Every year the Community Memorial Foundation holds its Benefactors’ Ball and every year this ball is a don’t-miss local occasions. And this year was no different. 

The annual event honors exceptional local physicians and philanthropists and raises money to help elevate the quality of healthcare in our community. Held Oct. 24 at the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Camarillo, this year’s event carried the theme “A Night in the Cosmos” and was billed as “an evening of celestial elegance featuring live music, perfectly crafted cocktails, and a stellar opportunity to support exceptional, community-based care.” George and Danielle Harrison had fun posing with Doc Brown in front of the Delorean time machine from the hit 1985 movie “Back to the Future.” 

Everyone dressed elegantly, and, judging by all the smiling faces, guests enjoyed the festivities immensely.

We at E.J. Harrison & Sons are always pleased to attend and sponsor this wonderful event that brings together so many familiar members of the community for such a good cause. All of the proceeds go to ensuring the Community Memorial Foundation can fund much-needed equipment for Community Memorial Hospital – Ventura, providing leading-edge care to local patients.

The following were honors and honorees at this year’s event were:

• Active Physicians of the Year: Ventura Emergency Physicians, an award-winning ER team with 41 years of service, recognized for excellence in geriatric, cardiac, STEMI, sepsis, and stroke care 
• Retired Physicians of the Year: Alexander Kowblansky, M.D.; David Lebell, M.D.; and Jerry Maryniuk, M.D. – founding members of Ventura Emergency Physicians 
• Community Leader of the Year: Anthony “Tony” Fowkes, a founding member of the Benefactors’ Ball committee 

For the past 40 years, the California Avocado Festival in Carpinteria has celebrated one of California’s most famous, fabulous and delicious fruits, and this year was no exception. 

Billed as a weekend of “Peace, Love and Guacamole,” the Oct. 2-4 festival once again lured tens of thousands of avocado aficionados to Linden Avenue for days and nights of food, fun and a full lineup of entertainment. 

Our love for this wonderful community event knows no bounds and E.J. Harrison & Sons has been, and remains a proud sponsor. But our support goes above and beyond and serves as an example of how we work together with vendors and the community to keep everything green with maximum recycling results and minimal environmental impact.

If you were to count as you walked the festival grounds, you would have found 320 Harrison recycling containers. 

“Anywhere around the food court or the festival, there’s going to be a food recycling cart and a recycling cart,” said Harrison’s Donald Sealund, adding there were no carts for trash. “So they can put all their organics and food waste in the brown container, and all the wrappings and bottles and cans and plastic stuff goes inside the blue recycling container.”

Sealund works with all vendors ahead of time to promote using all recyclable materials for food service. Because not everyone is perfect in choosing the right container, Harrison crew members circulate throughout the day to pick through containers and make sure everything is in its right place. 

Ultimately, contents of food and organics recycling containers end up at Agromin’s ReHarvest food recycling system in Oxnard and recyclables are sorted at Gold Coast Recycling in Ventura. 

It ends up being a very long weekend for Sealund and other Harrison staff, but a rewarding one when we reflect on the results.

Two recent events celebrated the great work being done by leaders and staff in the cities of Ventura and Camarillo.

Members of the E.J. Harrison & Sons family were on hand for the Camarillo State of the City event held by the West Ventura County Business Alliance on Oct. 22 at the Commemorative Air Force Museum hangar at Camarillo Airport. 

The reception was a wonderful opportunity to mingle with local city and business leaders while enjoying drinks and hors d’oeuvres in the unique setting. 

With a beautiful antique plane as a backdrop, Camarillo Mayor David Tennessen highlighted many of the city’s accomplishments and priorities and provided multiple examples of what makes Camarillo such a great place to live and do business.

On Sept. 17, the Ventura Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual State of the City breakfast at Crowne Plaza Ventura Beach featuring Ventura Mayor Jeannette Sánchez-Palacios. 

The mayor highlighted the many areas of progress across the city’s five strategic priorities: climate change and environmental stewardship; economic vitality and development; homelessness; infrastructure; and public safety. 

Both events proved that we have amazing local leaders, businesses and local community members dedicated to caring for and improving the cities we call home.

Every time I attend the annual California State University, Channel Islands President’s Dinner, I come away with a deep appreciation for how important the institution is to Ventura County’s position as an outstanding California community. By highlighting the amazing and important work being done by university students, faculty and alumni, the event makes you realize great things are happening in our own backyard. 

Take the event’s student speaker, Samantha Ledezma, as an example. Majoring in health science and chemistry, Samantha is focused on women’s health, underserved populations, and improving access to healthcare. As part of a research project, she focused on the experiences of patients and volunteers at Westminster Free Clinic, which provides healthcare services to uninsured individuals and families throughout Ventura County. Her experience helped her see the importance of using research to address critical healthcare needs within local communities. She’s pursuing a joint M.D./Ph.D. program to become both a medical provider and a researcher. 

Just imagine what this young lady is going to accomplish! And that’s just one student! And there were many more such stories on this night, filled with recognition for the outstanding work of students, professors and alumni. 

Jim Harrison and I, along with other members of the Harrison family, joined more than 300 community and business leaders, alumni, and university supporters to hear and enjoy these stories. All of us came away inspired by the work being done on and off campus.

As long-term sponsors of this event, we are proud to support the work of the university in fostering future leaders in multiple fields.