Good Works: Sherwood Cares gives grants, Viasat funds Cal Poly lab
When Sherwood Cares Foundation, the charity arm of Sherwood Country Club, handed out a new round of community grants on Nov. 15, a portion of the funds came via an unexpected PGA Tour event that landed at the Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course in October.
George Carney, president of Sherwood Cares and a past club president, said the PGA tour came to the club in August looking for a venue for the ZoZo Championship, typically held in Japan.
With help from Ventura County in navigating COVID-19 restrictions, the Thousand Oaks venue then navigated the PGA tour’s “bubble” rules. There were no spectators and players stayed at the Hyatt Regency Westlake Village, the Four Seasons Westlake Village, the Westlake Village Inn and private residences.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The preceding paragraph was updated Dec. 16 to add the Hyatt Regency Westlake Village.
A pro-am event and online auction resulted in around $36,000 in donations, which became part of the foundation’s $525,000 in total grants for 2020. Recipients included Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Food Share and the Conejo Valley Free Clinic.
Carney said many of the younger tour players had not seen Sherwood Country Club but really liked it. Central Coast golf fans would like to see a post-pandemic spot for the venue on the PGA tour, and more money raised for charity.
VIASAT GIVES TO CAL POLY
Viasat, a satellite internet service provider based in San Diego County, will give $125,000 over the next five years to the Viasat Advanced Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Lab at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
The gift will fund hardware, software, senior projects and faculty professional development and research.
Viasat is a longtime Cal Poly supporter and currently employs more than 120 Cal Poly graduates, the university said.
Dan Waldorf, the chair of the Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Department, said the donation comes at a time when students need to be trained to face changing work environments.
“During COVID and into the future, the ability to collect, analyze, and make decisions based on large amounts of data will be extremely important for many, many fields, including healthcare services, manufacturing and distribution logistics, and development of new technology products,” Waldorf said in a university news release.
CSUCI FOUNDATION’S NEW FACES
The CSU Channel Islands Foundation has added four new board members, some of them with experience at the university before it even opened.
The new members are Cheryl Broome, whose family has supported CSUCI since before it opened; retired dentist Mark Lisagor; Irene Pinkard, a former Oxnard City Councilmember; and Jonathan Wang, a financier in Santa Barbara.
Broome’s father-in-law, John Spoor Broome, was a CSUCI supporter, and the university’s library bears his name. Cheryl Broome is a teacher and has been a volunteer in schools at all levels.
Lisagor served on the foundation board from 2000 to 2006, the time period when CSUCI first opened. He also volunteers for Food Share and leads teams of volunteer dentists around the world.
Pinkard has been a member of both the Oxnard City Council and the Oxnard Union High School District Board, and was an administrator with the Ventura County Community College District. She also takes Ventura County high school students on tours of historically Black colleges and universities and founded the Pinkard Youth Institute.
Wang runs his own financial management company in Santa Barbara, Bergquist Wang, LLC. He co-founded the Adsum Education Foundation, which awards scholarships to first-generation college students.
NEW FOUNDATION FOR OXNARD PD
A group of community members have joined with the Oxnard Police Department to form the Oxnard Police Community Foundation.
The goal of the independent 501(c)(3) non-profit is to enhance public safety in the city of Oxnard by providing financial support to the Oxnard Police Department. The nonprofit will support programs that are not funded by the city, such as community engagement events and peer support following traumatic work-related incidents.
The foundation is guided by a Board of Directors composed of community members and sworn police officers. Stacy Miller is the board president, and the board also includes Carey Everhart, Delia Campbell, Police Chief Scott Whitney and Police Commander Luis McArthur.
NEW ROBOTS FROM TOSHIBA
Providence School, a private college preparatory school in Santa Barbara, has received a $4,240 grant from the Toshiba America Foundation to support the Mars Rover Project in the school’s Engineering Academy.
The Mars Rover Project is a second-semester robotics project undertaken by the Providence Engineering Academy in honor of NASA’s 2020 Perseverance mission. All students from grades 9 to 12 work together to design, build, and operate a mobile exploration system.
With the Toshiba donation, the school will purchase upgraded Vex V5 robotics sets, Providence said.
