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Surf vans are bringing Los Alamos’ cuisine to Santa Barbara foodies. A3.
Online auction Santa Barbara Maritime Museum to hold virtual fundraiser By CHRISTIAN WHITTLE NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
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Annette Fisher holds items being auctioned this week to benefit the Carpinteria Arts Center.
Rising to the occasion Online auction raises money for struggling businesses
By PAUL GONZALEZ NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
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hen Annette Fisher saw the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic shake Carpinteria’s small business community, she knew she had to do something. “Our stores were just hit so hard. Some of them, you know, had to shut down completely, and that was their only source of income,” Ms. Fisher said. To help out, Ms. Fisher used her fundraising background to organize a weekly online auction. Every week the auction features items from a business or local organization, and all the proceeds benefit that organization. “I have cancer, terminal cancer, unfortunately. Before I had cancer, I’d done fundraisers, but
I’ve alway done them at a venue. I’m technology challenged, so it took me a while to figure out how to do this website,” Ms. Fisher said. She launched a website for the auction at https:// www.32auctions.com/93013. This week’s auction benefits the Carpinteria Arts Center. “Once a week I pick a store that I can do an auction for. And then next week I’ll do another business. It (the community response) was amazing. I asked for donations. I donated what I had as well. I can work in the comfort of my home. I can package stuff up on good days when I can walk, and it brings such an amazing feeling to see the smiles on the businesses face when you hand them over an envelope of money,” Ms. Fisher said. Bidders purchase their items by check made out to the business.
This week, there are 16 pieces of art up for auction from the Carpinteria Arts Center including emoji-painted rocks, a painting of Arroyo Burro Beach and a photograph of a starfish. Arts center T-shirts and a private photography session are also available. Whimsy Antiques, Sandcastle Time jewelry store and Tidepools home decor will have auctions in the coming weeks. Ms. Fisher estimates she’s raised $1,792 for three businesses so far. She’s managed to put the auctions together without having to ask businesses to supply any auction items. “I didn’t ask for anything from the people that we are trying to give money to because to me that defeats the purpose,” Ms. Fisher said. “Every item that we have has come from the community. People have gone out and purchased gift
email: pgonzalez@newspress.com
Please see AUCTION on A2
L O T T E RY R E S U LT S
INS IDE Comics ................ A6 Local ................A 2-8 Obituaries ............ A8
cards from local restaurants that can only do takeout now. People have provided tons of art. People will bring in a bottle of wine of a $65 massage gift card. “All of these donations are coming from individuals throughout the community, nothing is coming from the business itself,” she said. “I cry every time someone comes to my door and drops off an item, and they said this is all I had or I will get more. Some can do more than others. So I have enough items I think to do the businesses that need help the most, and I think that this has just been a wonderful experience for the entire community. Everybody has risen to the occasion.” The Carpinteria Arts Show auction ends Sunday. So far it has raised $520.
espite closed doors, Santa Barbara Maritime Museum continues to offer its unique educational experiences, turning to virtual tours, activities and lectures to keep Santa Barbara engaged with its rich maritime history. To date, the local nonprofit has lost more than $100,000 in revenue and has seen a significant decrease in new and renewed memberships. Not only has the institution been closed since March 13, it has also had to cancel its annual May 29 fundraiser on which it relies for a significant portion of its yearly income. To combat the losses and keep locals in touch with the museum, a favorite feature of the Santa Barbara Harbor, the Maritime Museum will host an online auction and virtual party May 29. “We’re honoring Renny Yader and Shaun Tomson, two local surf legends. We’re looking forward to still doing that just virtually and hopefully still raising some money to support the education and exhibit programs that we do here at the Maritime Museum,” said Executive Director Greg Gorga. Participants will have the opportunity to bid on a number of exciting experiences, art, memorabilia and more. Items include a stay at the Sunstone Villa at the Sunstone Vineyards and Winery in Santa Ynez, meals at places like the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, original Japanese prints, a private two-hour cruise on the Condor Express for up to 100 people, a private dinner at the museum for 20, and jewelry from Bryant and Sons. One of the items that Mr. Gorga is most excited about is a mentoring session with Mr. Tomson, a world champion professional surfer. Actor Gregory Harrison will emcee the event. In addition to the auction, the Maritime Museum has an evolving virtual offering at sbmm.org called SBMM At Home. “We realized people are probably going a little stir-crazy at home, especially folks with young kids,” said Mr. Gorga. “Families and adults can have some maritime related things to keep themselves busy during this shelter-at-home period.” On the At Home page, visitors will find links to about 100 lectures and activities, as well as a virtual tour of the museum. “We’ve always recorded our lectures and had them on our
website so we just put them in our At Home page as well so it’s easier to access,” said Mr. Gorga. “There’s so many great lectures. We have one by JeanMichel Cousteau that he did here for us that’s highlighted right now. We did one during Earth Day we highlighted Mark McGinnis’s talk on the 1969 oil spill. That one was very popular.” In addition to all of the museum’s past lectures, staff has been adapting programs that have been cancelled for the summer into virtual experiences. “We were doing science nights out in the community at different schools. This year we were doing navigating and buoys and talking about red and green buoys and why they are important and what they mean. For that we created a short one- to two-minute video so that folks can do that science night project in their own home since we’re not able to go out to the schools anymore,” said Mr. Gorga. Visitors to the website will also find a number of activities the museum created, and others that staff have found in the community. “Quite a bit we created. We’re finding and posting different crossword puzzles, games and activities for kids. Maybe have kids build a ship out of legos. Some of it we created, others we had before and we’re putting it into a downloadable digital form,” said Mr Gorga. The museum will continue to create new content for the duration of the stay-at-home orders, Mr Gorga told the NewsPress. “We would have had a new exhibit open right now called Mermaids: Visualizing Myths and Legends by Ralph Clevenger who used to teach photography at the Brooks Institute, and so in the next couple weeks he’ll do a narrated tour of that mermaids exhibit and we’ll have that up on our website too,” said Mr. Gorga. The virtual exhibits and lectures have proved to be popular with the Santa Barbara community. “It’s gotten a lot of good traction. People are enjoying it. People want to stay in touch with the Maritime Museum, and that’s a great way to do that,” said Mr. Gorga. The Maritime Museum is also a part of the upcoming 805 Inspire project, a collaboration between museum directors in Santa Barbara County to offer exclusive video content for adults and families stuck at home. “About 20 different local Santa Barbara County museums will be creating videos about our
Soduku ................ A5 Weather ............... A8
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 4-7-21-37-43 Meganumber: 7
Monday’s DAILY 4: 8-6-3-6
Friday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 28-30-31-35-66 Meganumber: 14
Monday’s FANTASY 5: 4-8-21-23-26
Saturday’s DAILY DERBY: 10-01-02 Time: 1:48.70
Saturday’s POWERBALL: 13-16-33-58-68 Meganumber: 24
Tuesday’s DAILY 3: 4-0-4 / Midday 5-0-1