Friendship Manor’s Patricia Fabing is Goleta’s Woman of the Year
December 2, 2011
Patricia Fabing, Dick Temple Honored as Best of the Best Among Goleta’s Finest
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/120111_patricia_fabing_dick_temple_goletas_finest/
By Sonia Fernandez, Noozhawk Contributing Writer | @NoozhawkNews
Woman, Man of the Year lead 2011 class of honorees at 62nd annual community awards presentation
The best of the best in the Good Land were given their due Wednesday evening at the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Goleta’s Finest annual awards ceremony. Several hundred people packed the ballroom at Bacara Resort & Spa to honor businesses, volunteers and others for their accomplishments, achievements and contributions to the community.
“The chamber is pleased to present this event; it truly celebrates our great community,” said Steve Fedde, board chairman of the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce. The event was the 62nd annual of its kind.
For some, being honored as one of Goleta’s Finest was something of a lifetime achievement award, as it was for Man of the Year Dick Temple and Woman of the Year Patricia Fabing, who between them have lifetimes of service and volunteerism in the community.
“When my wife found out about this award she said, ‘Oh my. We’re not going to be able to live with you for quite a while,’” quipped Temple, a retired engineering services manager at Delco Defense Systems Operations.
“I said, ‘No problem. I’ll get over it in about a year or two.’”
When Fabing, marketing director at Friendship Manor, learned of her award, her reaction was a little more of a surprise.
“I texted, OMG,” she said to the amused audience of dignitaries, chamber members and other movers and shakers in the Goleta community.
For other recipients, the award was a show of support, like it was for Education Professional of the Year Michelle Magnusson, development and membership director at Santa Barbara Partners in Education, and Student of the Year Susie Murillo, a Dos Pueblos High School senior.
“Hopefully this award will help me get more scholarships so I can pursue my career in culinary arts and business management” said Murillo, who went from a D average in her freshman year to a 4.0 GPA in her senior year.
For yet others, it was all in a day’s work, as it was for the Volunteers of the Year, the Santa Barbara County Search & Rescue team. The team was paged for a call of duty just before Wednesday’s dinner but managed to find the missing person in time to receive the award later in the evening.
“That’s what I call efficiency,” Fedde joked.
Local businesses and business people got their due as well, including Community Business of the YearSanta Barbara Axxess, Small Business of the Year Palius + O’Kelley, and Entrpreneurs of the Year Umesh Mishra and Primit Parikh of Transphorm. The Nonprofit of the Year Award went to PathPoint, an organization committed to placing intellectually challenged individuals into employment where they can be self-sufficient and make a difference.
And while for many veterans of the Goleta’s Finest awards — whether they be recipients, past honorees, organizers or sponsors — have an idea of what an honor it is to be recognized for doing the things they would be doing if no one were paying attention, few could express the emotion like Dos Pueblos High English and theater teacher Clark Sayre, an accomplished professional actor and playwright, who was given this year’s Educator of the Year Award.
“My greatest reward is just showing up every morning to a job that I love, with students I love … and serving the community I’ve loved since the day that I was born here, in Cottage Hospital,” he said.
Presenting sponsors of the 62nd annual Goleta’s Finest awards were Bacara Resort & Spa, Business First Bank, Cox Communications, Deckers Outdoor Corp., FLIR Commercial Vision Systems, MarBorg Industries,Montecito Bank & Trust, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, UCSB and Venoco.
Event sponsors were Noozhawk, ATK Space Systems, Citrix Online, Latitude 34˚ Technologies, Linda Blue Photography, Marmalade Café, Media 27, ParentClick.com, RCI Builders, Santa Barbara Airbus, Santa Barbara Airport, Santa Barbara Independent, Sares-Regis Group, The Towbes Group and Wilson Printing.
Click here for more information on the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce. Connect with the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce on Facebook. Follow the Goleta Valley chamber on Twitter: @goletachamber.
— Noozhawk contributing writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at sfernandez@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
Santa Barbara News Press: Friendship Manor Housing for Seniors Seeks Land for Relocation
March 14, 2010
Santa Barbara News Press, 3/14/2010
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Friendship Manor, committed to building a purpose, built property for senior residents; free up current University-area location for student housing [sic].
For over 37 years, Goleta-based Friendship Manor has been a prominent fixture in the Isla Vista community. While the retirement community offers some of the most affordable housing for those 62 and over in the Santa Barbara area, leaders of the nonprofit organization say it is time to relocate and create “purpose built” housing for their senior residents.
In addition to spreading the word of their search for new real estate, Friendship Manor is also seeking to partner with a like-minded organization or non-profit to expand the scope of services available at the new location to meet the needs of a growing senior population. Friendship Manor would seriously consider an organizational “match” such as a senior day care center or other type of senior-related group that has an interest in sharing part of their new space.
For more information about Friendship Manor and to learn about how you can help, please contact Patricia Fabing, Community Outreach Coordinator at 805-968-0771 or on the web at http://www.friendship-manor.org/
We want the community to hear about your real estate related fundraisers, charity work, events and accomplishments. Please submit your good news to bbrown@newspress.com.
