or Facebook,” said the chamber’s member services director Rachel Horning. “We weren’t creating a community that was relevant (continued on page 8) At right: Chamber staff members work in the coworking space.
Community celebrates fall with a variety of activities October means autumn is in full swing, and the community will be celebrating with a variety of fall and Halloween events. With the collaboration between Otis’ Ben Maltz Gallery and LMU’s Laband Gallery for the supernatural “Tapping the Third Realm” exhibit, many unique events will be open to the community to help get people into the spooky spirit of the season. October also sees numerous community mainstays like the St. Jerome Carnival and the Open Magnet Charter School Fall Festival. After a four year run, the Westchester Town Center BID’s Halloween Town Fair and Window Painting Competition has been canceled “due to concern that the event took away from other community events throughout the fall.” Please find a list of fall/Halloween community events taking place this month: • St. Jerome will hold its semi-annual carnival starting 6 p.m. Friday, October 18. The carnival will also be open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, October 19. The event will be western-themed and include rides, games, dancing
entertainment and more. St. Jerome is located at 5580 Thornburn St. in Westchester. For more information, please visit stjeromewestchester.org. • Westchester Park will hold its annual Haunted House October 25, 26, 30 and 31. Attendees must be 8 years and older and the cost is $5 per entry. This year, there are two different mazes. The park will also hold a Halloween Kids Zone on Thursday, October 31 from 4 to 8 p.m. for children ages 2 to 8. The event will include crafts, games, candy, a bounce house, costume contest, scary stories and face painting. Please contact the Westchester Recreation Center at (310) 670-7473 for more info. • The Westchester Family YMCA will hold a Halloween Spooktacular Event on Wednesday, October 30 from 5 to 8 p.m. This free community event will entertain the kids with games, food, prizes, trick or treating and a haunted hallway. The YMCA is located at 8015 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in Westchester. For more information, please contact the YMCA at (310) 670-4316. (continued on page 5)
At left: Although the Halloween Town Fair isn’t taking place this year, there will be numerous fairs and activities.
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