Tag archives: Oprah Winfrey

Afternoon tea and champagne was on the menu when John and Marti Daly and the Key Class, a nine-year-old organization that teaches students the manners and etiquette they need to succeed, threw a fundraiser at the Ennisbrook Club House. Seasons Catering of Ventura donated their services for the 60 guests at the fun fete which […]

Cliff and Crystal Wyatt opened the doors of their charming Montecito home to host a bash for National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, who spoke at Campbell Hall, part of the UCSB Arts & Lectures program. His talk Building the Photo Ark focused on a multi-year initiative to document every living creature in the world’s zoos […]

Korean-American Richard O’Neill, longtime violist for Adrian Spence‘s Camerata Pacifica, is joining the internationally acclaimed lineup of the 45-year old Takacs Quartet. He will replace Geraldine Walther, who is retiring after 15 years in May. Richard, 41, joins founding member, cellist Andras Jejer, English first violinist Edward Dusinberre and American second violinist Harumi Rhodes, in […]

Santa Barbara Yacht Club has a new manager, Richard Nahas, who replaces Layosh Toth, heading the charming harborside nautical venue. Richard, a former UCSB student, is normally used to more landlocked activities having been general manager of the Glen Annie Golf Club for 19 years. “Some of my fondest memories as a child are of […]

Montecito actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ critically acclaimed HBO series Veep went on hiatus while she underwent treatment for breast cancer. Now Julia, 58, has opened up to the celebrity glossy, Vanity Fair, about her cancer diagnosis and returning to work after a life-threatening illness. On the cover of the Conde Nast monthly Julia wears a diaphanous […]

Having won polo’s 55-year-old America Cup three times in the last four years, it seems appropriate that former Santa Barbara Polo Club president and banker Dan Walker should now be sponsoring the three-week annual 16-goal tournament that runs through August 11. To mark the occasion, he hosted a bustling reception at his Farmers & Merchants […]

Food From The Heart, a Santa Barbara charity which serves 160 elderly clients a week using 60 volunteers, hosted a thank-you bash at the Pilgrim Terrace senior living facility to mark its 25th anniversary. With an annual budget of just $270,000 and hydroponic vegetables grown on 120 produce towers by the Pilgrim Terrace Foundation, more […]

Social gridlock reigned when 620 guests packed the Hilton’s ballroom for the 25th annual South Coast Business and Technology Awards which raised around $300,000 for the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, its most successful event to date. The fun fête, co-chaired by Arnold Brier, general counsel of Yardi Systems and uber realtor Renee Grubb, featured […]

The 23-year-old Gaviota Coast Conservancy went paddling at the El Encanto with its third annual premier benefactors’ reception for 60 supporters of the organization dedicated to preserving the 76 miles of pristine coastline, the longest stretch of undeveloped coastal land remaining in Southern California. The sunset soirée, co-chaired by Joyce Macias and Donna Senaur, also […]

Everyone was having a ball at the Rosewood Miramar when the tony beachside hostelry launched its bocce club and summer league organized by Jimmy Dunne, which is being held every Thursday through the end of July. Bocce, which is similar to British bowls and French pétanque, derives from games played in the early days of […]

Social gridlock reigned at restaurateur Ali Ahlstrand‘s new State Street eatery, Alito’s, when John Thyne and Kevin Goodwin celebrated the 15th anniversary of their real estate company, Goodwin & Thyne Properties. More than 270 guests turned out for the boffo bash, with 1,138 properties sold in the last decade and a half. “It is amazing […]

It was clearly a mane event when Santa Barbara Zoo hosted its fifth annual Roar & Pour, a sell-out attracting 1,500 oenophiles and gourmands, raising around $100,000 for the popular menagerie. Some 300 of the party animals splashed out for VIP tickets, allowing them early entrance to the fun fête, avoiding the crowds and giving […]

Goats were in abundance when the 12-year-old African Women Rising, a northern Uganda charity, held its third Goat Fest with more than 200 guests at a rustic Cold Spring Road estate, raising enough to purchase 300 of the animals. “It’s not so much a fund raiser as a friend raiser, to draw attention to the […]

Our tony town’s Rescue Mission hosted its annual Easter Feast for our community’s more impoverished residents and for the 12th year I volunteered as a waiter. Kitchen director Wesley James served 320 pounds of ham, 200 pounds of mashed potatoes, 360 pounds of carrots, mountains of macaroni and cheese, and 75 pounds of peas to […]

Billionaire Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso nearly came a cropper at the final hurdle when developing the Rosewood Miramar, he has revealed. Rick was at a ribbon cutting ceremony at the oh-so tony five star resort and recounted he was in our Eden by the Beach for the final hearing on his $200 million development, […]

Social gridlock reigned when developer John Price and wife, Janna, and business partners Tod and Audrey Berlinger, opened The Villas at Olive Mill, nearly 15 years after first submitting their building application and going through 28 hearings between 2004 and 2017. The Spanish colonial-style, three-story mixed-use property on the corner of Coast Village Road and […]

It was an early start when the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation hosted its 5th annual Little Heroes breakfast for 350 guests at the Hilton, which was expected to raise around $100,000 for the popular charity. The boffo bash, co-chaired by Heather Ayer, Matthew Fish, Emilee Garfield, and Nina Johnson, featured keynote speaker Eduardo Garcia, a […]

Terry Valeski and Pamela Strobel are new board directors at the Music Academy of the West. Terry will also serve as co-chair of the academy’s marketing committee, with Pamela serving on the education and outreach committee. He served as president and managing director of Pacific Bell, while she is the director of Domtar Corporation, Illinois […]

Montecito residents Eric and Nina Phillips, longtime Dream Foundation supporters, hosted 33-year-old Trezevant, Tennessee, resident Zachary Butler in Las Vegas. Zach, who has suffered from Friedrich’s Ataxia from an early age and was completely disabled by his teens, had always dreamed of meeting Canadian professional poker player Daniel Negreanu, winner of six World Series of […]

Montecito TV titan Oprah Winfrey, Kenny Loggins, and actor Rob Lowe paid tribute to the 23 people who lost their lives and many who lost everything a year ago, as our tony enclave was ravaged by catastrophic mudslides. Oprah, 64, was among hundreds of local residents taking part in the first anniversary vigil, walking from […]