Main item on ‘Breakfast of Champions’ menu
is support for Club Kids
September 17, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The main item on the “Breakfast of Champions” is a generous helping of support for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Clara Valley, where celebrated KEYT television news anchor Paula Lopez will be keynote speaker.
The Tuesday, September 23 “Breakfast of Champions” will be held from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Community Center, 530 W. Main St.
“Breakfast of Champions” marks the end of the club’s annual One Campaign, which encouraged donors to “Be the one to make a difference in a child’s life!”
Attendance at the “Breakfast of Champions” is by invitation only, although there is limited public seating available by reservation only.
Although there is no cost to attend the breakfast, guests are reminded the event is a fundraiser.
According to Jan Marholin, Club Executive Director, KEYT weekend news anchor and reporter Victoria Sanchez will be the emcee of the program that will also feature Club Alumni Speaker Lauren Cabral of the California Oil Museum, Youth of the Year Larry Renteria and Ventura County Sheriff’s Commander Monica McGrath, who will close the program by urging pledges and donations for “The Positive Place for Kids.”
Said Marholin, “This is always such an important morning for us. It is inspirational and motivational and it lets people know what we are doing and how important it is to have a local Boys & Girls Club.
“Our youth truly need a positive place to be after school,” and positive role models to emulate, including acclaimed news anchors.
Lopez, who co-anchors Channel 3’s News Channel, began her television career in 1985 as an intern at the station. In 1990 she became a news anchor at KCAL Channel 9 in Los Angeles and spent six years in the nation’s second largest television market, anchoring the 9 News at Noon.
The broadcast went from an obscure half-hour independent newscast to the number one-rated daytime newscast in Los Angeles and in 1993 the Lopez anchored 9 News at Noon was awarded the prestigious Los Angeles Area Emmy Award. In addition to her regular duties, she anchored live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the O. J. Simpson murder trial, and award winning live continuous coverage of the Southland Floods and the Firestorms of 1993. One of her most challenging duties was anchoring live continuous coverage of the devastating Los Angeles riots.
In 1994, the Minorities in Broadcasting Training Program honored Lopez with its “Striving For Excellence” Award.
In 1996, tiring of the daily commute from her home in Santa Barbara to Hollywood, Lopez decided to return home permanently to spend more time with her family and returned to KEYT as a co-anchor and field reporter.
She recently earned a Golden Mike Award for Best News Reporting from the Radio & TV News Association of Southern California, as well as a Best News Reporting Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association of Northern California.
Paula serves on the Board of Directors for Aids Housing of Santa Barbara, as well as on the Board for the American Lung Association of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. She also served the Santa Barbara chapter of the American Heart Association as a Board Director.
Lopez, a 9th generation Santa Barbaran, has a BA in History of Public Policy, with a minor in Political Science, from UCSB. A direct descendant of Lt. Pablo Cota, one of the founding officers of the Royal Presidio in Santa Barbara, she is married to Presiding Judge of Santa Barbara Superior Court, Frank Ochoa. They have three children.
El Pescador of Fillmore is catering the September 23 “Breakfast of Champions”.
Again, although attendance at the “Breakfast of Champions” is by invitation only, there is limited public seating available by reservation only.
For more information call the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley at 805-525-7910.
