“The party of the year!” - that’s what Santa Barbara News-Press called Heal the Ocean’s 1st Annual Benefit Concert. . . October 1, 2005, at the dramatic, elegant offices of QAD, a high-tech company overlooking the ocean in Summerland.
Dancers on the entry lawn, waving sea-luminescent fabric to create an illusion of ocean waves. . . Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the wonderfully funny star of “Seinfield” and other television series and roles, making a witty opening to a sell-out crowd. Ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau was there, so was U.S. Congresswoman Lois Capps, dormer assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson and Superior-Court Judge George Eskin, Distinction magazine editor Holly Palance, Stephen & Carla Hahn, and Adam & Kara Rhodes filled up two tables with friends who enthusiastically bought everything.
HTO board member Laura Lodato chaired the event, with her pistol-packing benefit committee of 15 women planning all this for months. . . The fog rolled in, and unexpectedly, the special lighting imported from Los Angeles turned the whole scene into a mysterious underwater-like set. . . Everyone drank wonderful wine donated by Ron Melville and other generous vintners.
HTO executive director Hillary Hauser premiered “Another Day at the Beach,” a 4-minute film about the origins of Heal the Ocean, created by Jim Knowlton of Blue Ocean Productions, KYTD (Santa Barbara) radio personality Matt McAllister had everyone in stitches with a fast-paced, hilarious auction, and Los Angeles pop star Bonnie McKee performed. Then, with heavier fog rolling up from the stage like a smoke machine at a rock concert, our dear friend Jack Johnson took the helm for the biggest surprise of all - a solo serenade of some of his most beloved hits, including “The Horizon has been Defeated,” and “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”
Over $160,000 was raised for Heal the Ocean this night. Wow!