Accountant
1st Place
Danielle Brinkman, Brinkman & Company, 300 E. Esplanade Drive, suite #1130, Oxnard, 485-7194
2nd Place
Vance, Thrift & Biller, 181 S. Ash St., Ventura, 648-6061
3rd Place
Carey and Hanna CPAs, 1445 Donlon St., suite 6, Ventura, 644-0697
Auto Body Shop
1st Place
Tony’s Body Shop, 497 Lambert St., Oxnard, 485-5514
2nd Place
Avenue Body Shop, 378 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura, 653-6021
3rd Place
Bodytech Auto Collision Repair, 2920 Seaborg Ave., Ventura, 644-4004
Car Detailer
1st Place
Final Details, 558-1618, www.final-details.com
2nd Place
Diamond Image Detail, 3507 Pickwick Dr, Camarillo, 844-7212
Car Wash
1st Place
Five Points Car Wash, 2912 Telegraph Road, Ventura, 643-7715
2nd Place
Auto Scrubber Hand Wash & Detailing, 2076 E. Thompson Blvd., Ventura, 643-6281
3rd Place
Ojai Spring Car Wash, 11502 N. Ventura Ave., Ojai, 640-9923
Child Care
1st Place
Las Posas Children’s Center, locations throughout Ventura Unified School District, 644-4344
2nd Place
Peppermint Junction Early Care & Education Center, 2150 E. Gonzales Road, Oxnard, 988-6065
3rd Place
Children’s World Preschool, 7620 Foothill Road, Ventura, 647-3798
Dog Daycare
1st Place
Send Rover On Over Doggie Day Care & Training Center, 1255 Callens Road, suite. E, Ventura, 650-3294
2nd Place
Doggin’ Around Day Care, 3222 Bunsen Ave., Ventura, 223-3630
3rd Place
Cameo’s Pet Salon & Doggie Day Care, 2494 E. Main St., Ventura, 648-3800
Dry Cleaner
1st Place
Four Seasons Cleaners, 1746 S. Victoria Ave., suite A, Ventura, 654-8181; 4020 E. Main St., #B 3-2, Ventura, 658-0286; 2051 N. Rose Ave., #300, Oxnard, 485-0799
2nd Place
Persnickety Cleaners, 1171 Victoria Ave., suite D, Ventura, 644-1171
3rd Place
Unique Cleaners, 2307 E. Main St., Ventura, 643-8497
Financial Institution
1st Place
Ventura County Credit Union, 6026 Telephone Road, Ventura, 477-4000
2nd Place
Pacific Oaks Federal Credit Union, 6633 Telephone Road, #110, Ventura, 384-1100
3rd Place
CBC Federal Credit Union, 3636 Dean Drive, Ventura, 988-2151; 2151 E. Gonzales Road, Oxnard,988-2151
Home Cleaning
1st Place
Clean It Green, 407-1077, www.cleanitgreenventura.com
2nd Place
Mimi’s Housecleaning, 769 Doris Ave.,Oxnard, 205-0727, www.mimishousecleaning.com
3rd Place
Spring House Cleaning, Ventura, 643-6992
Library
1st Place
E.P. Foster Library, 651 E. Main St., Ventura, 648-2715
2nd Place
Camarillo Public Library, 4101 E Las Posas Road, Camarillo, 388-5222
3rd Place
Oxnard Public Library, 251 S. A St., Oxnard, 385-7500
Mechanic
1st Place
Williams Automotive, 6027 Ventura Blvd., Ventura, 656-1026
2nd Place
Bill Hahn Automotive, 3737 Transport St., suite A, Ventura, 644-1037
3rd Place
Neighborhood Car Care, 1838 E Thompson Blvd, Ventura, 641-2302
Moving Company
1st Place
Meathead Movers, 331 N. Dawson, suite A, Camarillo, 987-7201
2nd Place
Hilford Moving, 1595 Arundell Ave., Ventura, 642-0221
3rd Place
Sheeler Moving and Storage, 6020 Nicolle St., Ventura, 658-1943
Music Instructor
1st Place
Phil Salazar at Phil Salazar’s Fiddle Shop, 921 E. Main St., Ventura, 701-2508
2nd Place
Joe Baugh at Almighty Guitar Planet, 1822 E. Main St., Ventura, 648-4633
3rd Place
Jodi Farrell at Jodi Farrell Music Studio, 1926 E. Main St., Ventura, 643-3103
Nonprofit Organization
1st Place TIE
FOOD Share, 4156 Southbank Road, Oxnard, 983-7100