Noozhawk: Friendship Manor Looking for New Place to Call Home
March 8, 2010
By Sonia Fernandez, Noozhawk Staff Writer | Published on 03.08.2010
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The independent-living facility says its current location doesn’t fit the needs of its elderly residents
Resident Shirley Bagwell welcomes Friendship Manor's move to a new location.
They’ve done the best they could with what they’ve had. They’ve even flourished. But now it’s time for these seniors to get a place of their own.
Patricia Fabing, marketing director for Friendship Manor, an independent senior living facility on El Colegio Road in Isla Vista, says it’s time to look into the future and step out of the current digs into a more “purpose-built†home.
“We’d like to be more current, and maybe cutting-edge,†Fabing said.
Built in the 1960s, the complex of buildings that houses the 200 seniors who live in Friendship Manor was originally the College Inn, built for student housing. A student-population drop in the early 1970s, after the riots that resulted in the burning of the Bank of America in Isla Vista in 1970, prompted the owners of the complex to offer it up for sale. The purchasers turned the complex into an independent-living facility, which it remains today.
As well as the buildings and the grounds have been used to create and maintain a thriving senior community for nearly 40 years, there’s only so much one can do to a building meant for younger, more able-bodied people to make it useful for the more elderly crowd — for whom mobility, accessibility and safety are big issues.
“This place was built for kids,†resident Shirley Bagwell said.
For instance, she said, the showers are small, and adding grab bars makes them even smaller. The stair steps aren’t deep enough to use with a cane or a walker, and there’s only one elevator in the whole complex.
Fabing said there are too many cost-prohibitive obstacles to performing needed retrofits. That, coupled with a desire to create greener standards of living for the senior residents, led to the decision to search for a place to build the ideal facility.
What will remain the same, however, are the activities and the amenities.
The organization has been looking at Goleta, but it’s also considering a broader search for a four- to five-acre site on which to build new senior housing. It would have a larger footprint than the current site, about three acres, to accommodate what Fabing calls the oncoming “senior tsunami,†the wave of seniors who may have to move out of their homes and into an independent-living situation.
Fabing said what makes Friendship Manor unique is that it’s virtually the only independent-living facility in town that incorporates a diversity of seniors from various economic situations. Other facilities are too pricey for some retirees, or seniors may not fit the requirements.
“It brings a vitality,†resident Sue Lipsky said of the social diversity of the seniors who come to Friendship Manor. “And I’ve always been excited about that.â€
The move won’t be an easy feat for Friendship Manor. Aside from the normal travails of finding, acquiring and developing land on the South Coast, preferably with access to shops and hospitals, the nonprofit organization’s tax-exempt status may not make its project as attractive to local jurisdictions as one that would be required to pay local property taxes.
“Our tax-exempt status is critical for us to maintain our affordability,†Skip Szymanski, board president of Friendship Manor, said in a recent statement. “Having a broad overview of the affordable housing needs in our area, Friendship Manor is a critical piece in the senior housing market. This allows us to offer incredible value to our senior residents and also sends out an important message about how we operate in the community.â€
Friendship Manor is looking to partner with other organizations with similar goals to collaborate on ways to provide care and services to seniors — potentially easing up on the need for those services from local jurisdictions.
Fabing said there are other benefits to the move. The current building is located in the middle of prime student housing, and can be reconverted to its original purpose, helping alleviate the congestion and parking crunch of Isla Vista when UCSB is in session.
Also, according to the organization, local retailers would benefit from having a population of 200 or so seniors in the area.
The construction and move — if and when they happen — will be a major expense to the organization, which will use the money from the sale of its current building to cover the cost. However, Fabing, who would not speculate on the total cost of the project at this time, provided assurance that the organization would search for other ways to fund the project before considering any price raise to the seniors — and that there would be “no senior left behind†during the relocation.
That comes as good news for senior residents such as Frank Hazen, who came to Friendship Manor with his wife just a few years ago.
“It’s wonderful here,†said Hazen, whose wife died recently. “It’s the easiest living we’ve ever had in our lives.â€
— Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at sfernandez@noozhawk.com.
KEYT: Senior Residence Looking to Relocate
March 5, 2010
KEYT News, Santa Barbara
Mar 5, 2010
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Isla Vista’s Friendship Manor is looking for a new home, after over 30-years at it’s present site on El Colegio Road.
Right now, about 200-seniors live at the multi-story facility. However, the non-profit is looking for a new, modern, upgraded home for it’s residents.
Currently, they are seeking community support to find a site, somewhere between Goleta and Carpinteria.
Once a new location for Friendship Manor is found, the current site will be sold, possibly for student housing.
Santa Barbara Independent: Isla Vista’s Friendship Manor
March 4, 2010
Santa Barbara Independent, 3/4/2010
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Isla Vista’s Frienship Manor—home to approximately 200 people 62 years old and over—announced this week that it is looking to relocate. The search, however, has proven challenging given the facility’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt property status, which affords its residents less expensive monthly rates. Friendship Manor has said it is open to the idea of partnering and/or sharing facilities with an existing senior center. The move would reportedly benefit both Friendship Manor residents and UCSB students, as vacating the current facility would allow seniors increased community access and students additional university housing.