Sandra Tsing Loh Dishes on Menopause, Marriage and “The Madwoman in the Volvo”

Sandra Tsing Loh will appear on Thursday, May 8 at UCSB Campbell Hall

Sandra Tsing Loh will appear on Thursday, May 8 at UCSB Campbell Hall (courtesy photo)

Humorist/memoirist will appear at UCSB Campbell on Thursday, May 8

By Leslie Dinaberg

Chatting with Sandra Tsing Loh—whose new book, The Madwoman in the Volvo, focuses on what she calls Generation Triple M  (Middle-Aged Moms in Menopause)—is a lot like reading one of her essays. Her level of frankness is engaging, enlightening and charming, kind of like catching up with long-lost friend. It’s also a little bit disarming, like looking in one of those magnifying mirrors and seeing your pores for the first time.

She calls it like she sees it, and her countless fans wouldn’t have it any other way. Count me among them. Here’s a brief snippet of our conversation last week.

Leslie Dinaberg: I’m excited about your new book, The Madwoman in the Volvo. Will your discussion at UCSB be a reading from the book or the one-woman show that’s themed around the book?

Sandra Tsing Loh: The show is still being developed, so it will be a bit of a combo. It will be a bit of a reading from it and then discussion, so reading, chat, conversation, that sort of thing. The one-woman show I’m still developing it, and I’m going to be workshopping it in New York later in May. That’s still in development, but there’s going to be some overlap.

Did writing about menopause and researching it and sort of immersing yourself in it make you feel better or worse about actually going through menopause?

Well, at first it made me feel worse and that’s partly why I wrote the book. … For me it was the huge depression spikes, just out of proportion to anything I’d ever felt. It kind of felt like my chemistry was changing and somebody said, “Have you been counting your periods? You could be in this.”

So, of course, it was a huge relief to go maybe I’m not just going nuts but something is happening to me that is biological and label-able. But then when I started getting into the menopause books, I found most of them were totally unhelpful! All of the advice was like, “just cut out alcohol, sugar and caffeine, drink eight glasses of water day, eat more kale, have walks, do yoga stretches before bed and you’ll be fine. Don’t take any Ambien or antidepressants.”

So all the advice is just to lead a more healthy life and eat many smaller meals—which a meal is like two unsalted almonds. (Laughs). So at a time when things are really crazy, the advice is like kale and water will solve it. It was just really unhelpful. I think that’s kind of like the health advice for women … calm down, listen to soothing music, clean out your sock drawer. I mean the advice is just really not helpful at all.

…As I was writing the book I sort of thought I knew where it started and ended, but during the process of writing it [menopause] was still continuing. So there was new material that came into the book—me just really hitting rock bottom.

Sandra Tsing Loh's latest book, "The Madwoman in the Volvo," takes on menopause.

Sandra Tsing Loh’s latest book, “The Madwoman in the Volvo,” takes on menopause.

It was one Sunday morning waking up and I’ve been trying to exercise and eat healthy and do all of these things that are keeping me balanced and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was just at my wits end, really depressed with my girls at home. It’s also a moment described in the article where you go, “how can I raise these children, I can’t even like look at them anymore and their voices just are too high-pitched. I can’t even face going down and making breakfast for them. I just feel too old to be doing any of this and I just want to be alone and just stay in bed.”

You obviously came out of that. Your doctor helped.

I finally got to the gynecologist … she gave this great speech … where she says,  “there are the Chinet girls and paper plate girls. Chinet girls can put a lot on them and they won’t break, and paper plate girls, you just put one carrot on and they shatter.”

And she says, “I think you’re at heart a Chinet girl but right now you’re having a psychological reaction to physiological phenomenon, so take a break. If you want to take antidepressants you can, if you want to take some hormones you can, if you don’t want to take anything just be aware of when these huge waves of depression and emotion and hot flashes wash over you that it’s temporary, you can do that. And it’s up to you.”

