Shelter From the Storms
By Lynda Millner   |   December 10, 2020

In case you’ve never heard of a ShelterBox, it’s a big green box filled with lifesaving items for families the world over who have lost their homes due to a disaster. The ShelterBox headquarters are right here in Santa Barbara. They recently had a virtual fundraiser, livestreamed, and raised more than $250,000. Since 2000, ShelterBox […]

Teacher’s Fund Raises Cash for Local Teachers in Back-to-School Drive
By Nick Schou   |   November 26, 2020

The Santa Barbara-based nonprofit Teacher’s Fund has raised tens of thousands in cash to help local teachers purchase tools and materials for their classrooms. Although the annual fundraiser, which took place between September 16 and October 16, had to be held online this year, it nonetheless managed to raise $56,000 worth of badly needed school […]

 

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Up for Auction
By Richard Mineards   |   November 19, 2020

An old New York friend, former model and socialite Barbara Allen de Kwiatkowski, who left us far too early, dying of natural causes aged 69 in June, is having her possessions sold by Christie’s in Manhattan in a total of eight sales over the next few months. Barbara, whom I first met when she was […]

Shelter from the Storms
By Richard Mineards   |   November 19, 2020

ShelterBox, the Santa Barbara-based nonprofit dedicated to disaster relief, is currently dealing with the aftermath of super typhoon Goni, which made landfall in the Philippines. Known locally as Rolly, the typhoon is the latest in a series of violent storms to rip through the country with 140-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rainfall. It became the most […]

Grant Aids Westmont Center to Establish Thriving Communities
By Scott Craig   |   November 12, 2020

Westmont College has received a grant of $1 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the Westmont Center for Thriving Communities. Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative funds the program. This national initiative seeks to strengthen Christian congregations to help people deepen their faith in God, build strong relationships with each other and contribute to […]

Community, Comfort Food, and CommUnify Rebranding
By Lynda Millner   |   November 12, 2020

The Community Action Commission has just rebranded itself CommUnify and they do many things. Their dinner event at Firestone Vineyard had to be changed because of the pandemic. It was replaced by “The Good Ole Days” or a blast from the past – the 1950s. The location was the West Wind Drive-In movie theatre on […]

The Rock Star Raffle
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 12, 2020

It takes not only a surfeit of talent but also a lot of moxie to go from singing in a church choir and performing gospel music as a teen to achieving international pop stardom as a young adult. Katy Perry, born in Santa Barbara in 1984 as Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, surely has plenty of both.  […]

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  • Up to the Challenge
    By Lynda Millner   |   October 29, 2020

    Girls Inc. of Carpinteria hosted its eighth annual “An Evening in Bloom” but with a different twist this year and the community “showed” up. Their bold goal was $250,000. So far they are just over $230,000 and still counting! The usually elegant affair at the Girls Inc. campus was quiet this year because of the […]

    Montecito’s Bucket Brigade Launches Countywide Growing Project
    By Nick Schou   |   September 17, 2020

    Fresh on the heels of donating and distributing 33,000 cloth masks sewed by 300 volunteers, the Bucket Brigade (as well as 16 other organizations including the Santa Barbara County Food Action Network and the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County) is taking its crowd-sourcing expertise in a new direction: launching a major campaign of community and […]

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    Preview of Patagonia’s Public Trust Screens Outdoors
    By Steven Libowitz   |   September 17, 2020

    Described as part love letter and part political exposé, Public Trust: The Fight for America’s Public Lands investigates how we arrived at this precarious moment when America’s public lands – some 640 million acres – are in danger. Held in trust by the federal government for all citizens of the United States, these places are […]

    Its Mission is Preserving the Missions
    By Lynda Millner   |   September 10, 2020

    According to the California Missions Foundation press brochure, “Nothing defines California and our nation’s heritage as significantly or emotionally as do the 21 missions that were founded along the coast from San Diego to Sonoma. Their beauty, stature, and character underlie the formation of California. Over time, many mission enclaves have developed into some of […]

    Friendship Center Hosts Drive-By Luau for Local Senior Citizens
    By Nick Schou   |   September 3, 2020

    Ever since March, Montecito’s Friendship Center has been delivering monthly care packages to its senior citizen clients who have been mostly isolated at their homes from Goleta to Summerland during the pandemic. Two months ago, the center also hosted a drive-in event where clients could wave to staff from the comfort and safety of their […]

    ‘WWW’ on the World Wide Web
    By Steven Libowitz   |   September 3, 2020

    Whales Without Walls, which screened at the 2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival this past winter, is essentially a five-minute argument for a modern real-life solution to the issues that were addressed in the fiction film Free Willy. The mission of the Whale Sanctuary Project is to establish a model seaside sanctuary where whales and […]

    Casa Dorinda Scholarship Fund
    By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   August 20, 2020

    Due to the ongoing pandemic, Casa Dorinda residents and staff missed out this year on celebrating the recipients of the Casa Dorinda Scholarship in person, an annual tradition dating back to 1998 when a group of Casa residents began a fund to help staff members and their families achieve their educational goals. But the pandemic […]

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