{"id":4396,"date":"2009-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4396"},"modified":"2013-11-25T17:55:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T01:55:54","slug":"noozhawk-talks-leslie-dinaberg-sits-down-with-kendre-sanborn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4396","title":{"rendered":"Noozhawk Talks: Leslie Dinaberg Sits Down With Kendre Sanborn"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kendre<\/a>

Kendre Sanborn, pausing for a quick reflection at Arroyo Burro Beach, is about as an involved school parent as one can be. (Michelle J. Wong \/ Noozhawk photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

As president of both the Santa Barbara Area PTA Council<\/a> and the Hope School<\/a>
\n District Educational Foundation<\/a>, not to mention the busy mother of three children,
\nKendre Sanborn certainly has her hands full. Here she tells Leslie Dinaberg
\nabout how she juggles it all.<\/p>\n

Leslie Dinaberg: How did you get involved with the area council PTA?<\/p>\n

Kendre Sanborn: When I was the Vieja Valley PTA president I hadn’t been on the board\u00a0before. I knew nothing but wanted to get involved. I thought the best way to learn\u00a0about PTA was to go through all the trainings that PTA offers and so I kept
\nseeing the same volunteers over and over again. And when there were issues
\ngoing on with our PTA they were really helpful and came to my aid whenever I
\nneeded anything.<\/p>\n

LD: And now you’re heading up the whole thing. What area does that
\ninclude?<\/p>\n

KS: There are 27 schools currently, from Montecito all the way to Goleta. I don’t
\nknow everything that it entails yet because I’m still kind of learning everything,
\nbut we basically meet to make sure that everyone is up to their standards, …
\nthey have all these criteria that they need to follow to be in good standing. It’s our
\nboard’s job to make sure that all those groups are in good standing. Then
\nanother thing the area council does is send out information to the presidents
\nabout legislation that is going on. There are a lot of areas that we cover; we’re
\ngiving information constantly to these PTA presidents.<\/p>\n

LD: Is there anything interesting legislatively that is going on?<\/p>\n

KS: Right now they are really pushing that the governor doesn’t cut budgets to
\nschools. They’re also looking at the stimulus package and they’re really keeping
\nan eye on that, because if each individual state gets money then PTA really
\nwants to make sure that the schools get money.<\/p>\n

LD: You’re also president of the Hope School District Educational Foundation.
\nWhat does that group do? (Laughs) <Editor’s Note: Leslie Dinaberg is also on the
\nboard of the Hope School District Educational Foundation><\/p>\n

KS: We do fundraising to enrich the educational programs at Hope, Monte Vista
\nand Vieja Valley Elementary Schools. And we also work to encourage
\ncollaboration and communication among the three campuses. Right now we’re
\nworking on our Fourth Annual Golf Classic, which will be held May 15th at Glenn
\nAnnie Golf Course.<\/p>\n

LD: And what is that fundraiser for?<\/p>\n

KS: Well, the state and federal budget cuts have forced our school district to cut
\nfunding for our library program in half. So the golf tournament money will be
\nused to help restore the library program.<\/p>\n

LD: Great cause. Now you also volunteer at your kids’ schools, right?<\/p>\n

KS: Yes, my two older kids go to Santa Barbara Middle School and I volunteer
\nonce a week to help serve lunch and then I was helping as an ambassador,
\nwhere we talk to potential parents.<\/p>\n

LD: What do you do at Vieja Valley?<\/p>\n

KS: Wow talking about the things I do makes me realize I have a lot on my
\nplate. I count and deposit PTA money, volunteer in the classroom once a week,
\nand I’m on the committee for the honorary service awards. We will soon be in the
\nprocess of finding people to honor at our school.<\/p>\n

LD: What about the area council event?<\/p>\n

KS: The area council usually has a Reflections reception, which is a really neat
\nthing. They usually put on a reception for all the winners for our area. (The
\nNational PTA Reflections Program is an arts recognition and achievement
\nprogram for students, which provides opportunities for students to express
\nthemselves creatively and to receive positive recognition for original works of art.)
\nThen there’s also an honorary service award event held once a year. This is an
\nevent for all the volunteers who are recognized at their schools to also be
\nrecognized at a community level.<\/p>\n

And also with Reflections, if you’re a winner for the area, then the district has a
\nreception as well, so all of those people attend, and it’s really neat to be
\nrecognized.<\/p>\n

