At the U.E. “Compy” Compomizzo Fishing Pier in Rivertown
“Get kids hooked on fishing, not drugs or gangs.” – Compy Compomizzo
By City of Antioch Recreation Department
Sign up to be part of the 38th Annual free Kids Fishing Derby taking place Saturday, October 10, 2026. The event is held in the memory of Antioch resident “Compy” Compomizzo, for whom the fishing pier is named, and who inspired the mission statement: “Get kids hooked on fishing, not drugs or gangs.” The fishing derby provides the opportunity to teach kids fifteen and younger conservation and the basics of fishing competition that may spur an interest in future events. Register the day of the event to join in on this exciting afternoon filled with great catches!
Open to kids ages 4 – 15 with a parent or adult guardian, the Fishing Derby will take place in Waldie Plaza, across from City Hall, and on the U.E. “Compy” Compomizzo Fishing Pier in Antioch’s historic, downtown Rivertown.
Note: If you have your own fishing poles, please bring them. For those who do not have fishing equipment, there will be poles for you to borrow.
This event is made possible through the great partnership between the California Striped Bass Association, West Delta Chapter and the City of Antioch Recreation Department.
About California Striped Bass Association – West Delta Chapter
Founded in 1974 in Stockton, California, the California Striped Bass Association carries the purpose of promoting the “preservation and enhancement of Striped Bass”, a movement inspired after Delta fishermen became aware of the declining striped bass numbers and negative changes to the Delta ecology following the State Water Project in the 1940s. Learn more about the West Delta Chapter and become a Member of the California Striped Bass Association-West Delta Chapter.
Get ready for a spooktacular week of fun! Campers will enjoy games, crafts, and other fall-themed fun activities.
Embrace the spirit of the autumn season with Coyote Hills CAMPtober! From relay races to scavenger hunts, there’s plenty to keep everyone active. Get creative with you join the scarecrow design contest and experience the deliciousness of the fall harvest with hot cider and mini pie creations. Join in on all the festivities with CAMPtober!
Don’t miss out- CAMPTober is the place to be!
Age at least 5yrs but less than 12yrs 11mos, Mixed
September 28 – October 2
Weekdays 9:00 a.m – 3:00 p.m
$210 resident/$231 non-resident
Click here for more information and to register and let the CAMPtober countdown begin!
Each September, FEMA’s Ready Campaign celebrates National Preparedness Month. Since 2004, the campaign has taken the month to encourage Americans to prepare for emergencies. The month is a great time to take small steps to make a big difference in being prepared.
Source: FEMA
This year’s theme is, “Americans Stand Ready.”
The theme reflects the spirit of unity, resilience and resourcefulness that make our country strong. It’s a reminder that each of us can make a difference by taking proactive steps before a disaster strikes, and encouraging loved ones to do the same, Americans can contribute to the safety and security of the entire nation.
Preparedness is everyone’s responsibility, and disasters and emergencies can happen at any time, anywhere, and sometimes without warning.
For more than 20 years, FEMA’s Ready Campaign has sponsored and managed National Preparedness Month (NPM). National Preparedness Month is an annual September observance to encourage Americans to prepare for disasters and emergencies that could happen anywhere and at any time.
This year’s theme, Americans Stand Ready, echoes the can-do American spirit of resourcefulness and duty. The campaign focuses on. distinct ideas that capture how Americans take pride in their ability to protect themselves and their families and work together to recover from disasters:
Americans stand ready to uphold our patriotic duty: When individuals are prepared and self-reliant, we can bolster the work our brave first responders do to help people on their worst day.
Americans stand ready to protect our family and friends: We know best how to keep our loved ones safe when things go wrong.
Americans stand ready to help our communities: Taking a proactive approach to get your community ready contributes to the nation’s resilience.
Throughout the month of September, the Ready Campaign will share easy, affordable steps to take to stand ready, no matter what comes. Take a few simple steps this month to help keep you and your family ready:
Be in the know. Make sure you know where to get information when you need it most. Download the FEMA App to get emergency safety alerts and resources.
Make a plan to keep you and your family safe and prepared. The plan should include emergency contact information, emergency meeting places and medical information.
Build a kit with the essential items your family needs to stay safe and comfortable if something happens. (See FEMA’s Ready.gov Recommended Items to Include in a Basic Emergency Supply Kit checklist)
Be there for your community. From volunteering in your community to learning skills like first aid and CPR, you can take steps to prepare for disasters and keep your family safe and make your neighborhood and community more resilient. Take a training course through FEMA’s Training and Education Program, the American Red Cross, or your local emergency management agency to build or gain skills to protect yourself, family, friends and community.
