The Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce board members and staff recently welcomed chamber members, dignitaries and citizens to “Celebrate the Season” at the annual Chamber of Commerce Holiday Party at the historic Lobero Building.
Chamber president Steve Cushman was full of holiday cheer as he greeted guests inside the beautiful office space located at 924 Anacapa St., Suite 1.
“We’re sitting inside this wonderful building designed by Julia Morgan, who designed Hearst Castle,” said Cushman.
“She was the first female architect and engineer in the United States and she did two buildings in Santa Barbara, this one and the Rec Center (Carrillo Recreation Center) next door. So these are historical buildings, wonderful architecture and great stories, and that’s why I moved the chamber here, because this is kind of what we’re all about.”
The good cheer was contagious around the Dec. 15 party and among the staff and guests as chamber vice president Marcia Reed took turns offering homemade eggnog inside the beautiful wood-panel reception area embellished with holiday decorations.
“The Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce celebrates the holiday season in style each year,” said Reed. “For chamber members, the homemade eggnog and delicious food inside a beautiful environment with live music provided by Unity Shoppe executive director Tom Reed is a highlight of the year.”
The room quickly filled with warmth from the crackling fireplace mixed with laughter and good cheer from guests who mingled and helped themselves to delicious appetizers from chamber member food service vendors.
Guests enjoyed a wide sampling of appetizers and deserts, including seared Ahi spring rolls from Rincon Events & Catering, beef sliders from Omni Fresco Catering, vegetarian samosas from Nimita’s Cuisine, sandwiches from The 805 Deli, pork sliders from Woody’s BBQ, cheese and nut platters from Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort, assorted Danish pastries and sausages from Andersen’s Danish Bakery, peppered beans and a chocolate cake from The Chase Restaurant, assorted holiday cookies from Wayne Kjar Cakes and delicious strawberries from Tri-County Produce.
“The Chamber of Commerce tries to make this a better place for everybody to live and work,” said Cushman. “That’s our mandate and what we are about, and we do projects that we think are not only good for business but good for everybody who lives here.”
Founded in 1878 and incorporated in 1899, the chamber is a nonprofit business association that represents more than 2,000 local businesses. The organization is governed by a 20-member volunteer board of directors.
The organization provides community services and resources, outreach programs and business seminars year-round that on average generate more than $80,000 in annual local businesses referrals.
“We developed a Web site that shows the similarities and differences of each of the (Santa Barbara) communities,” said Cushman. “So if someone in San Francisco thinks maybe I’ll start a business in Santa Barbara, they can go online and see it’s not just Santa Barbara but there are several other communities here, too.”
As the oldest and largest business organization in the tri-county region, the chamber also operates the Santa Barbara Visitor’s Center, which serves more than 300,000 guests annually, and the chamber Web site, which draws 14,000 hits per day.
The organization takes pride in building, fostering and improving community relationships and supporting business leaders with programs such as the annual Business Star Awards, which also included local youth and serving-serving organizations in 2011.
And earlier this year the chamber sponsored the B.E. C.O.O.L program providing more than 150 local high school students with internships, job referrals and employment resources from more local companies, such as Bartlett Pringle & Wolfe, Montecito Bank & Trust, Santa Barbara Partners in Education, SBCC, the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara and Venoco.
“This year we thought it was important to give teenagers a broad perspective on what was available in a work life,” said Cushman. “The average teenager has never met a bank president or the owner of an aerospace company, and in fact has never met a soldier. So we did a series of open houses called B.E. C.O.O.L with local professionals and we’d have kids come and talk to them. And many of the kids even got jobs from it.”
— Noozhawk iSociety columnist Melissa Walker can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkSociety, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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