And that's a WRAP on the 23rd Annual Festival of Hearts!

By Sophia Davis, Development Director

Every year, Friendship Center raises money for HEART (Helping Elders At Risk Today) to benefit low to moderate income members attending the Center. This year’s theme was “What’s Your Superpower?” Sophia Davis, Director of Development, describes her role in creating Festival of Hearts as “weaving the creative theme into a functioning event, and developing all the media and language to advertise and deliver a successful fundraiser benefitting our members – and most of all, making it FUN!” Working with Sharon Morrow and over 50 local artists, she cultivated beautiful works of art, all built around a simple heart. She also worked with the Board Event Committee to fashion attractive, ready-to-go Valentine Packages for purchase. In the ‘virtual arena’ she built a website to host the online auction for Heart Art, Valentine packages, and direct donations. And of course, she managed all the day to day operations involved in making the event a success. To promote the event, ads were run in the Independent and Noozhawk, and sent regular emails to our supporters with “Hearts on Display” featuring 3 hearts a day. We also had a full page feature article in the Santa Barbara News Press. This year we raised over $20,000 for HEART, and we are so thankful to our supporters for benefiting our members in this meaningful way!

Thank You's

·       A very special thank you to our sponsors who were so instrumental in making this event a success:

Karolyn Hanna, Vangie Herrera and Al Anglin, Dana & Randall VanderMey, First American Title Company, David Selberg & Hospice of Santa Barbara, Sophia Hohlbauch, Andriana Hohlbauch, Jeffrey & Susan Krutzsch, Marti Correa de Garcia

·       Thank you to all of our participants for being loyal supporters and donating to such a worthy cause!

·       Thank you to Sophia Davis, Development Director, for managing our Virtual Festival of Hearts event for the second year in a row, this was no easy feat!

·       Thank you to our talented artists who donated their beautiful Heart Art to benefit our members.

·       Thank you Sharon Morrow, "Heart Wrangler," for being our artist liaison who worked with artists to communicate, collect and help organize 50+ heart art pieces with loving care.

·       Thank you to Dave Harlow for his talented videography, photography and editing

·       Thank you to the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors Young Professionals volunteers for assembling Valentine packages.

·       Thank you to Board Member Kathy Marden for leading our meetings, and to our Event Committee for their hard work preparing all the goodies for the beautiful Valentine Packages.

·       Thank you to our Board of Directors for donating wine & helping to sponsor and support this event.

·       Thank you to Esther Kratz for her help in reaching out to our sponsors.

·       Thank you to Sarah Rodriguez for her help managing the donation transactions.

·       And last but definitely not least, thank you to our heart-filled fearless leader, Executive Director Heidi Holly, for overseeing the entire event!

Festival of Hearts is a truly a Labor of Love, fueled by a SUPERPOWER team of wonderful and talented people, all in support of this GREAT cause!