Goleta Valley Beautiful hosted its 33rd Annual Awards program at Goleta’s Holiday Inn Saturday. GVB board president Merlyn Cummings welcomed the crowd of over 100 people who support a variety of projects to keep the Goleta Valley beautiful and green. The nonprofit organization’s slogan is “Planting for Tomorrow.”

After a generous buffet dinner, with the apropos dessert of lemon meringue pie, the silent auction closed and master of ceremonies/auctioneer Larry Crandell took over the podium. Larry was at the top of his game with an audience of this size and soon had everyone chuckling.

Notables introduced included Goleta City Council member Roger Aceves, Goleta Planning Commission Chair Ed Easton, 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf, Kris Miller-Fisher representing 3rd District Supervisor Brooks Firestone, city council and GVB board member Michael Bennett and Jay Sullivan from the Goleta Union School District . Supervisor Pedro Nava sent along certificates of recognition to the top twelve annual award winners.

Honored for their service on the board of directors were Danielle Havicon, Juliette Wigley and Bonnie Freeman.

Bennett presented the Golden Shovel Award to Scott Bull, who organizes hundreds of students a year in GVB projects, including tree planting and landscaping.

The top single-family residence award went to Craig and Deborah Park, 7910 Rio Vista, and top multi-family residence to Ellwood Beach Apartments, 360 Ellwood Drive. City of Goleta/People’s Self-Help Housing/DesignArc/Charles McClure, landscape architect. Other honors: included sustainable development to Paul Koslowsky and Diane Augustus, 481 Via El Cuadro; homeowners association to Brookside, 7386 Calle Real; commercial business to OCCAM Networks, 77 Robin Hill Road; and preservation of Goleta Valley heritage to Timbers Restaurant owners Hadi and Birjan Arfaei.

The UCSB Engineering Science Building (Mesa Road near East Gate) won the public/institutional category; North Kellogg Open Space Project (Queen Anne and North Kellogg) won best public space; S.B. Humane Society Education Center, 5399 Overpass Road, won top business; Terry and Scott Ferguson, 962 N. Patterson Ave. for firescape design; Bottiani Family Orchard for top commercial orchard, and The Specimen Trees of Bishop Ranch won in the open category.

Spotted in the crowd were Robin Cederlof, Nancy Knight, Laura Funkhouser, Tami Mason, Cherie Welsh, Marie McQueen, Dan Valeska, Sam and Lee Alfano, Joe and Zea Bauer, Mark and Kathleen Bottiani, Don and Nancy Cole, Monica Ryker, Ed Easton, Phebe Mansur, David Fainer, Alan Scholl and Danielle Havicon.

Sponsors included Beachside Bar Café, BEI, CopyRight Printing, Enerpro, Kitson Landscapes, Mentor Corp., O’Shaughnessy Construction, Sares-Regis, South Coast Inn, The Chocolate Gallery, Towbes Group, Tuller/Gamberdella-Radius Group, Valley Crest, Devereux, West Covina Nurseries and ZAD.

For more information about Goleta Valley Beautiful contact Ken Knight, executive director, P.O. Box 6756, Goleta, 685-7910 or visit www.goletavalley beautiful.org.

Rochelle Rose is a bi-monthly contributor to the Goleta Valley Voice. If you would like an event considered for coverage, contact her at 448-8338 or rochellerose6@yahoo.com.

Photo by Rochelle Rose

Caption: Goleta Valley Beautiful board president Merlyn Cummings with Judy and Don Nason at the group’s annual awards dinner.