Included is a fire-roasted gourmet dinner, live music by the Bryan Titus Trio, and “action-packed” live and silent auctions led by Auctioneer Kenny Hollister.

Circle JB Polo Ranch is located at 560 McMurray Road in Buellton, for tickets and more information, visit givebutter.com/c/atterdagharvestparty.

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Staff Report

SANTA YNEZ — The Santa Ynez High School Pirate Football players will Go Pink on Friday, Oct. 6, in recognition of Cancer Awareness Month and to help fundraise for a local Pirate family who have been facing one of the biggest fights of their son’s life.

“Go Pink Night is a very meaningful tradition for our football family as players, coaches, and fans honor all women and men who are fighting cancer, and we re- member those special to us who have fought the battle and have lost,” said head football coach Josh McClurg. “We lost Carl Rio a few years ago and it has hit us a few times within our own football family. This year, we have a friend, 11-year-old Hendrix Farris, who has beat cancer once and is fighting it a second time around. He is undergoing a bone marrow transplant on Oct. 18 to ensure this doesn’t come back again! We want Hendrix and the Farris family to know we stand with them and want to help as best we can.”

Santa Ynez High School football boosters will hold a fundraising raffle at the game that will include a:

• Pirate football helmet signed by all the players
• Custom Pirate Cooler
• Gift certificate for a letterman’s jacket from Dellavalle Embroidery

The fundraiser will also include a Bake Sale. This year, 100 percent of the proceeds from the fundraising effort will go to Hendrix and the Farris family.

If you would like to make a donation, please contact the SYHS Football Boosters at sypiratefootball@gmail.com or visit our website at www.sypiratefootball.com.

The junior varsity game begins at 4 p.m. and the varsity game kicks off at 7 p.m.

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Staff Report

A barbecue fundraiser has been scheduled for three families left homeless by a fire at Rancho Alamo Mobile Home Park in Los Alamos.

The fire broke out on Thursday, July 21, around 12:50 p.m. Two homes were completely destroyed and the third sustained 50 percent damage, making it unlivable. All the occupants were able to evacuate safely. 

A barbecue fundraiser featuring pork tacos, hamburgers and hot dogs will be held for all three families from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, July 31, at the Los Alamos Men’s Club, 429 Leslie St., in Los Alamos. Dinner is $20 for adults and $12 for children. All are welcome to attend.

To purchase tickets online, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/391221452897 or email ticketsforlosalamosfire22@gmail.com

Anyone wishing to donate money to help these families rebuild their lives can go to their Go Fund Me pages listed below.

Fundraiser for Kim #1 and #2: https://www.gofundme.com/f/f22dv-lost-everything-to-a-house-fire?utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

https://www.gofundme.com/f/home-of-30-plus-years-destoryed-in-house-fire?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

Fundraiser for Kris: 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-families-new-trailer-fund?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer

Fundraiser for Laura: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ubwznt-lost-everything-due-to-house-fire?member=20825887&utm_campaign=p_cp%20share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer

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The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature will host its 20^th Anniversary Virtual Fundraiser on Oct. 16, sponsored by Northern Trust. Due to restrictions on gatherings imposed by COVID-19, this virtual event will take the place of the Wildling’s annual Spring BBQ and fall Art of Brunch. Attendees are invited to raise a glass to virtually toast the Wildling and help celebrate 20 years of bringing quality art and nature exhibitions and programs to the community.

Photo contributed
A gallery view of the Wildling’s current exhibition, 20/20: A Retrospective, which honors the museum’s 20-year history.

Emcee and auctioneer Jim Farnum will guide guests through a lively event full of special tributes, beautiful art and fun bidding wars on great live auction items. Attendees will also enjoy a video tour of the museum’s 20^th anniversary exhibition, 20/20: A Retrospective, which celebrates 20 years of exhibitions highlighting stories of local natural areas, endangered species, and far-flung landscapes that inspire travel. Most importantly, given the museum’s six months of mandated closure, this virtual event will help raise funds that will be doubled by Wildling Museum board member Kate Godfrey, up to $15,000.

The Wildling’s Silent Auction will feature one-of-a-kind art, jewelry, local wines, dining and lodging packages, and more. Silent auction bidding will be open online from Oct. 9-16, closing at 5 p.m. on event day. The live auction will feature a four-night stay at a private guesthouse in the Santa Ynez Valley; a three-night stay at a vacation home in the beautiful Mission Creek area of Santa Barbara with a private tour and outdoor breakfast at Creekspirit, the garden full of the amazing mosaics of Wildling founder Patti Jacquemain; a hand-made fox-themed quilt; and a Cambria overnight getaway.