It was great speech. It was actually very helpful. Because usually the advice is God forbid you tell your husband or a man about it, who will try to solve it immediately, rather than just saying either you’re going through a lot but you’re also pretty strong and you can have all of these options are fine. That was just really useful.

Do you feel like you’re still immersed in menopause because you’ve written the book and now you’re almost reliving it because you’re starting to talk about it again?

No I think I’m actually over the worst of it. Probably tomorrow something else will happen, but I think I am. And I have heard a lot of women have said, “You know what it will get better. I remember that time, but it will get better.”

I know that it will. Also, I remember my sister described turning 50 and then everything suddenly evening out, like you’d gone through all of this turbulence and then you’re in the smooth air and it’s oh so much better and I think I feel that way now at 52. I can get up and the sun is shining and the birds are singing and I’m having a normal response, which is to say, oh the sun feels good. This is a nice day. As opposed to a time where I everything seemed too hard to do and too terrifying. Like when you go oh my God, there’s the laundry basket, it’s unsorted, I have to go back to bed. (Laughs.) Where you can’t cope with stuff that’s on your plate.

… I ended up in that book actually going back to the gynecologist speech and she says, “now there are two things we are going to do. One is to take stuff off your plate and the second is to strengthen the plate.”

I think with women it’s a pretty good metaphor in terms of all the stuff we’re trying to juggle right now, especially at this age. This used to be an age where in tribes the women would go to a cave to be a crone and now we have these kids. We have like my father who is 93 and just keeps living on and on. We have tons of stuff on our plates right now, on top of working and writing and making money and paying bills and then also we are supposed to do Pilates and really be slim now too. It’s just a little bit beyond my abilities. (Laughs.) We have to do ten roles while doing this that are somewhat incompatible.

That’s a very honest and reassuring message. 

It’s a lot. I certainly like Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO and author of Lean In), I respect her and am totally happy with all these books coming out but it’s like oh my God! I must also look fantastic in a suit and be a best selling author and have really good work ethics!

I think there are some super human role models that are out there and that’s fine, but it’s hard to compare ourselves to that too. I mean I know I’m going off, but I love that Oprah can be really successful and still her weight goes up and down and she can wear these awesome pantsuits—that sounds good to me! Maybe I’m just on this today because I feel so bloated, but go ahead.

You may not be superwoman but you are certainly a busy lady. I had no idea about your science essays [Loh hosts the Loh Down on Science, a daily radio show] until I started doing some research. Let’s talk a little bit about the arts and sciences.  I would guess that not a lot of people who go to Caltech [she has a degree in physics] end up going into the arts. Have you ever felt like you needed to fight getting pigeonholed?

I’m the daughter of an Asian father, a Chinese father, so given my family background there was huge pressure to go into science because that was the only place where you could get a job was his real belief. And to a certain extent I still think about with my kids, like study computer engineering, don’t go into the arts. So I started that way, but since I went to Caltech, which is a very intense experience, the beauty of that was that it showed me that I was really not geared for a life in science in the long term. So I think of that as a blessing. But over the years it’s come back because I did finish my degree and it’s not that I’m uninterested in science. I think sort of a left brain and right brain combination is really useful to have.

I think, for instance, when you’re writing books sort of a left brain approach to art can really help you, because you structure things and sort of taking care of business and looking at things objectively. And the right brain is the free associative roaming thing.

Just this semester I started teaching two courses at UC Irvine: one was communicating science, which is kind of like the right brain side, and one was art and aesthetics to undergraduates, so that’s kind of left brain approach to art. It was a really fun combination. I’m really into combining the two wherever possible. Instead of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) they have these STEAM programs (science, technology, engineering, art and math) or art and design in the middle, and I think that’s a really useful way. I’m happy to combine both hemispheres. … The science show is sort of a perfect combination of the two. We try to make science really understandable in 90 seconds and that itself is quite an art. I work with a really good staff to do it.