Casa Pacifica, 1722 S. Lewis Road, Camarillo, 445-7800
2nd Place
Boys & Girls Club, 6020 Nicolle St., Ventura, 641-5585
3rd Place
Green Art People, 140 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura, 729-2361
Oil Change
1st Place
Big Brand Tire Service, 3850 E. Main St., Ventura, 620-1267
2nd Place
The Lube Shop, 274 Arneill Road, Camarillo, 482-4500
3rd Place
Auto Lube Care, 1875 E. Thompson Blvd., Ventura, 643-0963
Pet Groomer
1st Place
Aloha Dog Grooming, 1076 E. Front St., suite A, Ventura, 643-4852
2nd Place
Dee Dee’s Dog Spot, 973 E. Front St., Ventura, 648-7768
3rd Place
Vickie’s Pampered Pet, 6324 Bristol Road, Ventura, 656-6999
Plumber
1st Place TIE
Franklin and Vizzo Plumbing, 2594 Channel Drive, Ventura, 987-6220
Mike Kimble Plumbing, 5770 Nicolle St., #E, Ventura, 644-4180
2nd Place
Tony Chavez at Top Choice Plumbing, 357 Kiawah River Drive, Oxnard, 302-8218
3rd Place
Affordable Plumbing Pros, 1461 Arundell Ave, Ventura, 658-1326
Psychic
1st Place
Ventura Psychic, 1474 E . Main St, Ventura, 643-2500
2nd Place
Christine Kratavil at Journey Home, 2950 Johnson Drive, suite 113, Ventura, 650-8272
3rd Place
Laura Stinchfield, Pet Psychic, 895-5968, www.thepetpsychic.com
Real Estate Agent
1st Place
Fred Evans, The Fred Evans Team, Re/Max Gold Coast Realtors, 5720 Ralston St., suite 100,339-3502
2nd Place
Rod Tuazon, The Rod Tuazon Team at Troop Real Estate, 6128 Telegraph Road, Ventura, 890-5845
3rd Place TIE
Ariel Palmieri & Karen Stein at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, 1190 S. Victoria Ave., #100, Ventura, Ariel Palmieri: 746-2070; Karen Stein: 824-2004
The Fairchild and Ridgeway Group, Re/Max Gold Coast Realtors, 5720 Ralston Street, suite 100, Ventura,339-3585
Shoe Repair
1st Place
Pop’s One Stop Repair Shop, 1437 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura, 639-9296; 2131 Pickwick Drive, Camarillo, 388-0700
2nd Place
Bart’s Shoe Repair, 317 Borchard Drive, Ventura, 643-7502
3rd Place
Lee’s Shoe Repair, 1806 E. Main St., Ventura, 643-1416
Surfboard Shaper
1st Place
Steve Walden at Walden Surfboards, 853 E. Front St.,Ventura, 653-1717
2nd Place
Robert Weiner at Roberts Surfboards, 1362 Tower Square, #1, Ventura, 658-6855
3rd Place
Fletcher Chouinard at Fletcher Chouinard Designs, 43 S. Olive St., Ventura, 641-9428
Travel Agent
1st Place
Ventura Travel Service, 3435 Telegraph Road, Ventura, (800) 597-2161
2nd Place
Tropic Travels, 298 S. Seaward Ave., Ventura, 648-4661
3rd Place
Martha Jaffe at Travel Planners International, 218-3324
Veterinarian
1st Place
Ohana Pet Hospital, 4547 Telephone Road, suite A, Ventura, 658-7387
2nd Place
Anacapa Animal Hospital, 5380 Ralston St., Ventura, 644-5521
3rd Place
East Ventura Animal Hospital, 10225 Telephone Road, Ventura, 647-8430
EDITOR’S PICKS
Best place to see clearly again
Dougherty Laser Vision
1821 E. Daily Drive, Camarillo, 866-987-2020. Also in Westlake Village and Beverly Hills, www.doughertylaservision.com
Dr. Paul Dougherty performed cataract surgery on this Haitian man in 2012. While Dougherty met with hundreds of Haitians, only a few dozen qualified for surgery. Photo courtesy of Andrew Dougherty Foundation.
Before I go on expounding on how great Dougherty Laser Vision is, I need to be frank. In 2004, Dr. Paul Dougherty changed my life.
