65th Annual Community Awards Banquet comes home

The 65th annual Community Awards Banquet – held on Saturday, April 6 at the Girls Inc. of Carpinteria campus – marked a return to local organization of the time-honored tradition, this time spearheaded by the newly-founded Carpinteria Community Association.

Carpinteria’s brightest were honored during the Saturday night gathering. Lifelong Carpinterian Rick Olmstead won 2023 Carpinterian of the Year (COY), while Carpinteria High School senior Lizbeth Alpizar Farfan took home the 2023 Junior Carpinterian of the Year honor; Coastal View News was honored with 2023 Business of the Year, with speeches from publishers Gary Dobbins and Michael VanStry; and Luis Quintero and Arturo Monarres accepted their awards as 2023 Educators of the Year. Fifteen Carpinterians also took home merit awards.

Tim Bliss – the banquet’s platinum sponsor – gave a lengthy introductory speech about agriculture’s importance in the history of Carpinteria, and how that agriculture has shaped the Carpinteria residents know today. Other sponsors included Lynda Fairly and Richard Finkley, Chevron, Agilent, the Lions Club of Carpinteria, Clyde and Diana Freeman, the California Avocado Festival, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Shreck, Carpinteria Beautiful, Meister & Nunes, PC.

Carpinteria Community Association President Karen Graf also gave a shoutout to Coastal View News, Girls Inc. of Carpinteria, Island Brewing Company, Larry Nimmer, Mission Linen, Rockwell Printing, Mobi’s International Dirt Botanicals, Hilltop Flowers, Island View Nursery and Backdrop Boutique – Santa Barbara.

The banquet will return next year, Graf confirmed, with the date to be determined.

[Updated April 12, 8:24 a.m.]