NEIGHBORS / SHORT TAKES : A Ball for Aaron : A dance concert Saturday at the Oxnard Elks Lodge will help raise money to pay a young liver transplant patient’s medical bills.

By now, you no doubt have heard of Aaron Clement, the Ojai boy who recently received a transplant to replace his cancerous liver. Over the past half-year Ojai Valley residents have raised more than $100,000 to help Aaron’s family pay for the procedure. That’s about half of what the family needs for medical expenses.

So, the fund-raising continues.

There will be a benefit dance concert at the Oxnard Elks Club Ballroom Saturday night. Call 649-4011 for information.

Note: The dance music for the evening will be provided by Oxnard singer Sharon (Muffy) Hendrix, who will be stepping away, briefly, from her tour with Tom Jones to do the concert. Hendrix will be joined in the benefit by the Ventura-based band The Bumps.

And how did The Bumps get its name, you’re wondering. When it formed about 15 years ago the band was known as Natty Bumppo, after the main character in James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans.” But the name didn’t stick.

“Most of the time you would tell people the name of the band and they’d go, ‘Natty who ?’ ” said Bumps vocalist-guitarist Chris Longo.

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Speaking of Chris Longo, the Oak View resident used to play bass for Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods.

You remember them, don’t you? They recorded the 1974 hit “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero.” The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts that year. Since then, however, it’s been on its share of “worst songs” lists.

Longo said he occasionally runs into people who mention the tune, but he isn’t likely to bring up the subject himself. “Every once in awhile it rears its ugly head,” he said. “I didn’t really like the song. Basically it was a formula song about the Vietnam War and that whole thing. We had a ready-made market.”

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The Winter 1993 edition of “Stage Notes,” a publication of the Thousand Oaks-based Young Artists Ensemble, has these classified ads:

“WANTED: Housekeeper for 7 short single gentlemen. Include references.”

And “FOR SALE: 1 Golden Carriage, low mileage. Convertible to pumpkin. Contact Chad’s Carriages LTD. for the best deal.”

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And finally, a belated, but nevertheless timely, congratulations to filmmaker Adrienne Ciuffo.

The Ventura resident wrote and co-produced the film “Jungle Kayakers,” winner of the “Best Film on Mountain Sports” award at the 17th Annual Banff Festival of Mountain Films in Alberta, Canada.

OK, the award was announced last November, so we’re a bit late with our tip of the hat. But as we said, there is a timely aspect. “Jungle Kayakers” will be shown at UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday as part of a touring show of the top films of the Banff festival.

Ciuffo’s film follows the adventures of four kayakers as they travel down the waterfalls of Mexico’s Rio Azul.

Ciuffo, former director of story development for the National Geographic “Explorer” series, has now turned her attention to “Tsunami Rangers,” another kayaking film. It follows ocean kayakers through rock gardens, big surf and sea caves, from Mendocino to Big Sur.