Yuletide Dividends

It was a spectacular start to Yuletide when Montecito Bank & Trust held its 22nd annual Community Dividends lunch at the Hilton for 300 guests.

More than 195 local charities received checks of varying amounts, with two organizations – Casa Pacifica Centers for Children and Families, and the Youth and Family Services YMCA’s Noah’s Anchorage, which runs an eight-bedroom youth homelessness prevention center for youngsters 12 to 17 years old – each receiving $50,000 from Anne Towbes, widow of the bank’s founder Michael Towbes.

More than $22 million has been handed out by the bank since the founding of community dividends.

Among the horde turning out in the hostelry’s grand ballroom, when the venue was changed from the usual rotunda because of the rainy weather, were Janet Garufis, George Leis, former mayor Helene Schneider, David Bolton, Scott DeVine, Michael Baker, ubiquitous KEYT-TV reporter John Palminteri, Maria McCall, Cecily MacDougall, Rolf Geyling, Leila Drake, Kathryn Martin, Bill MacFadyen, Peter and Gerd Jordano, Dean Noble, David Selberg, Cyndi Silverman, and Roger Durling.