Hail to the Chief
This year’s Fiesta Presidenta, Kelly Magne, witnessed her first Fiesta 20 years ago, and it was love at first sight. She started helping with the computers for Fiesta in 1995, somehow found herself in charge of 100 flower girls two years later, and has been a boardmember in charge of various committees since 1995. Elected in 2005 to coordinate this year’s Fiesta, Magne has chosen the theme Come Celebrate Santa Barbara, which she said describes “an amazing city, where it doesn’t matter where you are from; it embraces you and makes you part of a family.”
Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, Magne’s parents instilled in her a sense of community involvement and volunteerism, and the importance of participating in and celebrating one’s community. A long blizzard one May sent Magne to her car, driving toward the coast, and after finding Santa Barbara, she never looked back.
La Presidenta said being in charge of the entire Fiesta is the highlight of all her years of involvement, and she’s “excited to preserve and perpetuate our culture and the history of our city, the city itself, and the people who make this place so great.”
