Tea & Tributes

By Lisa Duncan

The University Club of Santa Barbara positively twinkled with elegance and emotion this weekend as guests gathered for “Chapeaux, Champagne, and Chocolate,” a charming afternoon tea celebrating the inaugural gathering for the Erin Graffy de Garcia Legacy Endowment, established in 2025 to support journalism, song, dance, Fiesta, and the vibrant cultural spirit Erin championed throughout her remarkable life.

But the afternoon also carried a deliciously nostalgic surprise – the official announcement of the revival of the beloved Children’s Strolling Chorus, a cherished Old Spanish Days Fiesta tradition dating back to 1929. After decades as one of Fiesta’s most enchanting spectacles, the strolling singers are set to return through a partnership between Music Academy of the West and Erin McKibben, director of the Music Academy’s Sing! Chorus. One could almost hear Santa Barbara collectively sigh with sentimental delight.

Ladies floated through the club in sweeping floral frocks and gloriously floppy hats worthy of Ascot, while the gentlemen cut dashing figures in seersucker jackets and straw hats – rather like an English garden party transported to our Eden by the Beach.

Welcome remarks were graciously delivered by Mignonne Profant, while Erin McKibben spoke passionately about the arts and the forthcoming return of the strolling chorus. Dacia Harwood, executive director of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, shared details about the upcoming summer exhibition Finding St. Barbara, and Bill Macfadyen reflected on the Journalism Fellowship supported through the endowment.

Among those attending were Anne Towbes, Hiroko Benko, Gary Simpson, Jill Nida, Gretchen Olenberger, Jenna and Avi Reichenthal, Teresa Kuskey-Oshay, Mayor Randy Rowse, Lisa and Scott Burns, Beverly Cavaliere, Maria McCall, Mary Collier, Royce Woodbury, and the elegant Profant family – Mignonne, Musette, Michelle, Marie, and Lyn.

The afternoon concluded with a moving champagne toast from Erin’s family – Neal and Colleen Graffy and James Garcia – leaving scarcely a dry eye in the room. Mary Collier, board member of the Profant Foundation, perhaps said it best: “Santa Barbara has always had a deep and beautiful tradition of supporting the arts.”

A beautiful afternoon for a beautiful legacy – and the return of a treasured Fiesta tradition.