Given that much of what you write about comes from your own life and your own personal experiences, do you feel like that part of your mind that writes stories is always turned on?  Do you ever feel like you’re not working or this is not going to be something I write about?

I’m lucky, at the Atlantic I have an editor, Ben Schwartz, who really kept a firm hand on the tiller in that he would assign things and he would encourage one to go off on riffs for long periods of time. He was great on the phone you could call him up and … he would help you frame it … Even though my job is to kind of speak from my own life, it’s really kind of structured and molded a certain way so that it has a context.

I think with this particular book, because I rewrote it like five times … if anything she had me put more stuff in which was personal. The core of what happened in this section of my life was that I had an extra-marital affair and blew up my marriage and my boyfriend’s marriage and it was a really cataclysmic time. That’s sort of the core of the story that triggers all of this stuff, which I think is very much part of the journey I was going through in my forties.

The first time I wrote the book, I think I don’t even mention—and I’m living with my partner—I don’t even mention how I got there until like the last paragraph (Laughs). Because I wanted to write about it from the point of view of I’m just your average next-door neighbor, suburban mom, this is totally relatable. We all have menopausal symptoms, high five here are a few jokes. This is fun.  But then if you really start admitting some of the things that you did and your failings, your mistakes, you open yourself up to a lot of criticism.

But in the end, the book didn’t make sense unless I actually said what happened and my choices and the damage that it caused.

If you’re a humorist like I am, there’s very much an urge to just stay on the surface and just have it be funny. I had a lot of jokes that she cut. … But really my urge as a writer is to entertain and be funny and be likeable. That’s my urge as a writer. It is not to just spill everything, it really isn’t. But in this book I sort of had to because it didn’t make sense otherwise. And in my one-woman show that I’m developing at the Sundance Theater Lab, it’s even more personal.

How do your kids feel when you write about personal stuff?

My daughters are now 12 and 13 and … they’re pretty durable, but they’ve gone through a lot of changes ever since they were babies and that’s also a little bit described in the book. … They were being carried around in baby car seats through airports because both their dad who is a musician, would be on tour, and I would be doing theatre and often my sister was the glue that would watch them. … Then when they were about one and three my brother, his wife, collapsed of a cardiac arrest at 38, it was very traumatic. So the girls and I moved in with him for about two years when they were little.

They’re sort of used to a transient life and not just two families but a big tribe of people that are there, so they’ve adjusted. I would say they’ve adjusted pretty well … Of course the mother is the last to know, not until they write their own memoir, but it seems like it is a fairly stable situation at this point.

Not a lot of moms with daughters that age would say that, no matter what the external circumstances.

Yeah and I could go off on theories about that. That’s a whole other thing about when kids go back and forth; as long as there isn’t rancor between the parents there are sort of some pluses when they get two houses. Especially in this age going to one parent with a secret that the other doesn’t know—even though we all know.

What’s something most people would be surprised to learn about you? Since we feel like we know a lot. Is there anything that people would be surprised to hear?

I would say I make a really excellent quesadilla (Laughs). My cooking is pretty bad but I’m praised for that … I just got a Prius, used, my Volvo died. … I guess maybe the surprise would be that I write about my own life and pretty much it seems fairly hysterical most of the time, but I think I’m a good and sensible friend and I think I’m actually a very good listener. … People seek me out because I’m happy to listen for two or three hours.  And that’s probably where I get some of my material.

Now you’ve done the book tour circuit a few times, is it fun? Is it work or is it a little bit of both?

I think it’s both. It’s fantastic for writers who sort of live alone in their cave to go out, and it’s always amazing to see if anyone has ever read any of your stuff at all. And when they show up it’s amazing to meet anyone who has read your book or will read it! That’s really always a shock every time. … Typically when you have a book it’s a little bit fraught because you’re going out, your publisher is saying … how many people came to your reading or something like that. But overall I think it’s a happy time and I feel really privileged anytime I get to be out there and connect with people. It’s a pretty great thing to do and one is lucky to be in this position and the older I get the more I really appreciate it.