LD: Let’s shift a little bit to talk about you. I know you’re really busy with volunteer
\nwork now, but what did you do professionally before you had kids?<\/p>\n

KS: I finished my master’s in clinical psychology and I was working on my hours,
\nyou have to complete a certain amount of hours to be certified. During that time I
\ngot married and had my first child. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay
\nhome with him. I really wanted to stay home and be with my baby. So from then
\non I stayed home.<\/p>\n

LD: I know you’ve traveled a lot. What are some of your favorite trips?<\/p>\n

KS: Africa. And more specifically I really like Kenya and Tanzania; also going to
\nthe Artic was really neat. We’ve been to Japan, which was pretty cool. Next week
\nwe’re on our way to Antarctica. I haven’t been before but that’s one of my
\nhusband’s favorite places. … We took Andrew on his first international trip to
\nAustralia and New Zealand when he was 14 months old, and he traveled so well
\nit made me realize, “wow, we can take him anywhere.” Then the other two just
\ngrew up doing it. They learned how to behave on a plane.<\/p>\n

LD: And so do you guys take a big trip every summer?<\/p>\n

KS: Yeah. … The funniest thing. Eric was traveling a lot for business at one point
\nand he had a lot of miles, and he was taking Andrew to some places to help gain
\na lot of miles. During the early 90s, a lot of airlines said if you fly here you get
\ntriple the miles, so he would take Andrew to Japan for the weekend just to get
\nmiles, and of course to see Japan. He ended up acquiring a lot of miles.<\/p>\n

One time Andrew and I were on a trip and we were coming through Atlanta on
\nour way home and I was checking in at the counter and the agent said, “Okay our
\nflight is really full but we can upgrade Andrew, but you’ll be in coach.” And I said,
\n“okay fine, as long as I’m kind of close to first class.” And they said “fine, so
\nwhere is Andrew? And I said, “He’s down here.” He was seven or something and
\nhe was so low to the ground they couldn’t see him. The agent was laughing
\nsaying “oh my gosh; the flight attendants are going to love this. Will he be okay
\nby himself?” And I said, “oh absolutely”. Our kids have traveled a lot.<\/p>\n

… For spring break we’re going to go to Bhutan and Nepal.<\/p>\n

LD: Is there any place you’ve never been that you’ve always wanted to go
\nto?<\/p>\n

KS: Yeah, I want to go to India.<\/p>\n

LD: Do you guys totally have it down in terms of what to pack? Five people is a
\nlot of people.<\/p>\n

KS: You would be shocked. When we check into hotels people are like “oh, is
\nthis everything?” And we say yes and they are amazed. We totally have it down.
\nUsually we travel with about two suitcases.<\/p>\n

LD: That would impress my husband.<\/p>\n

KS: And two backpacks. Now it took a while to get to that (laughs) but when you
\nstart traveling a lot you learn a lot of tricks. For instance you only pack for about a
\nweek, and then you learn to find a place to do laundry and obviously you want to
\nfind the least expensive places to do your laundry, especially with five people.
\nBut sometimes you have to pay high prices but it’s a great way to not over pack. I
\ndefinitely miss my shoes when I’m gone.<\/p>\n

Vital Stats: Kendre Sanborn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born: December 5, Santa Monica, California<\/p>\n

Family: Husband Eric, children Andrew (13), Emily (11) and Claira (9)<\/p>\n

Civic Involvement: Area council PTA President, HSDEF President, Volunteer
\nVieja Valley School, Santa Barbara Middle School<\/p>\n

Professional Accomplishments: “I’ve definitely seen how organizations work
\nand what it is like going into an organization and being able to know what I need
\nto do and get it done. And also being able to get along with people and be
\nrespectful of their issues.”<\/p>\n

Best Book You’ve Read Recently: “I love to read. I’m reading ‘The Shack.’ It’s
\nreally interesting because it’s kind of religious but not in a dominating way, it is
\nnot pushing one particular religion. It’s about a way to live your life and relate to
\nother people.”<\/p>\n

Little-Known Fact: “My husband and I have made more than 2,000 loans to
\nindividuals and their families all around the world who are in less fortunate
\ncircumstances than our own – mostly through KIVA.org, a San Francisco based
\nmicro lender.”<\/p>\n

Originally published in Noozhawk<\/a>\u00a0on February 17, 2009. Click here<\/a> to read the article on that site.<\/h6>\n

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