How To Be A Chicana Role Model

Adelante Mujer Hispana, which loosely translates to, “Go forward, Hispanic women,” is a little known local chapter of the larger California nonprofit organization.

To mark its 17th anniversary in the community, Adelante Mujer Hispana will host a series of get-togethers open to the public. From 6:30-8pm March 4, the group will host author Michele Serros, who will talk about her book, How to be a Chicana Role Model, at Chapala Restaurant, 438 Salinas St., Salinas.

Proceeds from the $65 per-person dinner ($35 for students) will benefit the Adelante Mujer Hispana scholarship fund, awarded annually to locally graduating seniors.

The group’s mission, according to its chairperson Claudia Pizarro, is to empower women. “It’s about higher education. It’s about teaching girls that they can make a difference in their communities. It’s about teaching them the tools they’ll need to succeed.

“We talk about cultural differences, about letting go. We talk about letting them know they’re not alone,” Pizarro adds.

On March 5, the group will hold a one-day conference from 8am to 2pm at Hartnell College, 156 Homestead Ave., for 7th- through 12th-grade girls and their mentors.

The group will discuss everything from careers, health, how to apply for college, self-defense techniques, right on down to how to change a tire. Admission is $5 per person at the door.

“It’s all about giving these girls the skills they need to go through life with a level of confidence they might not have had,” Pizarro says. “That’s our motivation. We want to empower Hispanic women. We want to empower all women.”

For more information, or to attend either event, call 757-6242. [MC]

Salinas Hosts Annual Women’s Health Summit

The third annual, tri-county Women’s Health Summit, “The Power of a Woman—Her Health,” will be held from 2-7pm March 4 at Greenfield Memorial Hall, 515 El Camino Real.

Assemblyman Simón Salinas’ office hosts the free event, and teen and adult women are encouraged to attend.

District Director Darlene Dunham says the annual summit brings in government agencies, health-care providers and nonprofits from Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties. “It’s a wonderful resource for the community,” she says. “And this year, it’s in Greenfield, a place where there has not been much outreach to the community, especially the Oaxacan community.”

More than 25 different groups will participate in the resource fair, where attendees can sample free food at Latino 5 a Day’s healthy cooking demonstrations, learn more about food stamps though the County’s department of social and employment services, receive Medi-Care law updates from the Alliance on Aging, and be screened for Diabetes by South County Regional Health Partners.

Additionally, speakers including Assemblyman Salinas, First 5’s Karina Lehrner, and Planned Parenthood’s Carmen Serrano, among others, will talk about services and programs that promote health in women and kids.

There will also be a raffle and the first 150 attendees will receive free gifts.

For more information about the summit or a complete schedule of events, call 759-8676. [JL]

View Elkhorn Slough, B.C.

More than 400 species of invertebrates, 80 species of fish and 200 species of birds have been spotted at the 1,400-acre Elkhorn Slough Reserve. Located three and a half miles east of Moss Landing, the Reserve is one of the few costal wetlands remaining in California.

Ever wondered what this now-precious habitat look like 20,000 years ago? Take a peek into the past next week, as The Friends of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and The Elkhorn Slough Foundation present “A Glimpse into the Past and Below the Surface of Elkhorn Slough Tidal Habitats” at 7pm on March 9.

Andrea Woolfolk and Eric Van Dyke of the Elkhorn Slough Reserve National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Dr. Rikk Kvitek, Director for CSU Monterey Bay Seafloor Mapping, will lecture on their research and discoveries that help paint a picture of the area thousands of years ago.

Using historical records, maps, sediment cores and aerial photographs, a 30-person panel shows that tidal scour, or bank erosion, continues to deepen and widen the Elkhorn Slough main channel at an accelerated rate.

“In analyzing aerial photographs from 1931, 1956, 1980 and 2000 there is a rapid rate of change,” says Barb Peichel, Wetland Plan Coordinator with the Elkhorn Slough Reserve.

Peichel said the bank erosion is occurring at a rate of one-half meter per year, and is, unfortunately, land lost forever.

The research team will explain why research is vital in guiding an effort to conserve, enhance and restore tidal habitats in the Elkhorn Slough.

“We want to talk about this problem because people don’t even know it exists,” Peichel says.

Reservations are required and

space is limited. The seminar is free and open to the public. The lecture will be held in the Seminar Room, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, 8272 Moss Landing Rd. Call 771-4100 to RSVP. [CJ]