There is no cost to attend, however online registration in advance is required. Once registered, guests will receive an email with the link to join the event. Learn more about the event and register in advance at: www.wildlingmuseum.org/news/virtual-anniversary 

The Wilding Museum is seeking additional sponsors and auction donations. Contact Stacey Otte-Demangate at stacey@wildlingmuseum.org or call 805-686-8216 to discuss available sponsorship opportunities. To donate to the Wildling’s silent and live auctions, contact Lauren Sharp at lauren@wildlingmuseum.org or call (805) 686-8315.

Special thanks to lead sponsors Kate and Dick Godfrey, Northern Trust, and Judy and Jack Stapelmann. 

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Alma Rosa Winery, a wine producer from Santa Barbara County’s Sta. Rita Hills, has launched the first Peace of Mind — 10,000 Steps in the Right Direction, a month-long fundraiser benefiting Mental Wellness Center and One Mind.

Community members can sign up now to participate in a virtual 10,000-step walk, about five miles; the event concludes Oct. 10, which is World Mental Health Day.

Registration is $50, and participants are invited to create their own page to raise additional funds. For more information, or to sign up, visit https://raceroster.com/events/2020/33720/peace-of-mind-walk.

The fundraiser will take place on the RunGo app, which will provide a virtual visual journey through the Alma Rosa estate to accompany the 10,000-step walk or run. All participants may complete the 10,000 steps at their own pace, while raising funds throughout the duration of the event.

All participants will receive a commemorative corkscrew and will be eligible for raffles and prizes, based on the amount of funds raised. Visit the Alma Rosa website for a full list of prizes available for fundraisers, https://almarosawinery.com/peace-of-mind-walk/.

The event was inspired by Alma Rosa Winery proprietors Bob and Barb Zorich, who have a history of supporting mental health-related causes.

To amplify the efforts of the Peace of Mind event, the Zorichs will match up to $50,000 total in donations, $25,000 each to One Mind and to Mental Wellness Center. Alma Rosa Winery hopes to raise a total of $100,000.

Bob Zorich serves as chairman of the Hope and Healing Center & Institute and is on the board of the WorkFaith Connection of Houston. The Zorichs also support the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation in New York City.

“Anxiety and depression are two of the most prevalent mental health conditions affecting our society today,” Bob Zorich said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of our communities, supporting mental health research and services is especially urgent at this time.

“We hope that donations from our fundraiser will support the critical work of these two organizations.”

One Mind, founded 25 years ago, to date has raised just over $480 million in direct and leveraged funding towards their vision of healthy brains for all. One Mind’s mission is to speed up discoveries in brain health through large-scale, open-science research.

Guided by an expert Scientific Advisory Board, One Mind supports researchers who are willing to share their data, stay focused on the needs of patients, and place clinical tools and improved therapies before academic achievement and journal publishing recognition.

Since 1947, the Mental Wellness Center has provided support in recovery and raising awareness of mental health in the Santa Barbara community.

The center provides mental health education to local students; a residential services program which safely provides a home to more than 100 community members across seven residential sites; and serves individuals and families impacted by mental illness through support groups, employment services and social connection programs.

Alma Rosa Winery was founded in 2005 by Richard Sanford, who was the first to plant Pinot Noir in the Sta. Rita Hills in 1971. The Zorichs purchased the winery in 2014; Samra Morris is winemaker.

For more about Alma Rosa Winery, visit www.almarosawinery.com.

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The Santa Ynez Valley Therapeutic Riding Program is coming up with a fun way to ride together but apart with their first Ride-A-Thon between May 22 and June 12. 

Help support the first Ride-A-Thon for SYV Therapeutic Riding Program.
Photo contributed

Because of Covid 19, the organization’s popular Cowboy Ball, held for the past 11 summers, has been cancelled. Instead, volunteers will be setting their own 10 mile course and Riding for a cause.

Riders can simply saddle up, set their own route and ride for ten miles alone or with friends. Each equestrian is encouraged to gather $1,000 in pledges from friends, family and supporters of the Therapeutic Riding Program (although donations of any amount are gratefully accepted).

The program needs $50,000 to continue its life changing work of helping students with emotional and physical needs heal through the joy of horses.  