… As soon as you hear anybody else’s story it sort of validates why you wrote it in the beginning.  And usually that’s what happens. All the people start telling me what they’ve been going through and I love that part.

 I would imagine with what you write people, tell you all kinds of stuff.

Oh God, yes, totally. Yeah. I’ve had people on the plane … one time I was traveling and a lady was going to celebrate her 40th birthday and I said I was finishing a book. … I told her the core of it, and suddenly she turns to me and said, “I have never told anyone this before.”

And she had been telling me about her great husband and her perfect children and they were giving her a weekend off and how awesome and amazing her life was. And then as soon as I told her [about me] she said, “I’ve never told anyone this before, but I had an affair last month and I don’t know what to do. I’m thinking about this guy all the time.”

Suddenly the mask flew off. People do start to tell you, there are some messy lives that people lead and they have desires or thoughts and emotions that don’t really fit into what their life looks like from the outside. And that’s interesting.

Indeed it is.

Sandra Tsing Loh will be in Santa Barbara on Thursday, May 8 at 8 p.m. at Campbell Hall in a UCSB Arts & Lectures presentation. For more information and tickets click here.

Originally published in Santa Barbara SEASONS on May 6, 2014.

 

 

Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara Marks Decade of Changing Lives Together

The organization distributes $550,000 in grants to nine local nonprofits, with members’ contributions to date totaling $4.7 million

From left, Melissa Gough, Nancy Harter, Sallie Coughlin and Sarah Stokes at the Women's Fund's 10th annual Presentation of Funds Luncheon on Monday. Gough and Stokes chaired the luncheon, and Harter and Coughlin will co-chair the organization for 2014. (Peter de Tagyos photo)

From left, Melissa Gough, Nancy Harter, Sallie Coughlin and Sarah Stokes at the Women’s Fund’s 10th annual Presentation of Funds Luncheon on Monday. Gough and Stokes chaired the luncheon, and Harter and Coughlin will co-chair the organization for 2014. (Peter de Tagyos photo)

By Leslie Dinaberg, Noozhawk Contributing Writer |

The Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara marked a decade of “changing lives together” at its 10th annual Presentation of Funds Luncheon on Monday, doling out $550,000 to support the work of nine local nonprofits. These new grants bring the total contributions by the Women’s Fund to the community to $4.7 million. “The Women’s Fund is proud to mark it first decade — 10 years of commitment to improving the lives of women, children and families in our community,” said Sallie Coughlin, Women’s Fund chairwoman. “The grants our members selected this year focus on two broad categories: programs that protect and nurture women and families in crisis, and programs that enrich and educate young children.”

Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider and Santa Barbara County Supervisor Janet Wolf were among the more than 300 people who gathered at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort for the event.

“The Women’s Fund is based on a simple, creative model — women combining our charitable donations so we can make a larger impact in the community than most of us would be able to do on our own,” Coughlin said. “Our grants are focused on programs that address the critical needs of women, children and families in southern Santa Barbara County.”

The organizations receiving funds include Casa Esperanza, Domestic Violence Solutions, the Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County, Peoples’ Self-Help Housing, Posse Program: Opening Doors to College, SBCC’s Single Parent Achievement Program, the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center, Storyteller Children’s Center and Youth Interactive Santa Barbara.

“You can’t imagine the joy and satisfaction in assisting the most vulnerable of our population achieve a new level of self-sufficiency,” said Interim Executive Director Bob Bogle, accepting a $50,000 grant on behalf of Casa Esperanza. “(With this money), we will be able to provide funding for six beds for a year, dedicated to supporting the women of Santa Barbara County as they transition from homelessness to housing.”

