COMING & GOING (Continued from page 31) Lucinda Winters Nash enjoys some quiet time with her dad, Jonathan Winters
emotional harassment while he was in there. The nurse in charge taunted him, telling him [under her breath] that he was never going to get out. [His stay in the institution] seemed to make a difference for him, though. He made a lot of good crafts and paintings while institutionalized and there was a story going around that his wife, my mother, Eileen, asked if he could be kept a little longer, as he was making a lot of good craft items and they were going to need them at Christmas. He made a ring with an eyeball on it, ceramics, woodcarvings, and all kinds of creative things. Can you give an example of what Crescend does and how it’s different, if it is? (J.T.) Crescend isn’t a conventional mental health agency; it revolves around art and creativity, and incorporates those into its programs. It is very innovative. You won’t find many mental health agencies doing poultry therapy, for example. We’ve been doing this now close to two years. We have a three-acre property that we bought in 2003 up by the mission that we call Mountain House, and it has a big chicken coop (called Cluckingham Palace). I have wanted ever since we bought the place to see if we could use it as therapy for our clients. State licensing has prevented us from doing that until recently, but when we got the green light, we went ahead with it.
Jonathan Winters was the very first grand marshal of Montecito’s Village Fourth Parade & Celebration in 1996; though his outfit seems a pastiche of French Army (or Legionnaire) and Santa’s helper’s staff, he really was a U.S. Marine in his youth
We have a staff person who has chickens at home. She has young children and it’s been wonderful for them. We have a client who was very impaired and very regressed, and doing very poorly. Regular therapy wasn’t working, Meds weren’t working. His family was very frustrated. He said he’d like to help us with the chickens. His cat had been killed on Milpas right in front of him and he’d never really recovered from that, but he volunteered to come every day to the chicken coop to help out. Nothing was working for him until the chick-
P AM A NDERSON S KIN C ARE FACIALS • WAXING LASH & BROW TINTING MICRO-DERMABRASION
ens came into his life. There’s some interesting research going on in the use of animals in treating very regressed clients, especially autistic. If you get a young child a dog or kitten, something profound happens and they begin to come out of their shell. What animals seem to offer is unconditional love with no judgment. What else? (J.T.) Crescend also offers gardening therapy, art therapy with classes done by a gifted artist who struggles with mental health issues herself and a work adjustment program where clients are taught and encouraged to develop work skills. We train people in job skills such as how to work with other people, how to show up on time, how to communicate a problem; these are very basic job skills. Working in the kitchen or in the Botanic Garden, provide meals, shopping, just being aware so that when they graduate from our program they’ll have something useful to do. ••• The “Hope and Laughter” gala at El Encanto on May 11 will feature a Jonathan Winters tribute video being put together by MAD Academy senior Santino Solomon that’ll include footage of Jonathan Winters on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, some clips from Mork & Mindy and private footage with Robin Williams. The event costs $150 per person and it is “almost completely sold-out,” says Mr. Turner. If you are interested in attending or helping Crescend Health in its mission, visit www.crescendhealth.org or call them directly at (805) 965-3434. J.T. Turner will be co-emceeing the evening with fellow Montecito Rotarian Mark Magid. “We’re a practiced duo,” J.T. promises, noting that he and Mark “have done entertainment and songs for the Rotarians yearly.” Mark has a background in theater and has done standup comedy in Los Angeles. Among the items on the silent auction is a 30”x40” giclée of Lucinda’s favorite painting by her father called “The Umbrella Dancers”, which also graces the front of the program. It
was painted in 1970. Adding to that, the Selah Dance Collective, headed up by Meredith Cabaniss, will be dressed as figures in the painting and will perform a dance based upon it.
The Channel Keepers
Actor (and Montecito resident) Billy Baldwin, who graced our cover a few weeks ago when he headed up the hugely successful MAD Academy 20th Anniversary celebration out at Deckers rotunda in Goleta (MJ #22/15), reprised his role as emcee one week later at Santa Barbara Channelkeeper’s 16th Annual Blue Water Ball, which proved equally fruitful. “He connected with the audience, engaging them with his personal stories relating to the relevance of Channelkeeper’s mission, living in this community, and what it means to keep our ocean clean,” reports Carla Tomson, whose husband is former world champion surfer Shaun Tomson, and whose contributions to environmental causes and surfing were praised. The event raised more than $150,000. Keynote speaker for the event was former lighthouse keeper, bigwave surfer, and novice boat builder Christian Beamish, who was there with his wife of five years, Natasha Elliott. Christian was introduced by surfer-filmmaker Chris Malloy. Along with Mr. Beamish, who offered a private coastal cruise in the Cormorant – his hand-built boat – that went for $10,000, a short video featuring the speaker produced by Tate Larrick of Bread & Butter 805 was unspooled and is now posted on www.sbck.org. Musician David Courtenay serenaded before DJ Michael Ober took over with his dance music. Event co-chairs were Holly Alper and Talli Larrick. The following is the gist of my conversation with Beamish: Q. Your talk? A. It’s about my voyages aboard the 18-foot Cormorant that I’ve written about in my book, The Voyage of the Cormorant, published by Patagonia, and I’m going to talk about the idea of blood memory, a feeling of histor-
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• The Voice of the Village •
5 – 12 May 2016