We support our coastal community through scholarships, direct grants, non-profit fundraising and keeping our town beautiful
About
The Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee (HMBBC) is an all-volunteer group of civic-minded citizens from the Coastside who want to make a lasting contribution to the preservation and beautification of the town's historic Main Street. Directors have always served without compensation.
HMBBC has contributed more than three million dollars in direct grants and donations since the festival’s inception in 1971. This figure does not include monies raised by non-profit groups that participate in the Pumpkin Festival.
Every year HMBBC:
donates over $10,000 in scholarship monies to graduating Half Moon Bay High School students.
Spends $25,000 on the maintenance and beautification of Main Street. Workers hired by the committee plant and maintain fresh flowers, re-furbish benches, and clean up and sweep Main Street every week.
Funds a multitude of Main Street projects at no cost to the city. Historically, HMBBC has funded the renovation of City Hall, the painting of historic buildings, the installation of old-fashioned street lights and wooden benches, the underground wiring of Main Street, the original construction of Mac Dutra and Kitty Fernandez Parks, and the purchase of garbage receptacles and Christmas lights.
Provides the year-round infrastructure, management and expertise organizing a world-class festival that serves as the foundation for an exceptional fund-raising opportunity to more than thirty local non-profit groups through sales of food, beverages, games, activities and parking. For most of the non-profits, the festival is their most lucrative revenue generator of the year, enabling them to fund a substantial portion of their annual budget. An estimated $500,000 is raised every year by non-profit groups. By providing this opportunity to the non-profit sector, the Pumpkin Festival helps to perpetuate “giving" in the community, no small feat for a community without a base of large corporate “donors”.
Naomi Patridge (Vice President)
Naomi
Cameron Palmer (President)
Cameron bio
Donna Dexter
MEET THE BOARD
Melvin Mello Jr.
Heidi Kuiper
Joe Borges
Joe lived in South City, but attended schools (grammar, high, and college) in San Francisco. He and his wife Karen moved to Half Moon Bay in 1977 and became actively involved in their children’s sports programs and volunteered at several annual community events, to include Farm Day & Chamarita luncheons, 4th of July parades, and the Pumpkin Festival.
Susie Morasci
Bev Ashcraft
Kathy Llorente
HISTORY OF HMBBC
Prior to the Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee’s (the “Committee”) formation the Westinghouse organization, who was responsible for the HMB Golf Links Course, were unhappy with the way Half Moon Bay’s Main Street looked. The buildings were falling apart, paint was fading and the sidewalks looked grungy and unwelcoming. The people at Westinghouse reached out to Dolores Mullin and Patsy Dutra who worked in town, were lifelong residents with reputations to get stuff done. Dolores and Patsy reached out to the Main Street merchants and with a donation from Westinghouse, they organized the first and only city “Paint-In”. The whole town got involved. The streets were closed off, scaffolding was set up, up and down Main Street, everyone grabbed a paintbrush and got to work. All ages could be seen up and down the street with paint all over themselves, painting and bringing Main Street back to life. Cunha’s Country Store provided sandwiches and sodas to all the volunteers. Merchants donated paint and supplies. People who were there still laugh and have stories from the fun weekend they spent.
With that, a Committee was formed to maintain Main Street. The original members were Dolores Mullin, Patsy Dutra, Edie Phillips, Bev Ashcraft, Lorraine Valadeo and Theresa Gilcrest. Co-chairs of the committee where Dolores Mullin and Edie Phillips. The women would meet once a month to discuss ways to maintain their efforts at keeping Main Street beautiful. To raise funds for their ongoing efforts, they decided to hold a small art festival and given the many pumpkin patches on the Coastside that drew people from all over, they decided to capitalize. And the first “Spanishtown Art & Pumpkin Festival” was born. It was 1970 and consisted of approximately a dozen artists and was located on Main Street between Correas Street and Monte Vista Street. The Committee sold hot dogs, linguisa sandwiches and beer on the IDES Society grounds (and still do to this day). Money raised from the first festival bought wooden garbage cans and benches for along Main Street.
This tradition continues now 50 plus years later. Now instead of wooden garbage cans and benches, the Committee uses funds raised to maintain the city parks along Main Street, including Kitty Fernadez park at the South end of Main Street, where they paint, keep up the garden and in recent years put a new roof on the gazebo. Mac Dutra Park at the heart of Downtown Half Moon Bay, was originally funded by the Committee and they continue to maintain, providing the colorful umbrellas and plants. Along Main Street you can see beautiful flower baskets hanging from the old fashion light poles, also donated by Commitee and in the cement planters on the street corners.
In addition to maintaining a beautiful Main Street, the Committee also dedicates funds raised to other local non-profit organizations. Over the years, the Committee has donated over $3,000,000 to local non-profit organizations and provides $10,000 annually in scholarships to Half Moon Bay High School graduating seniors with interest in art and volunteering. This is on top of opening up all food and children’s activities to local non-profit organizations for their own fundraising activities during the Annual Art & Pumpkin Festival.
In 1973, the Committee held the first Pumpkin Weigh-Off to promote the Festival. In the early days this event was a contest for local growers to measure themselves against one another but also against our friends in Circleville, OH, who also consider themselves the Pumpkin Capital. The pumpkins weighed in the 100-200 lbs. range at the beginning. Mini pumpkins by today’s standards. The Weigh-Off is now on the map as one of the biggest and best competitions in North America. Growers come from as far away as Michigan or as close as just down the street from the event. Pumpkins have weighed in at more than 2,000 lbs. now adays.
The current Committee strives to uphold the tradition created 50 plus years ago with keeping Main Street looking beautiful and welcoming, while also supporting local businesses and non-profit organizations.
Current Committee members are Cameron Palmer, Naomi Patridge, Mel Melo, Jr., Heidi Kuiper, Kathy Llorente, Joe Borges, Bev Ashcraft, Donna Dexter and Susie Morasci. Each has a passion for the community and carrying on tradition.