For more than two decades, Santa Barbara’s students have benefited from community partners dedicated to expanding opportunity and enriching their education. Through Noozhawk’s Good for Santa Barbara County Nonprofit Section, we highlight the organizations whose vision, passion, and commitment help shape the next generation.
This season, our Giving Guide invites readers to discover meaningful ways to support programs that strengthen our local schools and empower youth.
In this feature, Noozhawk spoke with Leslie Meadowcroft-Schipper, Board Member and Founder of TradArt Foundation, the nonprofit working behind the scenes to preserve hands-on learning, champion Career Technical Education, and ensure students gain the real-world skills they need to thrive beyond high school.
TradArt Foundation
Question: What is the name of your nonprofit, and what is its mission?
Answer: The name of this non-profit is TradArt Foundation. It’s mission is to operate workplace development programs for students so they gain technical skills know-how, and have more opportunities in the professional world before their exit year in high school.
Q: How long has your organization been serving the community, and who founded it?
A: TradArt Foundation has been serving the students of the Santa Barbara Unified School District for over 20 years as its Career Technical Education partner. It was founded by Don Gordon, Frank Schipper, Doug Ford, John Ingram, and Leslie Meadowcroft-Schipper.
Q: What motivated the creation of your nonprofit?
A: More than twenty years ago the industrial arts and vocational training classes were being dismantled in the Santa Barbara Unified School District and were going derelict.
Students in the public education system were not being offered and education in technical know-how as they had been in the past. So TradArt was founded to change that.
Visionaries like Doug Ford, Don Gordon, Frank Schipper, Paulo Sitolini, Erwin Villegas, John Ingram, Dave Abel, Bill Gourley, Caleb Chadwick, Marty Conoley, Steve Winger, Leslie Meadowcroft-Schipper and banded together to figure out how to save the local Santa Barbara public school vocational training programs.
Q: What types of events or programs do you run to engage your community and raise funds?
A: TradArt Foundation operates the Tools for Schools program; the Tiny House program; the Marvin Melvin CTE Instructor Award; and the annual All District Industrial Arts Showcase and Competition affectionately called, The Big Show. Our programs have viability for many stakeholders and we raise funds throughout the year.
Q: How is your team structured? Have there been any major changes in your operations since you started?
A: Our team is a working Board: Doug Ford, Don Gordon, Erwin Villegas, Dave Abel, Paulo Sitolini, Nancy Locke, Bill Gourley, Caleb Chadwick, and Leslie Meadowcroft-Schipper, make up the core team. We partner with the Santa Barbara Contractors Association to develop strong ties so the shop programs stay current to industry standard, and evolve with the needs of manufacturing and building.
Q: What sets your nonprofit apart from similar organizations?
A: The Tools for Schools program sets our non-profit apart from similar organzations because provides students with tools, materials, supplies, guidance and oversight by construction professionals in Construction Technology, Industrial Technology, and Product Innovation and Design. This professional oversight helps students learn the process of taking a project through the steps of conception to completion.
Q: Can you share a fun fact or little-known detail about your nonprofit that would surprise people?
A: Zander Murren Doherty is a multiple year first prize winner at the Big Show and serves as a Big Show Judge and points out the know-how and mastery of the projects in the Big Show Competition.
Q: Could you share a story or two about individuals whose lives have been positively impacted by your organization?
A: Zander Murren Doherty completed 6 years of woodshop class in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. He graduated Dos Pueblos High School in 2023, and since then won the 1st place prize in a national competition for his rocking chair entry in Freshwood at the AWFS (Association of Woodworier and Furnishings Suppliers) in Las Vegas. He continues to operate his business and revel in building challenging projects.
Q: Can you highlight one immediate goal and one long-term vision your nonprofit aims to achieve in the next year?
A: One immediate goal is to help industry connect to SBUSD instructors and their students, so a student can meet a construction professional and hear from someone who has found the trades rewarding as a life-calling profession. One long-term vision TradArt has is to be a leading partner in the joint discussions the Santa Barbara Unified School District is having about offering rigourous Career Technical Education programs.
Q: Is there anything important or unique about your nonprofit that we haven’t covered yet?
A: TradArt Foundation provides local industries with consistent awareness of where and how they can be involved with the Santa Barbara Unified School District’s shop classes.
Junior and senior high school teachers and students benefit from news from the field via professionals, so please stay in touch with TradArt for more information on how to volunteer in the shops, with TradArt. Please email: toolsforschoolshopclass@gmail.com
Thank you.
Click here to support TradArt Foundation’s mission to strengthen technical education and expand career opportunities for local students
Check out Noozhawk’s Guide to Giving for a full list of nonprofits to donate to this giving season.
If you would like to include your nonprofit in our Good for Santa Barbara section and Giving Guide click HERE.