A $50,000 grant also went to Domestic Violence Solutions to provide a security system upgrade and a safe playground surface for families who’ve faced domestic violence.

“The research suggests that the younger the child the greater the impact of trauma, which is why a safe playground and toys for children that have few words to express their fear can be therapeutic and even life changing,” Associate Executive Director Marsha Marcoe said.

Womens Fund

Women’s Fund founder Carol Palladini addresses Monday’s luncheon. (Peter de Tagyos photo)

Accepting a $75,000 grant to provide a domestic violence attorney for women and children was Saji Gunawardane, acting executive director for the Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County.

He spoke eloquently, stating, “Know that when we say thank you for your support, we are saying much more. We are speaking for many of the most vulnerable and voiceless women, children and families in our community who, until they arrive at our door for help, have been completely voiceless. It is through your support that we can finally give these once-silent victims not only safety and zealous protection, but one of the most empowering gifts of all: A voice.”

John Fowler, the new president and CEO of Peoples’ Self-Help Housing, accepted a $50,000 grant from the Women’s Fund, which will provide after-school and summer educational enhancement programs for children of low-income families onsite at their affordable apartment complexes, where they will serve 120 kindergarten through fifth-grade students.

The Posse Program, an innovative collaboration between La Cumbre Junior High School and San Marcos High School, received an award for $75,000 for what La Cumbre Principal JoAnn Caines described as “a model program developed to support high achieving low income Latinos into high level classes in high school and through college. … The results from the first three years are beyond impressive: 100 percent passage of the high school exit exam in 10th grade by all of the Posse students, success in Honors and Advanced Placement classes where La Cumbre Latino students had been severely underrepresented, and successful students and future college graduates.”

San Marcos junior Jessica Zamora — a straight-A student with an impressive load of AP classes — shared her experiences as part of the first Posse group of 25 students who will apply to colleges next year: “You’re guaranteed to know someone in all of the hard AP classes, but we also all go together to La Cumbre after school every day and just work on our school work together, with City College students available and other mentors who are there to support us.”

“I think the main thing that is unique is having this set of students have their friends (their Posse) be in the same upper level classes with them,” San Marcos Principal Ed Behrens said. “One of the things that we heard before from the students is that they didn’t feel comfortable in the classes because they didn’t know anyone. So I think that it’s really making a big difference.”

An award of $90,000 went to SBCC’s Single Parent Achievement Program to provide child-care support for low-income single mothers allowing them to attend college. Vanessa Patterson, executive director of the Foundation for Santa Barbara City College, said, “On behalf of the single moms and their children whose lives are forever going to be changed because of your support, thank you!  You are their champions and are providing a gateway to higher education that will be the catalyst for lifting them and their children out of poverty and into a future of possibilities and opportunities most never even dreamed of.”

Elsa Granados, Executive Director of Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center, accepted a $50,000 grant that will be used to provide crisis intervention and long-term counseling services to victims of sexual assault, telling a very moving story about how the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center provides survivors with avenues to transform their lives after a traumatic experience.

Also receiving a $50,000 grant was Storyteller Children’s Center. Executive Director Terri Allison said the funds would be used to continue the nutrition program for 100 of the community’s most vulnerable children each year.

The final grant of the day was for $60,000 and went to Youth Interactive Santa Barbara to provide entrepreneurial and job skills programs for underserved youth.

President Nathalie Gensac explained, “We have started several micro businesses, which are great vehicles for our youth to learn how to be productive, understand the value of teamwork and the connection between hard work, the classroom and the rewards of business enterprise. We have now developed a successful formula, which empowers disengaged youth by allowing them to keep their profits. …It’s a formula that is starting to pay great dividends. We have helped high school dropouts return to school, we have transformed graffiti artists into responsible commissioned artists who have painted murals funded by the city and much more.  Before today we were at a crossroads with excellent results but still struggling for funds. Your grant is truly transformational.”

