By intern Natasia Gascon
Fiesta La Ballona concluded another successful summer with hundreds of Culver City residents flocking to Veterans Memorial Park to celebrate the city’s culturally rich and diverse history.
The Fiesta has been a community fixture since 1951, when residents commemorate the city’s historical settlers. This year’s event featured live performances, carnival rides, games and a plethora of vendors selling everything from food and jewelry to services.
Scattered among the vendors were booths occupied by clubs, businesses and organizations. Many of the groups have had a presence at the Fiesta for years, while others are just starting to make themselves known.
“This is our first year at the Fiesta,” said Sharon Bownan of The Friends of Culver City Scout House. The newly formed organization joined Fiesta la Ballona to jumpstart fundraising to repair and renew the Culver City Scout House, home to Boy Scout Troop 113.
“It’s done a tremendous job in terms of community awareness,” said Bownan. “There are a lot of people who don’t know about the building and there are some of them that do. The ones that do know are sad to see the building in the shape that it’s in and it has really helped out fundraising efforts.”
Along with new organizations making a name for themselves in the community, this year’s Fiesta also featured a few long-time organizations that have decided to join the festivities.
“I remember when the Fiesta was much more different than this — there wasn’t much of a carnival atmosphere and we used to have parades down Main Street,” said long-time resident Rick Shaffer, president of the Culver City Rock and Mineral Club, which marked its first appearance at the festival despite having operated in Culver City for nearly 50 years.
“[We] wanted to get back to the roots of Culver City … I met a lot of people who have lived here as long as I have and didn’t even know that there was a Rock and Mineral Club, so part of the thing was to get the word out that we’re here.”
“We’ve been here for about three years,” said Melanie Wachman of the Doulas Association of Southern California, a group dedicated to helping women transition into motherhood. “A lot of people don’t know what a doula is, so they come up and they ask. We can give them the information on child support and what we do. It’s getting the word out.”
Veronica Hinojosa-Stang, also from the doulas’ association added, “We would like the community to know that we are here to support new mothers.”
The fact that members of the community were out and about in a centralized location made it easier for many businesses and government services to connect with residents on a personal basis. The city of Culver City had several booths, where members of the city council and other government bodies were on hand to greet residents and answer questions.
“It’s good that we are able to meet the community,” said Ed Chauff of the Culver City Police Officer’s Association. “It’s more personal than how we would get to meet them otherwise. When we meet people, it’s usually because their house was broken into or something bad happens. Here, we can get to meet them on a friendlier basis.”
Sal Murguia of the Los Angeles Federal Credit Union added that having a presence at the Fiesta is not only good for advertising, but can be beneficial for business as well, “It’s helped us with getting our name out there and letting people know that they don’t have to be L.A. city employees to join our credit union,” he said.
With such support for the community, many organizations are already making plans to return to the Fiesta next year.
“We were very impressed,” said Norm Mezey, principal of the St. Augustine schools.
“There are a lot of friendly people and we were able to reconnect with alumni and members of the Church. We learned a lot about the history of Culver City and about all the people who live here.”
