Longtime civic leader Jean Blois was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce Saturday night during the Goleta’s Finest Community Awards Gala.
In accepting her award, 95-year-old Blois said she was “so incredibly honored” by the recognition.
Blois is a longtime business, civic and political leader who was elected to Goleta’s first City Council in 2002, and served for six years, including two terms as mayor.
She spoke with pride about her beloved community.
“I proclaim Goleta to be the best small city in California,” she declared.
Known for her directness and self-deprecating humor, Blois did not disappoint as she shared several anecdotes from her life story — one she turned into a memoir that she wrote while she was, in her words, “locked in in my apartment at Maravilla” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To a second standing ovation, she left her audience with some sound advice.
“Goletans, count your many blessings,” she exclaimed. “And check your city finances!”
Other awards given at the gala at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara included:
Sachi Thompson: Woman of the Year
Thompson is the general manager of global hardware at Curvature — an IT hardware company — where she has been working for 16 years.
Thompson is a member of several nonprofit boards including the Chamber of Commerce. A UCSB alumna, Thompson has strong ties to her community, through volunteering in her community and promoting philanthropy at her work.
Brian Borgatello: Man of the Year
Borgatello has been a Goleta resident for decades. He is president of MarBorg Industries, a garbage-collection agency based in Santa Barbara, started in 1936. The company is a “multi-generational family business,” according to the South Coast Chamber of Commerce.
Borgatello has supported local schools, hospitals, nonprofits, and community events, according to the Chamber of Commerce.
Dare Holdren: Educator of the Year
Holdren has worked in the Santa Barbara Unified School District for over 20 years. He is the principal of San Marcos High School, and before that was an assistant principal at Dos Pueblos High School, and taught at San Marcos High School for 16 years. Holdren graduated from San Marcos High School, where he was a star athlete.
Aaliyah and Bella Rubio: Students of the Year
Founders of the Youth Makers Market, Aaliyah and her younger sister Bella created a space where community members 17-years and younger can sell products they’ve created or repurposed. According to the market’s website, the organization strives to promote entrepreneurship in the youth and foster community engagement.
Each girl has a small business of her own and sells her products at the market and utilizes Instagram and Venmo as business tools. Aaliyah makes handmade jewelry, and Bella is a beekeeper who sells honey.
Jack Turney: Volunteer of the Year
Turney is a member of the Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital Foundation Board and has been working with Cottage Health for 18 years and volunteered over 5,111 hours of service. Turney has volunteered with Cottage Health and at flu clinics and health fairs.
Santa Barbara County Co-Response Team: Innovator of the Year
The Santa Barbara County Co-Response Team is made up of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and the County Behavioral Sciences Unit. “Co-response” is an alternative emergency response approach where a mental health case worker and a specially trained deputy respond together to address emergency response cases involving someone in need of mental assistance. The goal of this team is to de-escalate situations so they do not have to be dealt with through the criminal justice system.
“They work with the individual to take them to a shelter, take them home, and make sure that those individuals don’t go to jail,” Toni Navarro, director of the Department of Behavioral Wellness told Noozhawk in October.
Co-response team members work 10-hour shifts and between January and September of this year, the co-response team handled 989 cases reported in the county, only 43 of which resulted in an arrest.
Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network: Non-Profit of the Year
The Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network has been rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties for over 30 years. In February the organization opened a 5,400 square-foot wildlife hospital in Goleta.
The nonprofit recruits volunteers and educates the public about how to coexist with wildlife.
Special Recognition: Goleta Lemon Festival Volunteer Committee
Over 200 volunteers helped make the 29th Goleta Lemon Festival possible. However, the Lemon Festival Volunteer Committee, made up of 13 leaders, worked with the Chamber of Commerce to make the event possible.
The Committee not only plans the event, but volunteers to set up, work during, and take down the event. The committee members include Tony Vallejo, Pete Wolf, Teri McDuffie, Jennifer Newell, April Lee, Rogelio Aguilar, Cary Harrison, Kyle Begley, Javier Quezada, Michael Krissman, Bob Strojek, Anthony Rodriguez and Hallie Avolio.