Incoming Women’s Fund co-chairwoman Nancy Harter ended the program with a vivid description of collective giving efforts from Ana Oliviera, President of the New York Women’s Foundation: “You are one grain of rice. You come together with other grains, and it becomes a bowl of rice, and that is how we feed.”

Click here for more information about the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara.

Originally published in Noozhawk on April 28, 2014.

Growing Green Schools

Laguna Blanca Coastal Clean Up

Laguna Blanca Coastal Clean Up, courtesy photo

Inspiring students—and their families—to think globally and act locally, schools have become a vital incubator for environmental stewardship.

Students in Santa Barbara High’s Green Academy learn about green biology, environmental science and chemistry, but they also get their hands dirty by maintaining a large production garden, complete with row crops, native plant insectary, fruit trees, grapevines, chickens and bees. They also deliver regular orders of greens to the school cafeteria and take food home to enjoy with their families. Plus they provide native and edible plants to support thoughtful landscaping on campus.

Environmental awareness is woven into the curriculum at Laguna Blanca School. Captaining our local California Cleanup Day last fall, they helped clean up Miramar/Hammonds Beach and Hope Ranch Beach and collected a total of 65 pounds of trash and more than eight pounds of recycling. In addition to the daily discipline of an environmentally conscious curriculum, composting, recycling and using eco-friendly products, the school also celebrates Earth Day in a big way with their own festival, community service projects and even student-produced environmental short films.

As part of an architecture unit on developing the “perfect” school, students at The Knox School of Santa Barbara research “green” architecture and look into the future for energy sources beyond fossil fuels, ultimately constructing their own plans for green buildings.

At Midland School, boarding school students combine rigorous academics with a simple self-reliant lifestyle, close to nature, that emphasizes a connection to the environment and teaches students to be good stewards of the earth. For example, with the solar panel program, 10th graders have installed photovoltaic arrays every year since 2003—now more than 25% of the campus is powered by these arrays.

The outdoor education program at Santa Barbara Middle School offers a unique approach that takes students and staff on rigorous expeditions in the wilderness—with self-discovery in mind. These “trips” are learning adventures that take students by bike, boot or boat on journeys where they learn about pushing through personal boundaries while building communities.

Water Filling Stations are at schools throughout Santa Barbara

Water Filling Stations are at schools throughout Santa Barbara

At Cathedral Oaks Nursery School, an official Green Care Provider School, teaching children to live a green lifestyle is one of the main components of the school’s philosophy, with a garden program that provides snack-time treats fresh from their own fields, grown from seedlings sprouted in the school’s greenhouse.

Sprout Up!, a nonprofit youth-to-youth environmental education program that was founded at UCSB, sends college students into first- and second-grade classrooms at elementary schools to teach children vital concepts in environmental science and sustainability. Among the schools participating are Monroe, Adams and Isla Vista Elementary Schools.

Also a nonprofit, Lets’ Grow! (formerly the School Gardens Program funded by Orfalea Foundation), has installed or enhanced 35 school gardens in the county, including a recent one at McKinley Elementary School.

These are but a few of the exciting and positive developments on the local green school front. Stay tuned…

–Leslie Dinaberg

Originally published in the Spring 2014 issue of Santa Barbara SEASONS Magazine.

Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara Awards $550,000 to Nine Local Nonprofits

Women's Fund of Santa Barbara included, from left to right: Bob Bogle, Executive Director, Casa Esperanza; Elizabeth Diaz, Domestic Violence Attorney, Legal Aid Foundation of SB; Elsa Granados, Executive Director, Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center; Jo Ann Caines, Principal, La Cumbre JHS, Posse Program: Opening Doors to College; Vanessa Patterson, Executive Director, Foundation for SBCC: Single Parent Achievement Program; Terri Allison, Executive Director, Storyteller Children's Center; Marsha Marcoe, Associate Executive Director, Domestic Violence Solutions; Nathalie Gensac, President, Youth Interactive Santa Barbara; and John Fowler, President/CEO, Peoples' Self-Help Housing.

Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara included, from left to right: Bob Bogle, Executive Director, Casa Esperanza; Elizabeth Diaz, Domestic Violence Attorney, Legal Aid Foundation of SB; Elsa Granados, Executive Director, Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center; Jo Ann Caines, Principal, La Cumbre JHS, Posse Program: Opening Doors to College; Vanessa Patterson, Executive Director, Foundation for SBCC: Single Parent Achievement Program; Terri Allison, Executive Director, Storyteller Children’s Center; Marsha Marcoe, Associate Executive Director, Domestic Violence Solutions; Nathalie Gensac, President, Youth Interactive Santa Barbara; and John Fowler, President/CEO, Peoples’ Self-Help Housing. Courtesy photo.

Last week the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara awarded grants totaling $550,000 to nine local nonprofit agencies at its 10th Annual Presentation of Funds Luncheon.  This luncheon celebrates the end of the annual Women’s Fund grant cycle, and recognizes and honors its newest grantees, voted on by the membership of nearly 600 women.

Since it began in 2004, the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara has awarded grants now totaling $4.7 million to 64 local nonprofit programs impacting more than 83,000 local women, children and families in Santa Barbara, Goleta and Carpinteria.

The nonprofits receiving 2013-2014 Women’s Fund awards are: Casa Esperanza – $50,000 for shelter and support to transition women out of homelessness; Domestic Violence Solutions – $50,000 for a security systems upgrade and a safe playground surface; Legal Aid Foundation of SB – $75,000 for a domestic violence attorney for women and children; Peoples’ Self-Help Housing – $50,000 for after-school/summer educational enhancement programs for children of low-income families; Posse Program: Opening Doors to College – $75,000 for a tutorial and mentoring partnership for high-achieving low-income students; SBCC: Single Parent Achievement Program – $90,000 for childcare support for low-income single mothers allowing them to attend college; Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center – $50,000 for crisis intervention and long-term counseling services; Storyteller Children’s Center – $50,000 for a food program for low-income preschool children; and Youth Interactive Santa Barbara – $60,000 for entrepreneurial and job skills programs for underserved youth. (Click here to read a SEASONS Magazine story about Youth Interactive Santa Barbara.)

“When we began ten years ago, we were inspired by a new concept in women’s philanthropy: giving large and well-researched local grants without spending money on recruiting and fundraising,” said Carol Palladini, Women’s Fund Founding Chair. “In 2004, a small group of women said there had to be a better way to make a difference in our local community.  We were weary of planning and attending fundraisers.  We wanted to make a bigger impact than most of us felt we were doing alone.  And we wanted to celebrate the strength and generosity of women.”

(Click here to read a SEASONS Magazine story about Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara.)

 For additional information about the Women’s Fund, visit womensfundsb.org.

—Leslie Dinaberg

Originally published in Santa Barbara SEASONS Magazine on May 4, 2014.

Cocktail Corner: Lafond Winery Tasting Room Opens

Lafond Winery tasting room, photo by Mercedes Lowe

Lafond Winery tasting room, photo by Mercedes Lowe

A spirited toast to all things alcoholic! By Leslie Dinaberg

Pioneering Santa Barbara winemaker Pierre Lafond opened a second tasting room in the buzzy Funk Zone neighborhood this week. Lafond Winery, at 111 Yananoli St., now shares the block—as well as a wine production and bottling facility—with Santa Barbara Winery, his first label, founded in 1962.

“The Lafond Winery label was started in 1996,” says Pierre’s daughter Michelle Lafond, who is the marketing director for both brands. “The Lafond label is what we consider the premium label, first pick,” she says.

“Not that Santa Barbara Winery isn’t,” says Pierre, with a laugh. “We have two different styles of wine, basically,” he explains. “One is mostly from Sta. Rita Hills, which is Lafond, and the other one is from different parts of Santa Barbara County.”

