Beautification: The Verb Form *(Beautification Day – November 8, 9 am – 1 pm, MUS)

“Community.” The word has been hijacked by powerfully bland ne-er-do-wells. “I’m happy to report Q2 revenue suggests we have a robust and dedicated community!” “Let me give a shout out to my wonderful online community, 143,000 strong!” and so on. Community is not a featureless mob of prospects, a fanbase, or a “crowd” by another name. “Community”, in its non-strategic form, is suggestive of homes and neighborhoods and sun-drenched sidewalk conversations with familiar passersby. You may find yourself – over a round of Lafond java – exchanging deliciously empty balderdash with a couple of dear pals on the Corner Green for hours, animatedly gesturing and laughing, the trees there leaning in like eavesdroppers and ringing with chatty birdsong. If so, you may be in the throes of Community. At this writing there is no cure. 

There is surely no more heart-clutching example of civic self-embrace than our annual Montecito Beautification Day, which this year falls on November 8, launches from MUS at 9am, and boasts several elements not typically associated with a trash removal project. 

“The community partnership here is absolutely beyond belief,” says Beautification Day dynamo and Chair, Mindy Denson. “The Miramar have been very gracious on many levels. And then it’s ‘Hey, we want to do breakfast for you.’ I’m like, okay!” She goes on to breathlessly detail more of the village weave. “And the San Ysidro Ranch? I talked to (Executive Chef) Matt a couple of weeks ago, he’s doing salads for me again this year. Roxy owns the Market, and I’m like, Roxy, can we do some hot dogs for the firefighters to cook.? She’s like, sure, how many do you want?” Denson pauses and all but tosses up her hands. “That’s what I’m saying! There’s such a give. Just last night I got a call back from Elise at Rory’s. Yeah, we’re going to show up. And I’ve been working with Diego, the new chef here at Little Mountain. He has been fabulous to work with. It’s pulling in all these little threads in the community.”

Mayberry in the Woods

To summarize; Montecito Beautification Day participants this year will be served a complimentary breakfast sponsored and hosted by the Rosewood Miramar, and following the cleanup will enjoy a picnic lunch courtesy of neighbors Montecito Village Grocery and San Ysidro Ranch. Need we add the picnic lunch will be prepared by our very own Montecito Firefighters? If we had a bomb disposal squad they would likely be circulating with hors d’oeuvres. 

Think of Montecito Beautification Day as a living Norman Rockwell painting, or maybe one of those emblematic slow-motion heartland parades you see in the movies – bunting-festooned floats and lots of waving; lucent community life as a shining fractal of enriched Life Itself. 

 “When I first started doing this, I told the crew that I really want it to feel like you’re in Mayberry.” Mindy Denson is Montecito’s Community communicant extraordinaire, and for 21 years the energized Montecito Beautification Day ambassador and kahuna. Her initiating Mayberry reference is to iconic 60s TV series The Andy Griffith Show, and its fictional North Carolina hamlet where everybody knows everybody, the town deputy is allowed one bullet and has to keep it in his shirt pocket, and a loving village vibe suffuses daily life, whatever the harmlessly chaotic goings on. Mindy and the committee’s singular vision has long since taken root in the yearly Beautification Day event, to its increasing popularity. 

“I realized last year with Norm (Borgatello, owner of the Upper Village) having been so gracious and giving us the Corner Green every year, I couldn’t do it anymore,” Mindy says. “It was too tight. So many more people are coming out. So many more people want to participate!” 

It bears mentioning here that she is talking about locals excitedly rushing in to pick up trash; civic self-improvement turned joyous community convocation. This much-anticipated annual fete is 40 years old this year.

 “Our theme this year is Montecito Renaissance,” Denson says. “We were thinking about all the positive change that’s been going on here, and I thought this is the perfect year to highlight that, our 40^th.” 

She hasn’t done it alone, of course, and her affections on that front may present a threat to her cardiology. “I feel so honored to work with this longstanding committee. I think the fact that it’s 40 years…it’s really making my heart explode.”

Reader, this is where we are obliged to ask: How did Mindy get involved in Montecito Beautification Day? Let’s ask her together.

Mindy Denson’s Beautification Day Arc

“I’m a Midwest girl – a Cleveland girl – and I think that’s part and parcel of what the Midwest is all about,” Denson says. “And I thank my mom and my dad, too. There’s something real about it. When I moved here, it was like, let’s do some of the things like we’ve done in Midwest. One of the things we used to do growing up, we always had block parties so all the neighbors could get to know each other. We’d close the street and hang out with kids, moms, dads, aunts, uncles…”

For 40 years, Beautification Day’s baseline raison d’être has been the collaborative and plenary plucking of litter from area streets and beaches. Under the committee’s activated oversight, the yearly gathering has become a kind of village love rally. Think of it as an emotionally nourishing trash haul, if that helps. “It is really a reunion,” Mindy says. Her own story begins with a simple declarative sentence that hardly portends the magic to follow. 

“I’d moved here, and I was out walking.” (see?) “There were a couple neighbors down the street and they were picking up trash. And I’m like, oh! And they said ‘Hey, this is Beautification Day.’ And I said, ‘Cool! I’m in!’ So I started picking up trash and got involved. I think it was in 2004 they said, ‘Oh, you’re chairing the Beautification Committee!’ And I go,‘WHAAAT?’” 

Denson’s journey to Montecito? Thanks for asking.

“I did my undergrad at UCSB, and I would bike around Montecito all the time – and I just fell in love with it. And then I had a work opportunity, moved away, and spent 16 and a half years with Chanel.”

Chanel?

“San Francisco, Chicago, New York City. I was a store directress and I loved it. Then came 9/11. That’s another story. I lived four blocks away,” she says, and pauses. “I won’t tell you what was on my deck. But yeah…my husband and I have been together 36 years, got married at the Ranch before the big Bennifer weekend, had a fabulous ceremony there. We were living in the Bay Area and just loved it here. I was like, well, what am I going to do? They needed an assistant store director here in town for Sacks Fifth Avenue. Found a cute little place here and started in right away. Love where you live.” 

When Mindy first chaired the Beautification Day event some 21 years ago, as a matter of record 1.38 tons of trash were collected. Beautification Day this year will arrive with all the trappings and a vibe of genuine community celebration, including recognition of Citizen of the Year. Mindy and the committee she loves are all over it. And have been for years.

“As a really standup committee we have elevated Beautification Day. We’re reaching out to more organizations and including more people. Again, the Renaissance – we are moving in a different direction with media, really getting the word out…” Denson breaks off, sighs distractedly, and smiles. “Yeah, it’s definitely an elevated event,” she says. “But Montecito is still that small town that will never go away. It will never go away.”