Laguna Blanca Lower School Citizenship Breakfast 

The Laguna Blanca Lower School fourth grade students annually hold a Citizenship Breakfast on the school’s Montecito campus to acknowledge their choices of good community citizens in our town. At the breakfast celebration, each student introduces and briefly talks about the citizen they chose. Their speeches honor their citizen and present that person’s qualities to illustrate their being a good citizen in the community.

The program was introduced by Head of Laguna Blanca Lower School Brooke Green, M.Ed. She introduced the 4th Grade Instructor Suzanne Richter who talked about the students learning the qualities of good citizenship: being trustworthy, responsible, hardworking, caring, respectful, fair, and making a difference in the community. She also mentioned the students learn public speaking and will be presenting their citizen in a brief speech. Next, students were called individually to read their speech about their citizen, and thanked them for submitting to being interviewed by them. 

This year’s 20 honorees areDr. Jerold Black, Pediatrician; Mike Bruce DDS; Dr. Hillary Conant, Veterinarian; Dominic Dopico, former Military Officer and U.S. Army Veteran; Cassie Funk, Zoologist at the SB Zoo; Jill Hall, dog trainer and Search and Rescue Volunteer; Mike Isaac, Excavator; Kelsea King, SB Police Officer; Gwyn Lurie, CEO/Executive Editor Montecito Journal; Stephen McFeely, film writer/producer; Dr. Sherry Nasseri, Clinical Pyschologist; Melissa Patrino,SB Botanic Garden Director of Development; Whitney Roemer, Education Supervisor, SB Zoo; Maya Schoop-Rutten, Maya Chocolatier; Jim Smith, U.S. Military veteran; Gina Sunseri, ASAP Community Cat Coordinator; Tracey Taylor, Housing Financial Analyst, Housing Authority SB; Rachel Tennant SEE International Chief Development Officer; Shawn Whilt, Montecito Firefighter Paramedic; and Greg Wilson, Assistant Head Coach UCSB Soccer.