Sisters Mirella Ramirez (left) and Liz Morello run the new Lafond Winery tasting room, photo by Mercedes Lowe

Sisters Mirella Ramirez (left) and Liz Morello run the new Lafond Winery tasting room, photo by Mercedes Lowe

“Santa Barbara Winery produces more varietals,” explains Mirella Ramirez, who manages the new tasting room as well as the Lafond Winery & Vineyards tasting room at 6855 Santa Rosa Rd. in Buellton. “Lafond is smaller production, and we produce Pinot Noir, Syrah, Grenache, Chardonnay, and some dry Riesling and Riesling,” says Mirella, who has been running the Buellton tasting room for 12 years and working with Pierre for 25 years.

“She was 8 years old,” laughs Pierre. “She was real cute, so we hired her.”

Mirella’s sister, Liz Morello, serves as assistant manager of the Funk Zone spot. She also has a long history with the Lafonds.” I worked there for a couple years when I was 15 or 16 and now I’m back,” says Liz.

“We definitely have lots and lots of long-term employees. People don’t leave often,” says Michelle.

Lafond Winery tasting room, photo by Mercedes Lowe

Lafond Winery tasting room, photo by Mercedes Lowe

Pierre moved his business into the neighborhood in 1964, and says he’s had plans in the works to give the Lafond label its own tasting room for quite some time. He subleased the space to a number of companies over the years, including the most recent tenant, Compuwest, who moved out last June. “That’s why they moved out. We had decided quite a while ago to open the second tasting room, and it was just a question of timing. And with the development of the Funk Zone it seemed like a logical thing to do,” says Pierre.

Having been in the Funk Zone for so many decades, I asked him if he ever envisioned that it would look like the busy, hip neighborhood it is today. “The place was a dump,” he laughs. “The Castagnolas were our landlords, they bought a lot of different buildings here and they’re the ones that actually developed the area. They were a fishing family, as you probably know.”

The new tasting room is definitely a huge step up from the old days. Beautiful custom made wood cabinets (designed and built by Gary Atkins of Mesa Cabinets) line the walls to house the wine, alongside local art and shelves laden with unique gift items specially selected by Shelley Koury, whose keen sense of style is also on view at Upstairs at Pierre Lafond (516 San Ysidro Rd. in Montecito).

Sisters Mirella Ramirez (left) and Liz Morello run the new Lafond Winery tasting room, photo by Mercedes Lowe

Sisters Mirella Ramirez (left) and Liz Morello run the new Lafond Winery tasting room, photo by Mercedes Lowe

In addition to wine tasting there’s also a window into the wine production facility. “People will be able to be here and see some of the bottling, production and forklifts going and picking up wine and moving it around. It’s fun,” says Mirella.

She explains that It’s a real working winery. All of the wines for both labels are bottle there, and the white wines are all made on site, with the reds aged in Buellton before being transferred to Santa Barbara when they’re ready for bottling.

The Lafond team is optimistic about the future of the Funk Zone. “You kind of think that it could go either way with all of the different wineries here you could deplete the customers or disperse them and it doesn’t seem to,” says Michelle. “It just keeps growing and growing and growing. It feels like the new downtown almost.”

“I hope down here there’s more art galleries and other things besides tasting rooms, they seem to be in an abundance right now but it’s important to have other things here too,” says Pierre.

The Lafond Winery tasting room is open  from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday -Thursday, and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

Cheers!

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Originally published in Santa Barbara SEASONS on May 2, 2014.

Leslie Dinaberg

Leslie Dinaberg

When she’s not busy working as the editor of Santa Barbara SEASONS, Cocktail Corner author Leslie Dinaberg writes magazine articles, newspaper columns and grocery lists. When it comes to cocktails, Leslie considers herself a “goal-oriented drinker.”