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Davidge, Christensen honored for public service

By Dave Bemis/Managing Editor

For their decades of service to the Santa Ynez Valley, Dean Davidge and June Christensen have been named Man and Woman of the Year by the Valley Foundation and the Santa Ynez Valley News.

They will be formally honored at a banquet April 4, along with five other exemplary volunteers who work in areas of particular interest to the Valley Foundation: Helena Avery for education, Charles Chester, health and human services; Lola Fikes, youth; Jean Gotchall, seniors; and Barbara Young, culture.

Christensen, a 58-year resident of the Valley, is the president of the Solvang Lutheran Home board of directors, but her selection was also based on her decades of service in many other areas.

She is a founding member of the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Society, and is a former Solvang mayor and City Council member. In addition, she has been active on the boards of Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital and the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art, and has been a leader of the Solvang Elementary School PTA and a longtime volunteer with Danish Days.

In 2004-05, she was a member of the Mission County Formation Commission appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and in 1984 she was named Person of the Year by the California Farm Bureau and chosen as 4th District Woman of the Year by the Santa Barbara County Women’s Commission.

Davidge, who lived in the Valley as a child and returned in 1982, immediately became involved with the Family School in Los Olivos after enrolling his daughter in preschool there. He served on its board of trustees for 12 years.

He is also a longtime leader at Dunn School, where he served seven years as chairman of the board of trustees, and has been treasurer and currently secretary. He is stepping down this year because the board’s rules include term limits after 14 years of service.

A charter member of the Solvang Rotary Club in 1985, he also organized the Los Olivos Rotary Club, which was chartered in 2002 with him as its first president.

Davidge also served many years on the Valley Coordinating Council, including three years as its president. He was a 4-H leader while his children were members and then helped to found the countywide Four Leaf Clover Foundation, a nonprofit group to support 4-H, where he was president in the early years and remains a board member

He is also president of the Men’s Service Club at Mission Santa Ines.

In youth sports, he helped start the Santa Ynez Valley Gymnastics Club, served on a joint AYSO/Pony League committee to manage the high school fields, and coached his children’s AYSO soccer teams.

The other honored volunteers:

n Charles Chester was vice president of the Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital Foundation from 2004 to 2008, when he was co-chairman of a capital campaign that raised $7 million for retrofitting and rebuilding the hospital. He is also a former YMCA board member, and has been active with Viking Charities and the Solvang Rotary.

n Helena Avery has been president of the Solvang School Education Foundation since 2003, and her nomination cited her “countless volunteer hours and invaluable leadership and administrative work” to provide arts, music and science education for the students there.

n Lola Fikes in 1999-2000 founded Valley Community Mentoring after recognizing a need through her involvement at Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church. The program matches adults in the community with students of all ages, and this year has 19 children and 16 mentors involved.

n Jean Gotchall was nominated primarily for her deep involvement with the Solvang Senior Center, where she began as “the bus driver who carried your groceries into the house, who checked on you after your doctor’s appointment and rejoiced in all your triumphs.”

After she retired, she made a full-time commitment to the center, serving as vice president and “institutional memory” for three presidents and three executive directors.

n Barbara Young has been a board member and president of the Solvang Theaterfest, Friends of the Library and Santa Ynez Valley Historical Society. She helped organize the first docents at the Elverhoj Museum and has just been re-elected to the vestry at St. Mark’s-in-the-Valley Church.

The Valley Foundation’s mission is to improve the lives of people in the Santa Ynez Valley and Los Alamos by investing in programs that feed the poor, promote health, nurture seniors, challenge youth and inspire the community to make a difference.

Founded in 1991 by Stuart C. Gildred, the foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations that deliver programs and services to residents in one of five focus areas: health and human services, senior programs, youth, education and cultural programs.

All seven of the honored volunteers will be recognized April 4 at a banquet at the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott.

For more information, call the Valley Foundation at 688-2991 or send e-mail to syvf@verizon.net.

F.Y.I:

— Watch for more information on each of the honored volunteers in upcoming issues of the Valley News.

For more information on the Valley Foundation, the process of selecting the award winners, or tickets for the awards banquet April 4, call the foundation at 688-2991 or send e-mail to syvf@verizon.net.

dbemis@syvnews.com