“We are more than a treatment for our students,” said Robin Serritslev, executive director. “We are a community.”

Certified instructors and mental health professionals help students with diagnoses such as autism, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. Funds are needed to help pay for the horses’ needs while the program has been on hiatus, as well as to help the more than 70 percent of its enrolled students who are on scholarship get back in the saddle once it is safe for the program to reopen.

A PATH (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) program, numerous studies have shown the value of horse riding to stimulate cognitive and neurological and social growth. We hope our community will support this Ride-A-Thon and assure that the Santa Ynez Valley Therapeutic Riding Program can continue its important work.

You can help this valuable therapeutic riding program which serves students throughout northern Santa Barbara County by: volunteering as a rider or pledging to sponsor a rider. Riders are encouraged take pictures or videos so that we can share in the fun and beauty that surrounds us. If you’d like to make a pledge, become a Ride-A-Thon rider or learn more, please visit https://www.firstgiving.com/event/454923/Cowboy-Ride-A-Thon or  email Serritslev at Robin.syvtrp@gmail.com. 

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Photos Contributed 

Helping people in impoverished areas create agricultural opportunities is the top mission for Ed Seaman of the Wild Farmlands Foundation, based in Gaviota.

Ed Seaman
Photo by Daniel Dreifuss

Through a family friend years ago, Seaman and his father-in-law were connected with Barnabas Mwesiga, who has that same passion to bring better agriculture to his home country of Uganda.

“Barnabas is teaching people about farming and ecosystems in Uganda, similar to what we’re teaching people here in California. The difference is, Barnabas is doing it to keep people from starvation. Here, it’s a lifestyle,” Seaman said.

Seaman’s efforts for Uganda are called the Barnabas Project, and he’ll host a fund-raising dinner for Mwesiga on Sept. 15.

Mwesiga is a famous former player for the Ugandan national soccer team. He also was a coach for the Sports Outreach Institute founded by Russell Carr, who graduated from Westmont College in 1956. Carr and Seaman’s father-in-law, Rolland Jacks, were longtime friends who helped make the connection, Seaman said.

“Barnabas is teaching people about farming and ecosystems in Uganda … to keep people from starvation,” said Ed Seaman of the Wild Farmlands Foundation.

Mwesiga and the Migisha Farm are in the rural Mbarara District of Uganda. Mwesiga uses his 90-acre farm to teach local people how to raise food and cash crops and get them to market. His effort is giving people hope and building local economies.

“He has the same passion we have and is able to do things that are extraordinary and make a difference in people’s lives,” Seaman said.

Migisha means “blessings.” The farm has a producing half-acre banana grove and two tilapia-stocked fish ponds along with 200 mature eucalyptus trees used for construction. Chicken and pig-raising projects are in various stages of development. There are some cattle on the land. Other crops include garlic, onions and Irish potatoes.

Annually, Seaman hosts a dinner at his family’s Restoration Oaks Ranch in Gaviota to raise money to help Mwesiga and his nonprofit organization.

Local people know the property as Santa Barbara Blueberries, where they can pick their own blueberries, raspberries and blackberries from late spring to fall.

Seaman created the nonprofit Wild Farmlands Foundation. His background was in technology and marketing, but he had a passion for agriculture and an appreciation of how hard farmers work to provide food. He also saw a problem of people not understanding the importance of small farms, not only in the United States but all around the world.

With funds raised by the Wild Farmlands Foundation in Gaviota, Barnabas Mwesiga has been able to obtain a loan, train workers, build a reservoir, fence his fish ponds, and complete other repairs and projects.

The Wild Farmlands Foundation has set out on a mission to educate and inform everyone, especially youth, about the value of small, independently owned farms and ranches to food systems and their importance to a healthy earth.

In the past the event has typically been a dinner, which features a meal made with recipes from Uganda and surrounding African countries. The entertainment has been music in the style of African songs and instruments.

This year’s event will be a little different, without a seated dinner. Instead, food will be served but people will be encouraged to get moving and dance to the music.

Seaman wants people to experience the tastes and sounds of the part of the world they are helping.

“We feel like we have an impact, even as a small foundation, in a part of the world few of us can imagine. It gets us outside of ourselves to think about agriculture in a new way,” Seaman said.

The dinner will take place on Sept. 15 and the tickets are $75 per person. The evening will include drinks, heavy hors d’oeuvres and a presentation on the projects happening in Uganda.

