INSTANT CASH PAYDAY ADVANCE UP TO $300 Instantly WE PAY CASH FOR ANY GOLD JEWELRY
CASH N RUN • Santa Monica
1914 Lincoln Blvd. (Corner of Lincoln & Pico) 310.399.2200
MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2009
Visit us online at smdp.com
Volume 8 Issue 238
Santa Monica Daily Press LESS SPILLS? SEE PAGE 7
We have you covered
THE FOR THE KIDS ISSUE
Foundation focuses its attention on athletics
COMMUNITYPROFILES IAN BLACKBURN
BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
16TH STREET For the past 27 years, the
world to eat,” he said. “I got to open up some outrageous bottles, and it just fueled my fire a little bit more.” But it wasn’t until Blackburn left Patina and joined Young’s Market Company in 1995 that he began his true foray into wine education. “When I got the job selling wine, I was selling a lot of wines that I’ve never heard of before, and it fueled my idea to start LearnAboutWine.com to post the things that I was finding out,” he said. LearnAboutWine.com was in essence Blackburn’s blog but soon grew into a means of hosting wine workshops and classes. Some of Blackburn’s first classes were held at Ocean Avenue Seafood, just across the street from his apartment above what is
Education Foundation of Santa Monica & Malibu has been one of the school district’s biggest donors, buying new library books, paying for dance instruction and providing academic enrichment grants to teachers. Now the nonprofit organization is directing its focus outside the classroom. As the state budget crisis forces districts across the state to make cuts to their athletic programs, the ed foundation is planning on launching a new endowment next year that will help minimize financial impacts to sports teams locally. “There’s really been a need for quite a while and now seems like as good a time as any to start,” Ted Kahan, who is the chair of the new athletic endowment committee, said. “We’re losing funding throughout the state because of budget cuts for all kinds of programming and this is an important part of education for kids.” Foundation officials said they are still in the initial planning stages but have already set a fundraising goal of $5 million. The organization set similar ambitions for the arts endowment seven years ago and have so far raised $2 million. They are also considering making the proposed Santa Monica Half-Marathon the signature fundraising event for the athletic endowment. The foundation will reportedly be the sole beneficiary of the half-marathon. “We know that it’s ambitious in the economy … but truthfully the need is so great,” Linda Gross, the executive director of the foundation, said. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District covers roughly $250,000 for coaching stipends and transportation needs for Santa Monica High School’s athletic
SEE CP PAGE 11
SEE FOUNDATION PAGE 10
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
IN HIS ELEMENT: Founder of LearnAboutWine.com Ian Blackburn at the Broadway Deli on Tuesday afternoon.
Making wine novices into grape gurus BY NATALIE JARVEY Special to the Daily Press
WILSHIRE BLVD. If there’s proof that wine has transitioned from a drink for the pretentious to a drink for the people, it’s Ian Blackburn. The founder of LearnAboutWine.com and former Santa Monica resident, Blackburn has turned his passion for wine into a full-time career, holding everything from introductory wine courses to a wine credential program. “The wine business can only succeed if we have an educated wine consumer,” he said. “There are a lot of wine snobs out there and they’re not educated wine consumers, they’re just wine snobs.” Blackburn grew up with a respect for wine, all stemming back to long before he could legally drink it.
“My parents didn’t have a lot of money,” said the Huntington Beach native. “We started off in a small family home, and when they opened a bottle of wine, it was really a special occasion, and I noticed that.” “It was a special energy that was created at the dinner table, and I started to appreciate it at an early age.” This interest in wine, and a passion for cooking that his mother cultivated, led Blackburn to Cal Poly Pomona’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Before graduating, Blackburn had already landed a job at Checkers Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, working as the head of the wine program before he was 20 years old. He then moved to Patina, which introduced him to a new list of high-end wines. “It was a great place to work, I mean, everybody was coming from all over the
platinum
Gary Limjap (310) 586-0339
In today’s real estate climate ... 331 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica 2 Hours Free Parking (Behind Store) Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm • 310.451.1349
• www.readersjewelers.com
Experience counts! garylimjap@earthlink.net
TAXES ALL FORMS, ALL TYPES, ALL STATES
BACK TAXES • BOOKKEEPING • SMALL BUSINESS
SAMUEL B. MOSES, CPA
(310) 395-9922 100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1800 Santa Monica 90401