Giving Back to Our Community

In December, 2005, we held the first "Driven to Make a Difference" essay contest . Junior High School students from Orcutt schools were invited to participate by answering the question, "If I had a day to make a difference in my community, what would I do?

Tatianna Kufferath, from Lakeview Junior High School, was the 7th grade winner. Tatianna, who is an avid reader, wrote about her desire to hold a community bookdrive that would benefit the new Santa Maria Library. The bookdrive was held on Saturday, June 8, 2006 and collected 6,670 books that day.

Samantha Pule, from St. Louis de Montford, was the 8th grade winner. One of nine children, Samantha has seen more than one sibling spend time in Marian's pediatric ward and often thought the atmosphere could be more comfortable and cheerful with a colorful wall mural., so she wrote about that in her essay. With the help of the artists from the Town Center Gallery, the mural was painted at Marian Medical Center on August 10, 2006.

A BIG thank you to our fabulous community for the support you gave to these projects.

BOOKDRIVE - JUNE 8, 2006

Lynn and Alyssa Stoval from Friends of the Santa Maria Library helped man the drop-off sites.	Eddie Stanfield stands in from of a drop -off site inside the FoodMaxx on South Broadway in Santa Maria.
Volunteers from left to right: Lynn Stoval, Eddie and Joanne Stanfield, Whitney Brock, Tatianna Kufferath, Jeanna and Todd Kufferath, and Michael Johnson.	Tatianna sits in front of the 6,670 books that were dontated in one day.

PAINTING OF THE MURAL - AUGUST 10, 2007

Santa Maria Artists Minnie Anderson, Margie Bowker, and Jennifer Plude began sketching the wall in preparation for the mural.	Samantha and her sister, Marissa, received some art instructions from Jennifer.
Santa Maria Town Center Gallery Artists,(from left to right) Craig Deleenheer, Jennifer Plude, Bev Hoebel, Hattie Stoddard, Cathy Gregg, Pat Markiewicz and Minnie Anderson. Not pictured: Margie Bowker and Beth Ostapiuk. Brent Lieberman of Lieberman Painting painted the blue background for the artists.	The finished mural.