Citizens of the Year Debbie & Don Johnson overcame tough year

February 17, 2016
Santa Paula News

Last year was a tough one for Debbie and Don Johnson, owners of the Santa Paula Times but in spite of Don’s serious illness the newspaper kept coming twice a week to a news-hungry community.

Because of that dedication to serving the community reflected in the many activities, projects and programs Debbie and Don have been devoted to for almost four decades, the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce is honoring the couple as the 2015 Citizens of the Year.

The awards luncheon will be held Wednesday, February 24, 11:30 a.m. at Casa Del Mexicano. Tickets are $40 each and available at the Depot (corner of 10th and East Santa Barbara streets) and the Santa Paula Times (120 N. Davis St.).

“The Johnsons,” said Chamber Board President Zahid Shah, “are valuable members of the community who have tirelessly given their time and care to multiple service clubs and non-profit organizations, all of which have benefitted Santa Paula in immeasurable ways.”

The couple was co-founders of Citizens Patrol and founding board directors of the Santa Paula Police & Fire Foundation (SPP&FF); Don served two terms on the City Council and was Mayor twice while Debbie was a board member of the Downtown Merchants Association that sponsors the annual Hot Summer Jazz & Art celebration.

They are also associated with B&GCSCV (Don a former Board President and recipient of the highest national honor given to supporters), the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce (Don was president twice in separate terms), SPP&FF’s Moonlight at the Ranch, the Santa Paula High School Education Foundation, and The Santa Clara Valley Wellness Foundation, to name only a few. 

“They have given time and care to our beautiful city and,” noted Zahid, “they are extremely deserving of our many thanks and appreciation.”

Said Debbie, “We were very surprised very honored,” to learn of being named Citizens of the Year, especially as “There are so many people in Santa Paula that give their all and are very deserving of the honor…”

Santa Paula residents since October 1979, Debbie said she and Don “have thoroughly enjoyed all the years we’ve lived in Santa Paula and the things we’ve been involved with in the community. Santa Paula is the best there is!”  

The Johnsons founded — and published — the Santa Paula Times in 1993 within days of the abrupt closure of the Santa Paula Chronicle, which had served the community for 105 years. The Johnsons had worked at the Chronicle for the corporate owners and it was only a matter of days before the new Times hit the streets. And, in spite of repeated efforts by county and regional newspapers to take over the area the Santa Paula Times continued to be the only community newspaper.

One of the nominations for the couple noted the Johnsons have been the “Chief advocates of the brain, heart and soul of Santa Paula through sharing the news...good, bad, joyous and sad. Not just chroniclers of the community, the Johnson’s have also been highly active in the community they serve.”

The newspaper has been honored numerous times receiving the Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Award in 2009 and the Latino Town Hall Jesse Victoria Business of the Year Award in 2015.

Don was unable to attend the latter function: he was undergoing aggressive and debilitating rounds of treatment for cancer that kept him home — where he continued to layout the paper from a hastily created home office — and Debbie carrying on in the office and the community. 

Others might have stepped back but owning a newspaper is a particularly unique responsibility shared only perhaps by entertainers who believe no matter the circumstances the show must go on…and the Johnsons knew the whole community was relying on them for the newspaper to go on. 

Without information about its movers and shakers, politics, schools, crime, controversies and news vital to the hometown, the community has nothing to think about. Without news about helping those in need, proud high school graduates, happy kids playing sports, Girl Scouts selling cookies, endless celebrations and deepest sorrows, the community had no feelings.

Without stories detailing its against-all-odds accomplishments, wonderful books at the library, music, art and artists, churches, the theater, thinkers, activists, complainers and philosophers there is nothing the community needs a soul for.

The Optimist and Kiwanis clubs, Hospice Home Tours, Chamber, Relay for Life, are just a few more of the organizations to which the Johnsons have given their active support as volunteers and through their newspaper.

There is not a cause “that has not benefited from the Johnsons and their Santa Paula Times,” which serves as a forum for many community groups and strong support for fundraisers, special events, and activities of area non-profits,” noted one nomination form, a financial investment the Johnsons also make in the community.

The Johnsons have always been generous about helping organizations promote themselves and their causes by posting community service announcements and covering as many events as possible.

“Perhaps the Johnsons are especially deserving of Citizens of the Year because of their dedication to helping the community on all levels from their respect for the power of the press they gladly shoulder and reverence for the power of the people — particular those of the Santa Paula community — it helps.” 

Debbie said the couple were early supporters of Santa Paula: “I remember moving to town and within the first few weeks we were here the Boys & Girls Club had an auction event at Thomas Aquinas College…Don had been the incoming president of the club in Simi Valley when we moved here and the Santa Paula Boys & Girls Club was the first board he joined. That’s when we got involved in the community…just about immediately!”

And that included the former Optimist Club’s Miss Santa Paula — Don was co-director — and the Miss Teen Santa Paula pageants, the latter founded by the Johnsons, always boosters of youth. 

And it has paid off for those they inspired: “Don and I were at the Oaks Mall and a young woman with a child came up to us,” and told them she had been a 

Pageant competitor. 

The experience had changed her life and given her new self-confidence that the woman told the Johnsons was responsible for her success in life.

At a Santa Maria hotel a young man approached the Johnsons to tell them that as a young teen he had been a newspaper carrier at the old Santa Paula Chronicle.

Said Debbie, “He told us if it hadn’t been for his job at the newspaper,” and his contact with the Johnsons, “he would have been a gang member instead of being happy and successful…we were flabbergasted but very flattered!”

Other Chamber recognitions include the Sam Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award honoring Tom Lugo, President of St. Vincent de Paul that offers services to those in need and the homeless. Business of the Year is Calavo Growers Inc., a worldwide leader in avocado packing now headquartered in Santa Paula with more than 500 employees in California and Mexico.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Clara Valley — which strives to enable young people, especially those who need it the most, to realize their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens — is being honored as Nonprofit of the Year, a new category. The Community Service Award is honoring Santa Paula Hospital, the “Hospital on the Hill” and the Ventura County Health Care Agency which reopened the facility in 2006 to continue to provide quality care to area residents. 

For more information call the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce, 805-525-5561.





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