Santa Barbara Area Council of PTAs

A Founders' Day Celebration
Honorary Service Awards 2007

The Santa Barbara Area Council of PTAs
Presents...

Celebrating Community in Youth
May 31, 2007

6:00 P.M. - 6:30 P.M. Sign-in & Social
6:30 P.M. Entertainment
7:00 P.M. Program
8:00 P.M. Closing of Program

County Office of Education Auditorium
4400 Cathedral Oaks Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93110

R.S.V.P. Cheri Bode
(805) 683-3655 or cheribode@cox.net

Appetizers and refreshments served
Entertainment performed by our Local Schools' Children
The Santa Barbara Children's Chorus performing under Rebecca Leftwich Hodson

The Santa Barbara Children's Chorus performing under Rebecca Leftwich Hodson

Founders Day is a perfect time to renew our dedication to the purposes of the PTA that were defined by our founders more than a century ago. Each year in February, PTA honors the three founders as well as past and present PTA leaders. PTA also attempts to increase the awareness of its members and the community by highlighting achievements, activities, projects and goals.

The Founders Day celebration was created in 1910 by Mrs. David O. Mears, a charter member of the National Congress of Mothers founded by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst in Washington, DC on February 17, 1897. The Founders Day observance has continued through the change of organization names in 1925 to the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, and the uniting in 1970 with the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers founded in 1926 by Selena Sloan Butler, to become the National PTA.

Issues concerning immigrants, homeless children and families, the unemployed and the uneducated and numerous health and safety concerns still need attention. However, through PTA advocacy to enact and enforce laws, our children's health is better protected and children are better fed, housed and educated, with parents more involved in their upbringing. The vision of our founders has been realized in many ways, and it is now up to us to continue the vision.

On May 23, 2006, in a banquet themed "Change of Seasons," we honored volunteers from schools throughout the area. The Santa Barbara Children's Chorus, led by Rebecca Leftwich Hodson, provided the evening's entertainment that included singing and dancing. To find out more about this wonderful organization, visit www.sbchildrenschorus.org.

A special thank-you goes to Michael Biancone for providing delicious appetizers and to Fresco for donating cake. Lisa Van Deusen of Prudential California Realty supported the event with a generous grant.

The Santa Barbara Area Council of PTAs honored the following organizations and individuals for their outstanding service to children this year:

Goleta Family School (Andrea Garza)

Goleta Family School is an alternative program within the Goleta Union School District. This small school with 48 kids in two classrooms has become a leader of the environmental movement in Goleta. They organize Goleta Earth Day, participate enthusiastically in Safe Routes to School activities, and recently placed 15th among 1,000 California schools in the Jiminy Cricket Environmentality Challenge. Last year, they took the lead in the successful "Pesticide Free School Grounds" Project in Goleta. As a result, GUSD has discontinued the use of all pesticides on school grounds. For this, combined with their efforts in the Safe Routes to School field, GUSD received the Green Award last year. In no small part, this is due to the leadership of Andrea Garza, PTA president at Goleta Family School and the working mother of 10-year old Zac and 4-year old Hannah.

Jamie Jo Sim

Jamie joined this PTA council seven years ago, in 2000. Her daughters were then at Ellwood elementary school. Now one of her daughters has graduated and the other is at Dos Pueblos High School. During all this time, Jamie has served the Council on the Safety Committee, as VP of Programs and now VP of Communications. She has helped organize Founders Day numerous times. She was part of the original "gang of three" on the Safety Committee which helped make Safe Routes to School a household word in this town and helped create a new state law mandating tougher penalties for traffic offenders in school zones. She did all this in addition to holding a very busy job as a realtor and managing her family. Always upbeat, down to earth and no-nonsense, she has been a pleasure to work with and to have as a friend. When Jamie sees something that needs to be done, she'll get up and do it, instead of waiting for government or anyone else to do it for her. Like Andrea, she represents the best PTA has to offer: a sense of caring about the world around her and a spirit that gets things done.

Greg Chittick

Greg Chittick is originally from Fresno. He attended UCSB in the early eighties, then went to graduate school in Berkley, CA. Once he finished school, he returned to his beloved Santa Barbara and has been a resident since then. With his passion towards nature and his love for children, he became inspired to try to make a difference of how we can protect and control our environment that we live in. When his eldest child started attending school he began to investigate the usage of pesticides and what the policies were on using toxic material around children. He began with City Council, by presenting a resolution that the City stop using pesticides in public parks where children play. This resolution was adopted in 2004 with the help of Phil Boise from the Community Environmental Council and the Environmental Defense Center. Greg was the President of PAAC (Pesticide Awareness Alternative Coalition) for one year. Since the City and the S.B. School District have a joint usage agreement, the Santa Barbara School District also adopted the policy. Today, Greg continues to serve on an Advisory Board for the City of Santa Barbara helping to create a balance of pesticide control in a non-harmful way to children and our environment.

Community Youth Performing Arts Center

In March of 1999, Santa Barbara Junior High School held a memorable alumni gathering which honored Marjorie Luke and the performing arts faculty of the 1960's and 1970's. The event drew over 500 people and raised $80,000. The Santa Barbara Community Youth Performing Arts Center (CYPAC) was formed to administer the funds raised to renovate the theatre and initiate the development of a youth performing arts center.

Since the summer of 1999, the Board of Directors has moved forward with the development of a relationship with the Santa Barbara High School District to create a long-term partnership to allow for the theatre facility to be operated by CYPAC as a joint-use venue. The theatre will be used by Santa Barbara Junior High School and by community arts organizations. Assisted by diverse community adult and youth Advisors, this 501 c 3 non-profit corporation has worked closely to research and plan the complete renovation of this historic theatre. Funds from private donors, foundations, businesses, the State of California and Measure V Bond funds have been joined to meet the $3.7 million budget to renovate and operate the Marjorie Luke Theatre.

The architecture of Santa Barbara Junior High is ranked with that of the Mission and the Santa Barbara Court House. It is a classic example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture with its impressive, ornate tower, arches, extensive tile work, wrought iron and stone work, and fascinating details of gargoyles and busts of Italian explorers. The school and its showplace theatre were built in 1931 during the Great Depression by WPA workers - talented artisans and craftsmen who were out of work. The Theatre boasts a proscenium stage complete with working fly loft, an ornate plaster relief of cherubs and florets over the stage, a wood vaulted ceiling, and wrought iron chandeliers.

Santa Barbara Public Education Foundation

"Imagine a world without music? An entire area of our minds, gone? Music is a language, a deep form of nourishment, understanding and communication. We can't deprive our children of that." - Gisele Ben-Dor, past director, Santa Barbara Symphony.

The Santa Barbara Public Education Foundation has taken these words to heart. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing Santa Barbara's public schools. In the past, they raised close to a half million dollars to refurbish all the of Santa Barbara school district's elementary school playgrounds and another $100,000 to purchase globes, maps and encyclopedias for 95 classrooms.

Currently, they are a major supporter of keeping music instruction in Santa Barbara elementary schools. To this end, they created "Keep the Beat," an auxiliary organization with its own 25-member board aiming not just to maintain the music program, but to expand and enhance it.