FEMA’s Ready Campaign educates and empowers Americans to take some simple steps to prepare for and respond to potential emergencies, including those from natural hazards and man-made disasters. Ready asks individuals to do three key things: get an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan, and be informed about the different types of emergencies that could occur and appropriate responses. Everyone should have some basic supplies on hand in order to survive several days if an emergency occurs.
The list of emergency supply kit items is only a starting point. It is important that individuals review this list and consider the unique needs of their family, including pets, for items to include. Individuals should also consider having at least two emergency supply kits, one full kit at home and smaller portable kits in their workplace, vehicle or other places they spend time.
The Antioch Council of Teens is collecting gently used coats during their 5th Annual Coat Drive from Sept. 1 through Nov. 3, 2026. Gloves, scarves and boots are also accepted.
Donation Locations:
• Community Resources Department inside the Antioch Community Center at Prewett Community Park – 4703 Lone Tree Way, Antioch
More than 500 swimmers, volunteers and supporters expected
Over $7 million raised by Bay Area Swim to support pediatric cancer research and survivorship programs at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals
By Jenifer Howard, Swim Across America – San Francisco
Swim Across America, the national nonprofit organization that makes waves to fight cancer through charity swims across the U.S., will host the 21st annual Swim Across America – San Francisco Bay Area Open Water Swim on Saturday, September 12, 2026. The iconic 1.5-mile point-to-point swim starts at Little Marina Green, 3650 Yacht Road, in San Francisco, and finishes in Aquatic Park. Swimmers, volunteers and kayakers are invited to participate and help raise funds for pediatric cancer research and patient care supporting the swim’s beneficiary UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in Oakland and San Francisco. Those who cannot participate in person can still make waves to fight cancer through SAA My Way, Swim Across America’s virtual option. To register, volunteer or donate, visitswimacrossamerica.org/sanfrancisco.
Established in 2006, Swim Across America – San Francisco Bay Area has granted more than $7 million to support the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals’ Oakland Research Institute and the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco Survivors of Childhood Cancer Program. Each year, the charity swim brings together more than 500 swimmers, volunteers, spectators and supporters, along with Olympians and other special guests, for one of the Bay Area’s most memorable open water events.
“For 20 years, this community has shown what can happen when individuals take something they love — swimming — and turn it into a way to help families facing cancer,” said Laura Hovden, co-event director of Swim Across America – San Francisco Bay Area. “More than $7 million has gone directly to our local UCSF programs because swimmers, volunteers, kayakers, donors and teams keep showing up year after year. Our swim is about coming together, making waves and giving patients more hope and researchers more funds to make a difference.”
Few embody that commitment more than longtime swimmer, former San Francisco event director and three-time cancer survivor Susan Helmrich, captain of Team Susan Survives and one of this year’s leading fundraisers.
This year marks 49 years since Susan Helmrich’s first cancer diagnosis. She was just 21 years old when she was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Her second cancer diagnosis came 28 years ago. In 2009, she faced cancer for a third time and underwent a 6½-hour Whipple procedure for neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer, followed by 23 days at Stanford Hospital.
Through it all, Susan has made raising money for cancer research a central part of her life. Throughout the years, Team Susan Survives has raised more than $1 million for local pediatric cancer research programs. As Susan approaches her 71st birthday, she has set an ambitious goal for this year: recruit 71 swimmers, kayakers, runners, cyclists, yogis, dancers, hikers, walkers and other supporters to Team Susan Survives and together raise $171,000 through the open water swim and SAA My Way.
“I am honored and proud to have survived cancer three times, and I want nothing more than to have anyone who ever gets a cancer diagnosis have the chance to live and survive as I have,” Susan said. “As the years go on, I realize that I am committed more than ever to raising money to help investigators, researchers, physicians and support services find a cure for cancer in our lifetime.”
Susan Helmrich is also swimming in memory of her mother, Edna Helmrich, who passed away in 2019 at age 92 and was herself a 53-year breast cancer survivor.
“She was my role model and my hero,” Susan said. “This year, I’m hoping that friends, old and new, from near and far will join me and Team Susan Survives to raise money for pediatric cancer research at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland.”
Another team entering the San Francisco Bay this year will be carrying the memory of someone deeply loved.
Team Batt Bunch, also known as KeckCrewSF, is captained by Mike Keck and will swim in honor and memory of Brian Batt, husband of Rene and father of swimmers Amelia and Sarah Batt. The team has participated in Swim Across America for many years, but its fight against cancer became profoundly personal when Brian was diagnosed with cancer.
