The Ranch is not your typical wave. Besides the whole obvious manmade perfection thing, it has some absurdly fast and steep sections where most average surfers shouldn’t bother attempting anything that resembles a turn. At least not on your first crack at one of its waves. Bury a rail, miscalculate your speed, stall when you should be racing…any mishap before getting to what really matters — the barrel section — and you’ll kick yourself for eternity knowing you blew something that was literally handed to you on a silver platter. That’s the curse that hides underneath the Surf Ranch’s thin veil of potential bliss.
Of course, it’s really only this big of a deal if your chances at scoring a wave in Lemoore are limited to a couple of waves. If you’re somehow granted the opportunity to give the place a full day’s worth of playtime then your perspective will undoubtedly change. Take some chances. Try something you’ve never attempted before. Besides, if you fall flat on your face, there will literally be another wave in 20 seconds with your name on it.
Tony Hawk got a swing at The Ranch back in 2018 when he and Shaun White traded waves for a day. If the emotional rollercoaster of his first session was anything like the anxiety-riddled one described above, then we’d venture a guess this past weekend’s trip to Lemoore was actual bliss, capped off with a proper frontside barrel for the Birdman himself.capped off with a proper frontside barrel for the Birdman himself.
http://theinertia.com/surf/heres-tony-hawk-getting-barreled-at-the-ranch/
(Madera, California) – The estate of LeRoy A. Giannini has donated nearly $9 million to Valley Children’s, in honor of LeRoy’s parents, Ruth E. and LeRoy G. Giannini. This represents the largest single estate gift in the organization’s history. “This is a truly remarkable day for Valley Children’s as we celebrate the extraordinary gift of nearly $9 million from the Giannini family,” said Todd Suntrapak, President and CEO of Valley Children’s Healthcare. “This gift is a wonderful tribute to the family’s deep Valley roots, to their lifetime of caring for children and families and to those children who we are privileged to care for at Valley Children’s today and for generations to come.”
For 124 years, the Giannini companies were farming giants in the Central Valley. LeRoy G. Giannini started farming at an early age on 20 acres. LeRoy was 16 when his father was killed in a train accident and, shortly after his high school graduation, he took over the family farming operation. Under his innovative leadership and steady, hard work, the family business grew to more than 2,000 acres of nectarines and plums, along with a processing plant in Dinuba. At one time in the late 1970s, Mr. Giannini was the largest producer of nectarines in the world. Over the years, the family also raised cattle along the Central Coast.
Mr. Giannini was as generous as he was private. Over the course of his lifetime, he made sizeable contributions to support educational and faith-based organizations in his community but his gifts were not widely publicized. Mr. Jim Burnett, longtime friend and employee of Mr. Giannini and the trustee to his estate, shared that, over the years, Mr. Giannini paid for every Little League team in Dinuba that did not have a sponsor. For his employees and their family members, he would pay for life’s unexpected emergencies, pay to send their children to college and cover funeral expenses for every employee or family member. In Mr. Burnett’s words, Mr. Giannini was a remarkably generous man who ran his business as a family.
A new outpatient center planned for construction on the Valley Children’s Hospital campus in Madera will be named in honor of the Giannini family to serve as a powerful tribute to their generosity. “We are grateful for the generosity and vision of the Giannini family and the transformational effect that their gift will have at Valley Children’s,” said Robert Saroyan, President of Valley Children’s Healthcare Foundation. “This gift is the capstone of the Giannini family’s incredible tradition of philanthropy in the Valley. Their spirit of generosity and compassion for those in need in our community will live on with the naming of the future center.”
The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic will likely go into the history books as comparable to the so-called “Spanish Flu” of 1917-1923. The California Historical Society, which has troves of stories, newspapers and photos of that earlier deadly virus, hopes Californians will help it record to history of the current pandemic, which it calls a crisis of historic proportions.
For more information and to participate: https://tinyurl.com/y7jjgfb6
Engineering students, faculty and alumni from Fresno State’s Lyles College of Engineering have been working up to 10 hours a day in recent weeks to design and produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for Central Valley health care workers. They plan to donate about 1,000 face shields to Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno. Last week during Fresno State’s spring break, the team completed the final design and began production of the face shields — the first part of a three-phase, innovative project to support the community at a time when protective equipment is scarce for doctors, nurses and other health care providers.
https://files.constantcontact.com/2cb20f61601/682ecac7-bbb8-4d8e-80e1-8808a64214e8.pdf
Throughout the Central Valley nurseries are deemed essential because they sale fruits, vegetables, and outdoor plants. With numerous businesses temporary closed to stay at home restrictions, more and more people are turning to gardening swamping local nurseries with their business.
https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/plant-sales-increase-as-more-people-take-on-gardening/
Madera County is home to a variety of wineries like Toca Madera Winery, which are now coming to you with virtual tastings. “We’ve turned into a virtual winery basically. So virtual tastings on Instagram and Facebook on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at 5. We do private virtual tastings and doorstep delivery has become our thing,” said Shayne Vetter, a winemaker for Toca Madera Winery. Vetter says they’ve seen a lot of support from local wine drinkers. People purchase their estate wines, tune-in and drink up.
https://www.yosemitethisyear.com/eventdetail/15081/virtual-wine-tasting
https://www.sutterhealth.org/newsroom/standing-tall-against-the-surge
Fresno-based nonprofit AMOR (Alliance for Medical Outreach & Relief) is hosting a groundbreaking next week for a health clinic and neighborhood resource center in Mendota. The two building, 20,000 square-foot clinic will provide youth, behavioral health and social services in addition to primary medical and dental care. It will also include a day care, public food pantry, nutrition education, specialty care, violence prevention classes, substance abuse counseling and parenting education.
https://thebusinessjournal.com/amor-to-break-ground-on-8m-mendota-health-center/
The healthcare industry is constantly evolving and improving and community regional medical center is the only facility in the valley with two hybrid operating rooms able to perform highly complex, advanced surgical procedures. But, it’s the team inside the operating room that really makes the difference. We got a first-hand look at what it takes and what it means for patients. Alfredo Gomez is an interventional radiology technologist who’s worked in the hybrid operating room since 2014. The room is a combination of a traditional operating room and an image guided interventional suite– providing all the necessary capability and personnel in one space.
The Fresno Cancer Center has received a prestigious accreditation given to less than 5% of such facilities in the U.S. The American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) Accreditation Program for Excellence (APEx) can take up to a year to complete and focuses on five “pillars” of patient care. These include the process of care, the radiation oncology team, safety, quality management, and patient-centered care, according to a news release. Fresno Cancer Center was one of three such facilities in the state to recently achieve APEx status, along with Rohnert Park Cancer Center and South Sacramento Cancer Center. The three centers comprise the practice of US Cancer Management Corp. (USCMC), which operates the facilities.