Tag archives: Michael Towbes
Now that Towbes Plaza has been ceremonially launched with an enormous pair of scissors, here comes the Local Author Book Festival to break the place in! Santa Barbara is unfairly over-blessed by the g*ds of literary talent, and here’s a chance to walk among these leading lights. Poets, novelists, authors all – some 40 of […]
When I was young, libraries were my gateway to adventure. I traveled through stories, climbed metaphorical mountains, and learned boundless skills, all from the coziness of an armchair. Stepping into a library always felt like stepping into a world where anything was possible, an enchanted gateway that took me on journeys beyond the horizon. This […]
Last Sunday’s opening of the new Michael Towbes Library Plaza was everything the Journal’s Jeff Wing predicted it would be in a recent edition of the weekly MJ. It was indeed a mezzo shout of happy civic hollering as a Pandora’s box of color and sound reverberated on the sun splashed block party on Anapamu […]
Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie made a lot of money and couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. “The man who dies rich dies disgraced,” he wrote, and lived his credo. His stubbornly stated goal was to give away – in his lifetime – his entire fortune to causes which he felt would raise and edify […]
Montecito Bank & Trust celebrated its 49th anniversary by gathering with 11 local nonprofit representatives at the bank’s annual anniversary grants reception. Michael Towbes, the bank’s late founder, first started the anniversary grant program in 1993 to give back to the community. He wanted bank employees to have a voice in the direction of the […]
It was a spectacular start to Yuletide when Montecito Bank & Trust held its 20th annual Community Dividends awards lunch, which normally divides $1 million among myriad local charities. But this year the Hilton event for 300 guests was one with a decided difference as the bank, founded by the late Michael Towbes, awarded a […]
The Santa Barbara Library Foundation’s director Lauren Trujillo is in a celebratory mood. The foundation’s $5.4 million capital campaign to revitalize the historic plaza at the Santa Barbara Library, a once bustling pedestrian thoroughfare that had fallen into disrepair, has been fully funded. The organization raised nearly 60 percent of the dollars from private contributions […]
A new era for the Santa Barbara Public Library recently began as the City Council approved a $9.3 million contract for the construction of the new Michael Towbes Plaza. “The Library Plaza Campaign has made evident the importance of the public-private partnership that our City and County must continue to invest in and foster to […]
Philanthropy and giving back to the community has been a part of the Montecito Bank & Trust ethos since opening on March 17, 1975. Over the years Montecito Bank & Trust (MBT) has grown from its simple beginnings into a much larger operation, with over 250 associates under its roof. MBT continues to give back […]
“A library outranks any other thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never-failing spring in the desert.” – Andrew Carnegie In case you think libraries are not exciting or boring, wrong. A group of donors and patrons recently gathered in the Faulkner Gallery for cocktails, moving on to the Santa […]
At a hearing last week, the Santa Barbara City Council approved a proposal to name the soon-to-be revitalized library plaza at the Santa Barbara Public Library in honor of the late philanthropist, Michael Towbes. The project to remodel the plaza, which is located between the library and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, has been […]
What – exactly – is a bank? A bank is a financial institution licensed to receive deposits, make loans, and attach ball point pens to countertops with little chains that are inevitably too short by about an inch. A bank, if it chooses, will also advise on managing your wealth, will exchange your greenbacks for […]
To mark its 44th anniversary, Montecito Bank & Trust hosted a grants reception at its majestic State Street headquarters when president and CEO Janet Garufis handed out checks worth $20,000 to 10 local charities. Along with the checks, the nonprofits also received a professionally produced one-minute promotional video. Employees of the bank, which since its […]
Montecito Bank & Trust celebrated the 16th anniversary of its Community Dividends Awards, with 188 non-profits sharing $1 million, at the Coral Casino. The program, started by the bank’s founder and philanthropist Michael Towbes, has donated $16 million since its inception. Mike, who died two years ago, used to describe it as “my favorite day […]
Starting out the New Year, I always make it a tradition to recall a few special people who passed away in the last. So, here are those who died in 2017 that I especially want to remember. This is a highly personal and random list, as it is every year. Usually I include those who […]
British singer Cliff Richard was the star of the show in the cavernous ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Bacara when 400 glamorously garbed guests turned out for the popular charity, the Dream Foundation, which hosted its 16th annual gala, Dreamland. Cliff who, you might ask, but Sir Cliff, 77 – he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth […]