Even while undergoing treatment, Brian remained determined to be there for his daughters. He scheduled his treatment so he could travel to England when Amelia and Sarah participated in an English Channel relay in 2022, where Amelia had the honor of touching France for the team, and again for their Loch Lomond swim in 2024. During treatment, Brian continued showing up at Aquatic Park to cheer the girls on during their training swims. Brian succumbed to cancer in the fall of 2025.
“Brian fought with strength, courage and dignity, and he kept showing up for his family through all of it,” Mike Keck said. “For years, we swam with Swim Across America to fight cancer. Then that fight became very real for our family and our team. Brian is missed terribly, but we will carry on just like he did, and we hope what we do can help spare other families from experiencing that same loss.”
The money raised by swimmers such as Helmrich, Keck and their teammates is already helping scientists at UCSF pursue promising new approaches to pediatric cancer.
Julie Saba, M.D., Ph.D., a UCSF pediatric oncologist, cancer researcher and director of the Swim Across America-supported research laboratory at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, leads research examining the genetic and metabolic drivers of childhood cancers. Her research team has identified important genetic drivers of neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, and has shown that disrupting the gene’s activity can prevent neuroblastoma cells from forming tumors. This research could ultimately offer a new avenue for targeting cancers in which the AF1q gene plays a role. Swim Across America funding helped support this work.
Saba also leads the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Swimmers, now in its eighth year participating in the San Francisco event.
“Without Swim Across America, I could not undertake the high-risk, high-reward studies that we believe hold benefit for the children and adults with cancer of tomorrow,” Saba said. “Nonprofit support of research is more important than ever.”
For Swim Across America – San Francisco Bay Area Co-Event Director Jackie NeJaime, the connection between the swimmers and researchers is what makes the event especially powerful.
“Our swimmers get to see exactly why their fundraising matters,” Jackie said. “Researchers like Dr. Saba are pursuing ideas that might otherwise struggle to get early funding, while our survivorship programs are helping young people long after their cancer treatment ends. When we swim from Little Marina Green to Aquatic Park, we know where the money is going and the impact this community is helping make.”
The event is also inspiring a new generation of swimmers to get involved.
Friends of Armada, captained by Julie Herson, returns for its third year with youth competitive swimmers from Albany Armada Aquatics Club. The team has already raised more than $17,000 during its involvement with Swim Across America and is working to raise even more this year for UCSF patients, physicians and researchers.
Also returning is UCSF Team Newborn, captained by Tom Shimotake, M.D., which will mark its 15th year participating in the San Francisco Bay swim. The team is made up of friends and supporters of the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Intensive Care Nursery who share a commitment to fighting childhood cancer. Nearly one-quarter of pediatric malignancies are diagnosed during the first year of life, giving the team’s mission a particularly close connection to the patients its members serve.
Among the San Francisco community’s other leading fundraisers this year is Berkeley marathon swimmer Maya Merhige, who completed both the North Channel and Strait of Gibraltar this summer as part of her quest to complete the Oceans Seven. Merhige will be away at college on the day of the San Francisco swim but continues to raise funds for Swim Across America and its cancer research mission.
From cancer survivors to families swimming in memory of loved ones, young competitive swimmers and UCSF physicians and researchers, the September 12 swim will bring together hundreds with a shared goal: using the waters of San Francisco Bay to help create better outcomes for people facing cancer.
“Whether this is your first open water swim or you’ve been swimming in the Bay for decades, there is a place for you in this community,” Laura Hovden noted. “Swim, kayak, volunteer, create your own SAA My Way activity or support someone who is participating. Every person can help us make waves to fight cancer.”
Nationally, Swim Across America has raised more than $150 million for cancer research since its founding in 1987 and has helped fund clinical trials that contributed to the FDA-approved cancer immunotherapy medications Keytruda, Opdivo, Yervoy and Tecentriq. In the past year, Swim Across America funded a breakthrough clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering that showed that immunotherapy alone could successfully treat certain types of cancer. The organization also recently awarded two first-of-its-kind gene editing innovation grants to the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, advancing novel CRISPR gene and base editing techniques used in targeted therapies, immunotherapies and cellular therapies. Swim Across America supports more than 60 cancer research projects annually, has eight named Swim Across America labs, and supports work at many of the nation’s leading cancer institutions.
For more information, to join as a swimmer, volunteer or kayaker, or to participate virtually or donate to Swim Across America – San Francisco Bay Area, visitswimacrossamerica.org/sanfrancisco.
Swim Across America, Inc. (SAA) is dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention and treatment through swimming-related events. With open water and pool swims in 27 communities across the United States – from Nantucket to under the Golden Gate Bridge – Swim Across America, along with the help of thousands of swimmers and volunteers nationwide, and past and current Olympians, is helping find better treatments and a cure for cancer through athleticism, community outreach and direct service. To learn more, visit swimacrossamerica.org.
