In the wee-hours and pitch darkness of a howling January morning, a mountainside loosed itself and descended like a wave of stone on the sleeping, forested village of Montecito. Moments before, awakened by the roar of rain jackhammering the roof of the Cantin home, Kim and husband Dave had thrown back the sheets and hurriedly […]

Twenty-year-old Isa Johanson is a current sophomore at UC Berkeley and an alumna of MUS, Santa Barbara Junior High, and Santa Barbara High School. From her first Earth Day and subsequent internship with Kathi King of Community Environmental Council to the 2018 mudslides, Isa describes the influence growing up in Montecito had on her current […]

Walking in the grass, feeling the morning dew, hearing the serenity of the place – we might think of a beautiful park surrounded by nature, our senses alive with feeling. But instead here we are back in 1994 – when the Devereux Slough was still a golf course.  What so intrigued a businessman that he […]

Warm weather is trickling in slowly, Santa Barbara – and I am here for it! Spring in the farmers’ market is such a glorious time, crowded as it is with all the vegetables that begin popping up after our rainy months… artichokes, snap peas, fava beans, arugula, and asparagus… just to name a few. This […]

Santa Barbara’s wine industry is rolling out the red carpet. Mid-May is studded with a bevy of events aimed at maximizing the enjoyment of, and understanding of, locally-produced wines. Here’s a snapshot of some of the key events presented by both the Santa Barbara Culinary Experience’s “Taste of Santa Barbara,” making a triumphant return, as […]

This is the motto of Girls Inc, founded in 1864 as a movement called the Girls Club of America in Waterbury, CT, and tasked itself to help young women migrating from rural areas to find a job after the Civil War. Fourteen charter clubs were joined into a national organization [1945] by Rachel Harris Johnson, and changed […]

In a remote corner of Northern Uganda, African Women Rising has been making waves as a force for change, led by its founder, Linda Eckerbom Cole. With an approach focused on listening, engaging local leaders, and being responsive to the unique needs of each community, the organization has worked with 25,000 people and touched the […]

Where Yellow Flowers Bloom: A True Story of Hope through Unimaginable Loss by Kim Cantin is honest, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Cantin and her daughter survived Montecito’s 2018 debris flow, but her son and husband did not. In vivid detail she recalls that night, and the subsequent months as she recovered and desperately sought the remains […]

The first time I spoke to Clare Ogle we were sitting across from each other in high school AP Biology. Four and a half years later, Clare is a graduate of University of Washington in Seattle, where she recently completed her major in marine biology with a minor in Arctic studies. She now puts that […]