Hospice of Santa Barbara Showcases Art's Meditative Potential

Hospice of Santa Barbara helps patients to reach the end of life with dignity and compassion, offering free counseling and care management services throughout the community. The nonprofit provides support to grieving individuals and families at locations such as school campuses, and it further connects with the community through events at the Leigh Block Gallery. Named in honor of the late Hospice of Santa Barbara board member emeritus Leigh Block, the gallery frequently showcases the work of local artists who delve into themes such as grief, loss, and the journey of life. 

Hospice of Santa Barbara presents art exhibitions on a quarterly basis and features occasional special engagements. On August 2, the organization hosted a special one-day exhibition of local artist Dr. Daniel Joseph, whose experience living with Parkinson’s disease inspired a series of impressive creative works. 

Parkinson’s: Along the Road to Hope

The exhibition, titled Parkinson’s: Along the Road to Hope, was an inspiring demonstration of hope and perseverance. Soon after retiring from a long career in medicine in 1999, Dr. Joseph learned that he had Parkinson’s. While the disease’s progression eventually made it difficult to accomplish simple tasks, Dr. Joseph took up painting at the suggestion of a friend and found a new passion. He discovered that his hand did not shake while he was painting, and the art form soon became a meditative practice, leading him to attend art classes and hold exhibitions at many local venues. Inspired by years spent working at his father’s flower shop, Dr. Joseph mainly creates oil paintings of flowers, though his subjects also include wildlife and his family members.

Storyteller to Honor Longtime Executive Director at Prom Gala

Image Source: http://www.storytellercenter.org/

For over 25 years, the Storyteller Children’s Center has served the Santa Barbara County, California, community by providing education programs and additional supportive services for homeless children and their families. By drawing on the support of generous community members, business sponsors, and volunteers, the nonprofit is able to provide high-quality early education to 100 disadvantaged children each year.

Storyteller Prom

Opportunities for Santa Barbara County residents to support the Storyteller Children’s Center include the organization’s annual benefit gala. On October 3, 2015, Storyteller will hold its very own prom in the gymnasium of the Page Youth Center at 4540 Hollister Avenue in Santa Barbara. Offering guests an opportunity to relive their high school days, the evening will include dinner, music, and dancing. Storyteller Prom offers a variety of sponsorship opportunities for attendees, with themed sponsor titles such as Prom King and Queen, Class President, and Valedictorian.

Executive Director Terri Allison

In addition to raising awareness and garnering financial support for Storyteller’s educational programs, Storyteller Prom will provide an opportunity for the nonprofit to honor its executive director, Terri Allison. An active member since Storyteller’s establishment, Ms. Allison will leave her leadership role with the organization after 26 years of service, and Storyteller will recognize the compassion, partnerships, and overall excellence that she has contributed to its programs.

Margaret Singer Unveils Art Exhibition at Hospice of Santa Barbara

Image Source: jewishsantabarbara.org

Hospice of Santa Barbara has teamed with area artist Margaret Singer to bring her solo exhibition to families and individuals served by the organization. The Leigh Block Gallery, located within the hospice, will display the art. 

The Exhibition

The 94-year-old Singer fled Nazi Germany as a child and subsequently turned to painting as a means of expressing her feelings. She views art as a sort of journal that chronicles her life through emotional reactions and mental reflections. While much of her work focuses on the faces and ideas of childhood that continue to haunt her, it also celebrates the raw beauty of the world. The exhibition at Hospice of Santa Barbara, entitled Celebrations, looks upon the world with gratitude and wonder.

Image Source: hospiceofsantabarbara.org

Renown

Singer has achieved renown in the Santa Barbara community with her works on display at the Santa Barbara Art Association, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara. A portion of all sales generated by the current exhibition will support Hospice of Santa Barbara and its important work.

The Butterfly Garden at Ganna Walska’s Lotusland

Lotusland of Santa Barbara preserves the incredible gardens designed by opera singer Ganna Walska. The collection includes a number of themed gardens, including the Japanese garden, the blue garden, and the butterfly garden. Comprising a wide range of flowering plants, the butterfly garden is designed to create scents that will attract beneficial insects. Some horticulturalists refer to butterfly gardens as “insectaries” due to their ability to attract helpful insects. 

At Lotusland, the butterfly garden plays an important role in protecting the collection as a whole by providing sustenance for insects that eat pests like thrips and aphids. Located next to the parterre and the orchards, the insectary helps protect the flowers and fruits in these areas. 

Lotusland has adopted a sustainable gardening plan that uses only organic materials to support the various gardens, and the insectary makes this organic approach to gardening possible. The insectary also enhances the beauty of the garden by attracting butterflies, especially monarchs, which only lay their eggs on milkweed, a central component of the Lotusland butterfly garden.

The Bici Centro DIY Community Bike Shop

The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition aims to empower local residents to use their bikes for transportation on a more regular basis. The organization offers a number of opportunities for Santa Barbara residents to learn about bicycle safety and repair through the Bici Centro community bike shop. Bici Centro teaches individuals how to repair their bikes using the shop’s tools, expert guidance, and parts for just $5 per hour of stand time. The shop offers a safe environment for people with no bike repair experience to learn about proper maintenance.

In addition to its DIY bike repair program, Bici Centro refurbishes bikes, which it sells to the community at reduced prices in order to make them more accessible. The shop, which largely relies on the generosity of donors, accepts donations of used bikes and parts, which it uses to refurbish and repair other bicycles. Donated working bikes are inspected before they are resold at an affordable price to local youth. The shop encourages individuals to donate their bikes and parts, even if they are unsure about the quality, as volunteers sort through donations and recycle anything that is unusable.                            

The Phil Womble Ethics in Sports Award at SBART

To recognize athletic excellence in the local community, the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table (SBART) gives out a number of awards. Among these is the Phil Womble Ethics in Sports Award, which honors student athletes who have demonstrated a strong commitment to sportsmanship and an understanding of ethics. By giving this award to student athletes in Santa Barbara, SBART aims to promote positive conduct both on and off the field and to encourage athletes to work on their character and attitude as much as their athletic prowess.

The coaching staff and athletic directors at each high school choose award recipients from among students in their junior year. Some of the criteria for receiving the award include having respect for teammates and opponents alike, demonstrating an honest and optimistic attitude, placing others before themselves, and putting the well-being of the team in front of personal interests.

Phil Womble, the award’s namesake, is a local author and sports historian who struggles with cerebral palsy. Despite this major challenge, he has used sports as a means of creating fellowship within the community.                            

Support Santa Barbara Students with Annual and Endowed Funds

The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara helps high school students in Santa Barbara County, California, realize their dreams of higher education by connecting them to annual scholarship opportunities. The average scholarship offered by the organization is $2,500, which represents the starting donation for creating an annual scholarship fund.

At present, the foundation administers annual scholarship funds on behalf of families, businesses, individuals, nonprofits, and civic groups. Donors have the option to renew their gift annually and can establish specific selection criteria to fund students interested in a particular academic field or in a certain demographic. The foundation charges no administrative fees, so 100 percent of donated funds go directly to students.

Gifts of $50,000 or more can establish an endowed scholarship fund, meaning the foundation will invest the principal and use returns to fund scholarships in perpetuity. Donors designate names for their funds and receive written profiles about each of the students the funds support. In addition, scholarship recipients send thank-you notes throughout the year with updates on their studies.