Local Community Helps Montecito Bank & Trust Select Triathlon Beneficiary

For its third consecutive year, Montecito Bank & Trust is the presenting sponsor of the 2011 Santa Barbara Triathlon. In its 30th year, the race is one of the oldest Triathlons in the nation. The Santa Barbara Triathlon is a community-oriented event that encourages its triathletes to raise money for a designated nonprofit beneficiary that is chosen each year by the presenting sponsor. This special fundraising effort has raised over $400,000 for local charities since 2002.

As the 2010 Santa Barbara Triathlon wrapped up last August, Montecito Bank & Trust announced a different spin on the nonprofit beneficiary selection process for 2011. The bank selected eight local nonprofit contenders and spread the word that community voting would make the decision in the selection of the lucky 2011 Santa Barbara Triathlon beneficiary. Montecito Bank & Trust posted the eligible nonprofits on their website with voting instructions and let the voting begin on August 26, 2010. The eligible organizations were the following:

• Boys & Girls Clubs serving Santa Barbara County
• Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Barbara County (CASA)
• Foodbank of Santa Barbara County
• Page Youth Center
• Santa Barbara Partners in Education
• Storyteller Children’s Center
• Transition House
• Unity Shoppe

The local communication network instantly went into over-drive with each of these nonprofits stepping up to the challenge to bring out the votes in order to cross the finish line as the selected beneficiary. Clever strategies were employed and the voting was left open until January 31, 2011. The five voting months came to an end with over 9,000 total votes cast.

President and CEO Janet A. Garufis said, “I am so impressed with these eight organizations who reached out to their supporters using a number of strategies to obtain votes. While I congratulate each one of them on a job well done, the votes have been tallied and I am proud to announce that Santa Barbara Partners in Education has been named the official beneficiary of the 2011 Santa Barbara Triathlon. Montecito Bank & Trust supports the important work of Partners in Education, and we look forward to working with Executive Director, Ben Romo and his team, along with Joe Coito, the Santa Barbara Triathlon Director and his team. In our 3rd year as presenting sponsor of the Santa Barbara Triathlon, we know what needs to be done to make 2011 the best event yet, and we look forward to working together to do just that.”

“We couldn’t be happier with this news and know we had tough competition from the seven other nominated nonprofit organizations. Partners in Education worked hard to gain the votes that helped us win. We appreciate Montecito Bank & Trust’s support by including us on the nomination list. We now look forward to this great opportunity to raise critical funds for our programs that link local businesses, nonprofits and individuals directly with teachers, students and schools,” said Ben Romo, executive director of Santa Barbara Partners in Education.

“It’s so generous of Montecito Bank & Trust to allow the community to select this year’s beneficiary. Working with the bank’s employees has been such a pleasure, and their commitment to the athletes and to the beneficiary continues to impress me. Registration is now open and as always, we’ll work to make it a successful year for Santa Barbara Partners in Education,” said Joe Coito, director of the Santa Barbara Triathlon.

Montecito Bank & Trust has branch offices in Santa Barbara, Goleta, Solvang, Montecito, Carpinteria, Ventura, and Westlake Village. We offer a variety of competitive deposit and lending solutions for businesses and consumers including: business loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate finance, SBA loans, consumer loans, credit cards, merchant

services, online services including mobile banking and cash management. Our Wealth Management Division, with locations in Montecito, Solvang and Ventura, provides full investment management as well as Trust services for all branch office markets.

Montecito Bank & Trust, an S Corporation, is a locally owned community bank founded in 1975. It continues to demonstrate ongoing support of the community through unique giving programs like Anniversary GrantsSM and Community Dividends®, which annually gifts $1 million to more than 100 local nonprofits.

Montecito Bank & Trust has been designated a Super Premier or Premier Performing Bank for the last ten years by The Findley Reports, an independent service which rates the financial performance of California banks.