Top 5 Holiday Traditions in Santa Cruz County

The Santa Cruz Mile | Interview with Rich Larson and Tim Schenone

Welcome to Season 2 of Good News Santa Cruz!  We’re kicking off this season with our Top 5 Good News Nuggets, including a brand-new local event: the Santa Cruz Mile [https://www.santacruzmile.com/]. This new event, happening Sunday, March 15, is the first of its kind in Santa Cruz County, featuring a 1-mile race route that goes from the Santa Cruz Wharf, up Pacific Avenue and through the heart of Downtown Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Mile is geared toward a wide range of participants, from walkers to elite runners. This is a road race for everyone! We’re lucky to sit down with organizers Rich Larson and Tim Schenone to get all the details on the Santa Cruz Mile.  Register for the Santa Cruz Mile: https://raceroster.com/events/2026/112869/the-santa-cruz-mile [https://raceroster.com/events/2026/112869/the-santa-cruz-mile] Learn more about the race and how to volunteer: https://www.santacruzmile.com/ [https://www.santacruzmile.com/] Richard Larson and Tim Schenone are the organizers of the Santa Cruz Mile.  Richard is the former Race Director of the Santa Cruz Triathlon. Tim is the owner of Santa Cruz Running Company.

Top 5 Holiday Traditions in Santa Cruz County

The holidays are here! For many people, the holidays bring a mix of excitement, nostalgia and the joy of gathering with friends and family. This time of year naturally sparks thoughts about traditions, those comforting rituals that people look forward to and that often grow and evolve over time. Some may already have cherished traditions they can’t wait to revisit, while others might be hoping to start new ones.  On this episode Good News Santa Cruz, we explore our Top 5 Holiday Traditions in Santa Cruz! Give it a listen to learn about Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s holiday show, the Felton Holiday Market, a special holiday light show in Watsonville and ways to give back.  * Find out more about Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s production of A Christmas Carol: santacruzshakespeare.org * Felton Holiday Market, December 14 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Felton Covered Bridge Park * Sparky’s Holiday Lights: sparksholidaylights.com [http://sparksholidaylights.com/] * Learn more about the Volunteer Center: https://scvolunteercenter.org/ [https://scvolunteercenter.org/] * Check out Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks ParkStore: https://thatsmypark.org/shop/ [https://thatsmypark.org/shop/]

Cotoni Coast Dairies National Monument | Interview with Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewards Katy Peterson

We are fortunate to live in Santa Cruz County, a place of extraordinary natural beauty. And now, thanks to a designation by President Barack Obama before he left office, Santa Cruz County has one more natural jewel in its crown, the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument, in Davenport, Santa Cruz County’s first and only national monument. The national monument designation will protect the land in perpetuity...as in, FOREVER! Combined with the 32 State Parks and Beaches of Santa Cruz and coastal San Mateo counties, we've got one more reason to smile, one more reason to be proud of where we live.  In this episode, we talk with Katy Peterson, of the Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship, to share with us their role in how visitors can access and enjoy this backyard treasure. Plan your visit today [https://santacruztrails.org/trails/cotoni-coast-dairies-north/]!

Interview with Event Santa Cruz's Matthew Swinnerton: the original local influencer

Summer is here! Hosts Paula Maxfield and Alex Baker sit down with Event Santa Cruz's Matthew Swinnerton - the original local influencer. Check out our latest blast of good-ness to learn about what's happening with the world of local music in Santa Cruz County (and beyond!) this summer.  Check out the Midtown Summer Block Party Schedule [https://www.eventsantacruz.com/event/2025-event-santa-cruz-midtown-fridays-summer-block-party/]. Learn more about Legends Live & Local with Jane Wiedlin from the Go Go's on July 17 [https://www.eventsantacruz.com/event/legends-live-local-with-jane-wiedlin-from-the-go-gos/].  About Matthew Swinnerton and Event Santa Cruz Matthew Swinnerton started Event Santa Cruz in 2013 as a monthly lightning-talk event series featuring local entrepreneurs and community leaders. Shop owners and chefs, mentors and musicians, athletes, artists, and everyone in between shared the ideas that inspire them, the rocky but rewarding road of entrepreneurship, and that special something that keeps them going. Event Santa Cruz grew swiftly beyond the bounds of your typical event-hosting company and now serves as a multimedia outpost for all things local. In 2015, Event Santa Cruz adopted The NEXTies awards from Santa Cruz NEXT, bringing a whole new community and a big new energy to Event Santa Cruz. They developed new themed events—like the beloved Big Summer Block Party—and digital marketing avenues to promote Santa Cruz businesses. Through social media, email engagement, collaborative partnerships, video interviews, radio—and, yes, live events!—Event Santa Cruz keeps turning up the volume on how to celebrate Santa Cruz innovation and entrepreneurship.

Positive Parenting Awareness | Interview with First 5 Santa Cruz County

Our newest blast of Santa Cruz good-ness is focused on a topic many of us can relate to: Parenting. The thing about parenting is that it just doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Many of us, kinda, well, wing it. But it doesn’t have to be that way.   If you could use a confidence boost and some tips to put in your parenting toolkit, this episode just may be your ticket to parenting self-care. In this episode, we sit down with First 5 Santa Cruz County executive director David Brody, and Program Manager Yesenia Gomez Carrillo, about our local Triple P Positive Parenting Program. Learn more about Triple P: https://www.first5scc.org/triple-p-parenting [https://www.first5scc.org/triple-p-parenting]