Posted: Sunday, May 28, 2006 12:00 am
Group raises funds to help pay for medical care
By Emily Welly/Features Writer
The St. Cecilia Society will host a benefit dinner June 9 at Bien Nacido Vineyards, 4705 Santa Maria Mesa Road in Santa Maria.
The organization, a secular group that raises funds to defray hospital costs or other unmet medical bills of those in need, has been serving Santa Barbara County for more than 100 years.
Although the organization is based in the South County, it also serves the North County. The benefit dinner in Santa Maria is being held in part to inform those who live in the North County of the services the St. Cecilia Society supports, and to generate more participation from North County residents.
“The reason we felt it was important to do this event in North County is because more and more of our money is going to North County,C said the organization/s president Ladeen Miller, who has been involved with the group for about 10 years.
The St. Cecilia Society was founded in Santa Barbara by a group of women who held musical events to raise money to finish the construction of Cottage Hospital there. The group was named after St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music.
Once the hospital was completed, the organization began helping women and children who couldn/t otherwise afford medical treatment.
Today, the group works with agencies, neighborhood clinics, social workers and hospitals to find people who are in need of monetary assistance to pay medical bills or to cover an emergency medical need.
The all-volunteer organization raises all of their funds through donations, most of which come during the group/s annual tea held in Santa Barbara and other gifts.
Last year the group gave ,74,000 in benefits to people in need.
According to Miller, the help was “functionallyC probably three times as much because the charity group is able to get medical services at discounted rates.
“Otherwise it wouldn/t go very far,C she said.
The Bien Nacido benefit dinner is also being held in honor of the 150 year anniversary of the vineyard/s Ontiveros Adobe, a home that was built on the original land grant, some 9,000 acres then called Rancho Tepusquet.
The event, to begin at 6 p.m. on June 9, will be held in the Ontiveros Adobe at Bien Nacido Vineyards. Dinner and wine will be served and a trio will entertain the guests.
Tickets are ,125 per person. Eight-person or ten-person tables may also be purchased for ,1,000 or ,1,250 respectively.
Tickets must be purchased by May 31. For tickets , contact Ladeen Miller at 969-7151.
Emily Welly can be reached at 739-2220 or ewelly@santamaria times.com.