Gala Fever

Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation and Rally4Kids Put Local Children and Families at the Center of Two Fall Traditions

At the unlikely intersection of cuddly toys and deafening internal combustion, two of Santa Barbara’s most established philanthropic high points come back into focus this September and October. One invokes the silent, grounding comfort of a teddy bear, the other a piston-pumping, windshield-fouling 225-mile road race. What on Earth can these gatherings have in common? 

Local kids and their loving families.

Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation’s Golden Moment

The committee behind the annual Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation (TBCF) fundraiser gathered recently, and not in a “huddle room,” “strategy suite” or other windowless iteration of the business meeting blandscape. The committee convened at TBCF’s Pediatric Cancer Support Center. Just a few steps away from Cottage Hospital, the locale was brokered by Gene McKnight and Sheela Hunt with Village Properties. The Center is a sanctuary, a brick-and-mortar expression of TBCF’s embrace of families navigating childhood cancer. For all that a hospital is a place of concentrated healing, the hospital environment itself can be a stark and clinical setting for kids and their families. The Pediatric Cancer Support Center provides these families a warm-blooded, empathetic haven for relaxing, recharging, finding resources and connecting with fellow travelers in the fraught journey that is childhood cancer.

The idea came directly from the families served by Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation. According to the organization, roughly 40 percent of its families, approximately 80 to 100, receive treatment at Cottage Children’s Medical Center each year. When TBCF began planning a permanent home, the families it consulted emphasized the importance of having a tranquil respite close to the hospital. A home away from home during a bewildering time, shelter from an indescribably strange storm, the Pediatric Cancer Support Center will accommodate more than 500 family visits annually.

The Center is just the latest chapter in Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation’s story, a saga that began in 2002. When founder Nikki Katz heard about the crushing financial and emotional pressures facing a single mother whose young son had been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, Katz had to act. In the intervening years, what began as a reflexive grassroots response has grown into a tri-county organization providing financial, educational and emotional support to families in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.

The Golden Gala – TBCF’s signature annual celebration and fundraiser – has grown right along with the organization, and this year’s gala, Saturday, September 19, at Tuscan Hills Estate in Goleta, will recognize several whose contributions are closely tied to the new Center.

The 2026 Heart of Gold Award will go to the Rogers Family for their longtime support of TBCF and a transformational gift central to renovating the Pediatric Cancer Support Center. The St. Francis Foundation will receive the Humanitarian Award for its longstanding partnership with TBCF and for making its former offices available to the organization, which helped make the Center possible.

The Pay It Forward Award will be presented to the Moradel Tabora Family, who, following their son’s completion of cancer treatment, have continued supporting TBCF through lemonade stands and other service projects. The family’s regular use of the new Center and firsthand feedback have helped inform its renovation and design.

This year’s Golden Gala Committee is co-chaired by Angel Speier and Susannah Rao, joined by Makenzy Berglund, Angela Cosentino, Taylor Fuller, Jamie Hansen, Kachina Heil, Sheela Hunt, Kerry Kelly, Terre Lapman, Gary Lapman, Debbie Neer, Stacey Deaton Polo, Nora Scheinberg, Gabrielle Semerjian, Lisa Solana, Lacy Taylor, Jill t’Sas and Brigitte Welty.

Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation’s autumn tradition reflects the quiet warmth of a supportive community. Another major Santa Barbara fundraiser arrives a few weeks later, this one with an approach we may accurately describe as “pedal to the metal.”

Rally4Kids Hits the Road

Rally4Kids returns October 9 and 10. For its 11th year, the signature fundraiser for the United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County is expanding into a two-day affair, a Friday road rally followed Saturday evening by “The Grand Tour” Gala at Santa Barbara City College’s Great Meadow.

Over the past decade, Rally4Kids has become one of the more distinctive entries on Santa Barbara’s philanthropic calendar, combining serious automotive enthusiasm with an equally serious purpose. Previous rallies have brought together Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Jaguars, McLarens, Porsches, and Aston Martins, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single weekend for the Clubs.

This year, 50 sports, luxury, and exotic cars will set out from downtown Carpinteria on a roughly 225-mile route to San Luis Obispo, with organizers pointedly avoiding Highway 101. Carpinteria is an almost classically picturesque starting line, and launching the rally there also serves to showcase the Boys & Girls Club located in this picturesque beach town. 

The rally itself has already reached its 50-car capacity, although a wait list and sponsorship opportunities remain available. The event has long since earned a reputation not only for its extraordinary collection of automobiles and its scenic route, but for bringing together automotive enthusiasts and philanthropists who share a common commitment to investing in the next generation.

“This event is about much more than beautiful cars,” Rally Chairman Ray Link said. “It’s about creating opportunities for young people while celebrating the unique communities that make California such an incredible place to explore.”

United Boys & Girls Clubs’ locations collectively serve more than 2,500 local children and teens, providing after-school programming, meals, transportation, academic support and safe places for kids to spend their time.

The weekend taps the brakes Saturday night at the Great Meadow, where Rally4Kids’ “Grand Tour” Gala will sufficiently decelerate to take guests on a culinary trip around the world. The cars from Friday’s rally will be displayed against the open-air backdrop overlooking the harbor and channel, with music, a live auction and performances planned throughout the evening.

United Boys & Girls Clubs members participating in the Notes for Notes music program will perform, while Andrew Firestone will take the microphone for the live auction and paddle raise. Gala tickets are available separately, so a Ferrari, Porsche or Aston Martin is not required for admission.

The beautiful machinery may capture the collective attention, but Rally4Kids has always been about what happens when the motor cuts out. Over the past decade, the event has raised millions of dollars for that work.

In Santa Barbara, philanthropy has never been a matter of simply writing a check. In this uniquely generous town, philanthropy can mean a calming, familiar sanctuary for kids in the throes of uncanny clinical strangeness, and it can mean 50 rockets on wheels in a roaring 225-mile road race.

Either way, the finish line is the same: showing up for local kids.