2023 Carpinterian of the Year: Rick Olmstead

Met with a standing ovation, lifelong Carpinterian Rick Olmstead accepted his award for 2023 Carpinterian of the Year (COY) during the Saturday, April 6 Community Awards Banquet at the Girls Inc. of Carpinteria campus. 

“What a humbling experience this is,” Olmstead – a 77-year resident of Carpinteria – opened with. “I’ve known most of the prior (COY) recipients… I’ve been fortunate to have – I think John Moyer was the first recipient, am I right? – he’s my next-door neighbor.” 

During his six-minute-long speech, Olmstead thanked the Carpinterians of the Year before him, the generous Carpinteria community and the city of Carpinteria. 

He explained that when he was young, his father was offered a significant pay raise and promotion to move to the valley. “I could’ve been a valley boy,” he said. “But no. He chose Carpinteria… He chose Carpinteria, and the values of Carpinteria, over money and a promotion. And to this day, I’m grateful for the decision my mom and my dad made.” 

Olmstead and his wife, Trudy, have seven children and 24 grandchildren; they were joined Saturday night by his second daughter and her family. He later told CVN that his wife and Donna Lemere – banquet organizer and 1999 COY – got him to the banquet under a ruse, telling him that Trudy was receiving a merit award. 

“I was totally surprised,” he told CVN. “I think if anybody should’ve received that (COY) award it should’ve been my wife for putting up with me for 52 years.” 

“My wife has put up with me for 52 years,” he said during his speech. “Unbelievable. The first part of our marriage I was away 25 or 30 weekends a year, besides teaching. She raised our kids. And she did a great job. She did an unbelievable job of raising our seven kids. And I love you, Trudy. Thank you very much.” 

He said during his speech that while he loved his time working in education and at Carpinteria High School, in his last 10 years, working with the homeless in Carpinteria has been just as rewarding. 

“I could put out a bulletin tomorrow and ask for sleeping bags, ask for tents, ask for sweats, and I know I’ll find a stack of that stuff in my driveway within a week,” he told CVN. “The community has just been unbelievable, almost to the point that I’ve got a serious storage problem at the (Veterans) Memorial Building.” 

He also thanked the city for providing a place for the homeless community at the Veterans Memorial Building for the last ten years, and to Carpinteria for accepting its homeless community members. “I’ve never seen anything antagonistic to my group,” he told CVN. “I can’t say thank you enough.” 

Olmstead emphasized that – more than anything – he can’t see himself leaving his hometown Carpinteria. “My next move is with Mike Damron out on Cravens Lane,” he told CVN, referring to the Carpinteria Cemetery. 

Olmstead was presented his award by one of the 2022 Carpinterian of the Year award recipients, Gregg Carty. His wife, Geri Ann Carty, the other half in the 2022 COY duo, couldn’t make it; she was represented on Saturday by the pair’s daughter, Caitlin Carty Gude. 

Carty and Carty Gude said Olmstead was chosen for his volunteerism, his generosity, community service and work benefiting the community. They described him as a quiet person who works behind the scenes to ensure Carpinteria’s beaches remain clean and checks on Carpinteria’s most vulnerable residents, its homeless. 

“(Our COY is a) humble, honest person of integrity, spending their retirement years doing for others, including those who are ill or unable to leave their homes,” Carty said on Saturday. 

They said Olmstead was the driving force behind the Lunch Bunch and the Carpinteria Homeless Outreach group, who has “transformed the lives of many”; the group provides weekly meals, clothing, hygiene supplies and more for Carpinteria’s homeless. 

He dedicates his time to St. Joseph Church Thrift Shop, setting up and always returning to do the takedown; helps out at the Santa Barbara Foodbank and the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission; and is an active member of his local church. He also spent 37 years in education, working as a former teacher and coach with the Carpinteria Unified School District.

He also told CVN that he drove semi-trucks for Carpinteria Motor Transport for 10 summers, and picked lemons and avocados in the Carpinteria Valley for a summer. 

Olmstead has also been inducted into the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame, the Santa Barbara City College Hall of Fame, and, soon, the Southern California Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame for over 50 years of refereeing.