For those of you who have had the bad fortune to have poor eyesight, you know the struggle. Many people with poor eyesight have had to wear glasses and contacts since childhood. If you were born at really any time before, perhaps, the 1990s, glasses were rather awful. Mine were pink. Thick. Always scratched as I was always playing rough. Then came the contacts. In third grade, my mom taught me how to wear gas-permeable lenses, aka sand in your eyes that make you see clearly if you can get past the pain. Life was rough, with poor eyesight. But as I made my way through college, Dougherty Laser Vision offered a scholarship for free LASIK to students at Oxnard College. Not only did I qualify, I won. Once the surgery took place, my life changed. I was finally freed from the limitations of vision correction. Even more so, to speak of his character, he is compelled to share his gift with the less fortunate, from local veterans and the homeless to traveling to Third World countries working with impoverished people who rarely see doctors, nevertheless a LASIK surgeon. His greatest inspiration that supercharged his charity work is his son Andrew Dougherty who died from the flu in early 2004, the same day I was to get corrective surgery. In honor of his son, he created the Andrew Dougherty Foundation (www.advfoundation.com).
If there was one person I would trust with such sensitive issues as my eyesight and restoring my vision permanently, it is Dr. Dougherty.
Best place to feel like a natural woman
Ella Marie Wigs
1224 E. Main St., Ventura, 667-9120,
www.ellamariewigs.com
Ella Marie Wigs shop owner Cindy Wiles styles a wig for Marissa Holzer of Ventura.
Photo courtesy of Ella Marie Wigs
You feel a lump. You feel the surge of sadness. You feel the anxiety waiting for the results. Then you feel everything flash before your eyes as the doctor tells that you have cancer. For those who have had cancer, the stage doesn’t matter. All that matters is your life is about to change dramatically in your fight to save it. And while it’s just as challenging for a man to go through the life changes of fighting cancer as a woman, women in particular have one big hurdle that is rather commonplace for men: losing their hair.
If chemo treatment isn’t bad enough, when a woman loses her hair, her eyebrows, even her eyelashes, now the whole world sees she is sick, she is in some process of treatment, of healing, and for most cancer patients, from what I have seen, cancer patients tire from all the sympathy. They just want to live as normal as possible. And this is where Ventura’s only wig shop comes in.
Cindy Wiles, owner of Ella Marie Wigs in Midtown Ventura who runs it with her husband, has a special touch, a certain sort of sympathy, or perhaps empathy, for those who come into her shop, just looking for some sense of normalcy again.
In her shop, she offers synthetic and human hair wigs, extensions, even fake eye lashes and eye brows. She and her husband will also go to bat to with insurance companies to cover the cost of the wigs.
At the end of the day, however, Ella Marie Wigs doesn’t feel like a shop. It feels like a home, a place where you can bring your friends and family and treat yourself to a bit of femininity, a bit of confidence, a bit of feeling like one’s self again in the midst of one of the hardest times in life.
The store will be hosting an after-party for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on Oct. 16, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m, featuring wine and chocolate.
Best way to get veggies without going anywhere
Rio Gozo Farm
1183 Shippee Lane, Ojai, 272-8170,
riogozofarm@gmail.com, riogozofarm.blogspot.com
A typical seasonal box of local produce from Rio Gozo.
Photo courtesy of Rio Gozo
With as much farmland used within Ventura County limits, there’s bound to be a bountiful source for farm-to-table fair.
Thanks to Rio Gozo Farm, there is, and there’s no reason to even leave the house for your organic, locally-grown produce — it all comes neat in a box, delivered once a week or more — from the farm to your table.
The Rio Gozo Farm community sponsored agriculture box is a subscription service, like Netflix for eggplant. With each delivery, a plethora of vegetables, fruits and herbs will be delivered to one of two locations in Ventura and Ojai, ripe and ready for the dinner table.
In a recent box, a Technicolor dream coat of carrots arrived, all bright green tops and purple, yellow and orange flesh that, when roasted with brown sugar and butter, became little lumps of golden goodness.
Other items packed away in the late August box included a beautiful array of peppers including Anaheim, jalapeño and padron, as well as a bouquet of sunflowers, a grab bag of summer squash and lemon basil. Throw it all in a pot with some potatoes and beef, and baby, you’ve got a stew goin’!
The Rio Gozo CSA is a seasonal service, running 12 weeks at a time, or you can subscribe for the whole year.
For those of us who can’t function without their hit of coffee in the morning, Rio Gozo also gives you the option to add a bag of locally roasted Beacon Coffee beans to your box. Need eggs? The farm also delivers pasture raised eggs. Both of these are extra but worth it for the convenience and peace of mind that comes with buying local, organic food.
Of course, with CSA’s come a bit of risk – you’re basically buying a share in the farm. When Rio Gozo succeeds, you benefit, or at least your stomach does. Is it worth it? Are dandelion greens edible? (Yes).