With the funds Wild Farmlands raised in 2017, Mwesiga was able to obtain a loan, train workers, construct a reservoir, fence the fish ponds, and complete other repairs and projects around the farm.

In 2018, Mwesiga continued to expand the work on his farm and in the community by focusing on garlic as a cash crop, the tilapia ponds, and raising then selling or trading cows, pigs, goats and chickens.

“My hope is that we can raise funds to bring Mwesiga here next year and give him more education that he can take home and apply to his country. It’s people like him that are really changing their community,” Seaman said.

Farming is more than just growing food for Seaman. He believes it saves the planet because, as farmers rotate their crops and disc their fields, they help lessen the impacts of carbon dioxide and climate change.

“What better way to save the planet than by farming it and growing good-quality food and providing for the local economy?” Seaman exclaimed.

For more information on Wild Farmlands Foundation or the Barnabas Project, log onto www.wildfarmlands.org.

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Solvang Senior Center

Since 1983 the Solvang Senior Center has operated in the 2,700-square-foot modular building behind the Solvang Library. 

This acts as the go-to gathering and information spot for Solvang and Santa Ynez Valley residents, which was funded mainly through the generosity of Solvang residents — seniors, Boy Scouts, PTA bake sales, dinners and a few grants. 

Located on county property, the center was erected before Solvang was incorporated with many of the initial fees for services and utility hook-ups waived. Several local tradesmen, plumbers and electricians donated their time and talent to help this project become a reality. It was a true labor of love addressed by the entire community to provide a facility for the valley’s seniors. 

With the passing of time the center’s membership has grown to approximately 500 individuals, and daily use of the facility has grown exponentially. From the days of daily lunches, a few activities and social events, the center has become a hub of over 20 weekly activities, daily lunches, monthly dinner nights, monthly day trips, and special programs and speakers. 

The little clubhouse on the hill is literally bursting at the seams while remaining dedicated to the wellness and life enrichment of seniors in our community through educational, physical and nutritional programs, social activities and community outreach. 

The years have taken their toll on this modular complex. Although all measures are taken to keep it in good, safe working order, this old house is pushing the boundaries of being a viable building as we “trot” toward our 40^th anniversary. 

We want to make sure that we are able to offer our active aging citizens — 55 and older is the most rapidly expanding age group in the community — a wonderful place that encourages them to continue on the path of staying active and healthy, both physically and mentally. 

Although we do a pretty good job of this now, a new, modern building with an additional 2,000 square feet would allow us to expand and become a multi-purpose center for Solvang and the entire Santa Ynez Valley. 

As we look toward the future, embracing and envisioning the fantastic possibilities that await us, please consider taking part in a fun-filled, exclusive Alisal Breakfast Ride to the historic Alisal Adobe on Sept. 8.

Participants can choose to ride a horse or a hay wagon and will enjoy cowboy poetry, singing, a live auction and bid for a cause — as well as a fantastic breakfast and a chance to tour the historic adobe.

Call the center directly and ask for Ellen for more information and ticket purchases. You can also go to EventBrite where you will find this event under Solvang happenings. 

The Solvang Senior Center is at 1745 Mission Drive in Solvang (805-688-3793). Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

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Buttonwood Farm Winery will hold its annual summer concert, Rockin’ Our Roots — Concert in the Vines, from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, to benefit the nonprofit Explore Ecology.

Two bands, the Molly Ringwald Project and The Reserve, will perform on the stage near the vineyard pond to benefit the environmental education and arts group.

 General admission tickets are $50, which includes a logo GoVino glass, two glasses of wine, and admission to the concert.

Guests can bring a picnic or buy wood-fired pizzas from the Farm to Toast mobile pizza oven. The Farm to Toast program is a collaboration between Explore Ecology and the Santa Barbara Unified School District Food Services.

Farm to Toast teaches students how to plant and grow wheat in school gardens. Students also learn how to use hand mills that grind their wheat into flour, then bake bread that will be served in their school cafeterias.

Buttonwood and Explore Ecology are united by their work in environmental stewardship. Land stewardship methods at Buttonwood Farm include responsible soil management and keeping wildlife areas and corridors intact for greater biodiversity.

Explore Ecology educates more than 38,000 students a year, inspiring them to engage with the natural world, think critically, and experience the value of environmental stewardship.

Tickets are available online at EventBrite or by calling Buttonwood Winery at 805-688-3032. For more information, visit ButtonwoodWinery.com.

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