With great success and back by popular demand, the brightest and loudest day of the year is here. The City of Antioch Recreation Department will host its 7th Annual Big Truck Day – a day that gives families and kids of all ages an opportunity to learn more about local companies and the large vehicles they use to keep our community safe and green. Enjoy food truck options brought to you by Foodie Crew, while you explore fire engines, school buses, tractors, and many more vehicles that help our city function.
Photos: City of Antioch
Explore BIG TRUCKS while learning more about our local organizations and companies behind them. Plus, enjoy delicious food truck options from Foodie Crew while you take in all the BIG excitement!
Thursday, September 17th
4:00pm – 8:00pm
Join us at the Antioch Community Center in Prewett Community Park | 4703 Lone Tree Way
Bring the whole family for a BIG day of learning, fun, and community connection!
If your company wishes to register vehicles or large equipment for this event: Fill out the Big Truck Day Application (PDF) and send completed applications via email to La’Nae Jackson.
The Antioch Police Sycamore Substation is becoming more than a physical space — it’s becoming a place for connection, support, and community resources.
This past Saturday, CareGiver OneCall launched The Sandwich Circle, a free monthly support group for family caregivers and the first of several community partnerships being hosted at the Substation.
Flor Amaya and Claudie Niell at The Sandwich Circle inside the Antioch Police Sycamore Substation. Photos: City of Antioch
The program marks an important step in the City’s vision to activate the Sycamore Substation as a community hub, connecting residents in the Sycamore corridor with trusted organizations, services, and resources close to home.
We’re excited to see this space continue to grow and serve our community!
The Substation is located in Sycamore Square at 1084 Sycamore Drive near the corner of L Street in Antioch.
A child predator was arrested using drone technology during a recent ICAC operation. Photo & video screenshot: Walnut Creek PD
Four others are from Concord, Walnut Creek, Marin County & visiting from Germany
They came to meet a child. They met law enforcement instead.
By Walnut Creek Police Department
The Walnut Creek Police Department recently hosted a multi-agency operation with the Contra Costa County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, targeting adults who used social media to target children for sexual exploitation. Five adults traveled to Walnut Creek believing they were meeting a child. All now face charges including attempted lewd acts with a minor (PC 664/288(a)), contacting a minor to commit a sex offense (PC 288.3(a)), and arranging to meet a minor for sex (PC 288.4(b)).
5 arrests:
Billie Ray Breland, 29, Antioch (born 02/12/1997)
Andrew Garcia, 32, Concord
Rudolf Naused Robl, 42, visiting from Germany (born 07/04/1984)
Jacek Markiewicz, 67, Walnut Creek, also charged with attempted kidnapping
Taesu Park, 36, Marin County
Photos: Walnut Creek PD
The ICAC Task Force exists to identify predators before a real child is harmed, combining investigations, training, and victim support across our region. Operations like this one are the result of that work.
Thank you to our partnering agencies for their work on this operation: Contra Costa County Sheriff, Contra Costa County District Attorney, FBI San Francisco, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Secret Service, US Customs & Border Protection, Contra Costa County Probation Department, Moraga, Brentwood, San Ramon, Concord, Hercules, Pleasant Hill, Oakley and Menlo Park Police Departments, Contra Costa County MCTF, San Francisco Sheriff’s Office and Marin County DA.
Child predators arrested in Walnut Creek with the help of Contra Costa Sheriff’s Deputies. Photos: Walnut Creek PD
According to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, the five-foot, 11-inch tall, 237-pound Breland is Hispanic, was arrested on July 23rd and is being held in a Custody Alternative Facility on $50,000 bail. He’s also listed as White and as of Aug. 3, 2026, at 10:25 AM, he was released to Off Grounds Unsupervised Custody.
According to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, the five-foot, 10-inch tall, 200-pound Robl is Hispanic, but also listed as White, was arrested on July 26, is being held in the West Re-Entry Treatment and Housing facility on $475,000 bail. His next court date is scheduled for Aug. 28 at 8:30 AM in Martinez Superior Court Department 5.
According to localcrimenews.com, Park is a resident of Richmond and was charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted lewd acts with a child, attempting to contact a minor with intent to commit an offense, distributing or sending harmful matter to a minor by any means, and 288.4(A)(2) – Prior Conviction Enhancement. Every person who violates this subdivision after a prior conviction for an offense listed in subdivision (c) of Section 290, he Sex Offender Registration Act, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison.
