Even the Best of Intentions Come with Their Challenges…

During this challenging and bizarre pandemic moment, the Montecito Journal, like every other business, has tried to pivot to meet this unexpected time. One of the ways we have tried to do this is to initiate free home delivery (thanks to some local angel sponsors), so that community members who did not feel safe to leave their homes could still receive the local news. While this is intended to be helpful, as with everything, it has come with its unintended challenges – like some papers not being picked up or are delivered to the driveways of uninhabited homes. Littering was the last thing on our minds when we devised this plan.

So as of this week, Brian Smith, our long-time delivery maven, will be driving around town to pick up and recycle any unwanted papers found on driveways or in the street. Thank you for your patience with this. We are currently working with the U.S. Postal Service to find a way to deliver the Journal through the mail in a timely manner.  If you are interested in continuing to receive home delivery, please let us know at tim@Montecitojournal.net.

And the Montecito Cash Mob…

This event, intended to get much needed cash to local business owners, was wildly successful as we raised in excess of a quarter of a million dollars to help our local businesses and minimum wage workers. We not only feel blessed to live in a town where people generously step up to support one another, but we also feel so grateful that as a community we have been in a position, even during this difficult moment, to do so. That said, this too comes with its logistical challenges.

Over the past 10 days, representatives from the Coast Village Association and the Montecito Association have been working very hard to distribute all of the much-appreciated checks to the participating vendors – as seen in the photos in Kelly Mahan Herrick’s “Village Beat” column. The last of these checks are still in the process of being delivered.

Because of the great success of this fundraising effort, many vendors have in excess of 50 clients with whom to connect regarding the purchased gift cards. This is all being done in concert with the otherwise complicated logistics that accompany the State’s measured re-opening, and the necessary re-envisioning of each business so that it can operate in the safe environment of social distancing. We understand that a number of customers have not yet been contacted by the businesses from which they purchased gift cards, but we promise that you have not been forgotten! Please be patient with these businesses as they make their way down their long to-do lists! I know they could not appreciate more each and every one of us who stepped up to lend them a hand in this moment.

Thank you!