GLBA Scholarship Awards at Pacific Pride Fest
The esteemed and respected Gay and Lesbian Business Association (GLBA) held their annual scholarship competition this year, funded generously by their newest endowment in honor of the late Gary Michael Mosel. Mosel, a prominent Santa Barbara plumbing contractor, was a long-time GLBA member and scholarship donor for 40 years.
The GLBA Scholarship Chair is John Chufar – a third-generation realtor, past President of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors, and recipient of Realtor of the Year and the Howard Gates Award (2019). The scholarship team are Tim Lyons, Robert Johns, Chris Curry, Carlos Ojeda, Chris Martinez, Doug Van Pelt, and Jonathan Alburger.
Chufar contacted me to ask my attendance at the formal scholarship presentation at the Pacific Pride Foundation (PPF) 50th Anniversary event on Saturday, August 23, at the beach across from Chase Palm Park.
Readers, this is double great news, as the GLBA has not presented a scholarship in a few years and for the first time in the history of the GLBA, they are being acknowledged as part of the PPF community.
I arrived early backstage to meet with Chufar, the GLBA scholarship team, and the GLBA Scholarship winner Kai Ingraham, along with the one-year new PPF Executive Director Julio Roman, for photo ops and quick interview bytes. Love and inclusion were all around backstage.
Roman shared with me about PPF including GLBA for the first time, “When we talk about safe spaces, we often talk about four walls and a door to escape to. An organization like the GLBA has represented what safe space means in people, especially as they aim to highlight and support the lives of our LGBTQIA+ communities, and we are really thankful.”
It was time for PPF’s Award ceremonies. First were the Legacy Awards, which went to Lynn Cunningham Brown,PPF Board of Directors; David Selberg,Chief Executive Officer of Hospice SB; Claude Raffin and partner Jon Gathercole who both SB Realtors co-founded Spectrum Realty and the Brightstar Foundation; and Brad Willis, former Chief Technology Officer at Deckers Brands and SB Museum of Natural History Immediate Past Chair.
Next were the PPF Community Service Awardees: Ralph Barbosa, Health Programs Coordinator at County of Santa Barbara, Public Health Department and PPF Board Vice Chair; Gary Clark, The Fund for SB Development Director; René García Hernández, M.A. Ed., Director of Community Engagement at AHA!; Robert Mendez, PPF Honorary Board Member, event promoter and founder of the Red Room at the Wildcat Lounge; and Megan Overland, Transgender Advocacy Network.
The GLBA followed with Van Pelt as keynote speaker for their Scholarship Award. He mentioned the respect and love that the community has for Mosel, who was very generous and believed in friendships and the power of love. He acknowledged Mosel’s partner Marco Silva and his family who were attending. He then introduced Ingraham, the scholarship winner, who will be using the funds to pay their rent for one year at the School of Education and Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. Ingraham attended Monroe elementary, La Cumbre Jr. High, Santa Barbara High and SBCC. They graduated from UC Santa Cruz Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Counseling Psychology with an LGBT emphasis.
Upon receiving their award, Ingraham said, “I am so deeply grateful and honored for this opportunity, it is huge to say the least. Thank you so much to the GLBA, especially Gary – it is actually life changing for me. I want to be the queer therapist that I need most, and this is going to be a huge part of that. And thank you to the PPF for letting us be on here today; this festival played a huge part in my own queer awakening. And I’m just amazed that I am standing on this stage today and talking to all of you. Thank you so much.”
Per its website, “GLBA has awarded a total of over $165,000 (as of 2025) in scholarships since 1983. It is the ONLY source of financial support for gay and lesbian students seeking educational advancement in Santa Barbara County … While some national organizations have told our gay youth they are unwelcome, asserting that gay youth do not meet their leadership or membership standards, these GLBA grants are our way of telling our youth they EXCEED those standards and we are proud of them. A little friendly support and encouragement goes a long way for students who often face personal hardship and rejection due to their sexual orientation.” Additional endowment funds are The Robert L. Johns Vocational Scholarship Endowment Fund; The Raffin-Gathercole Scholarship Endowment Fund; The Carl Joseph Adelhardt Memorial Scholarship Endowment; and The Stephen Logan Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund.
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