A Night to Remember: HTO’s 2023 Happy Hour Party Was a BLAST!

**HTO Board Members. Photos by Lauren Donohue, Onwards Collective**
**(L to R: Heather Hudson, Jonathan Wygant, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Hillary Hauser, Tom White, Charles Vinick).**

HTO held a Thank You Happy Hour Party, for the Sponsor and Supporters of the Imaginary Gala 2023, at the Santa Barbara FisHouse on Thursday night as part of our Imaginary Gala 2023 celebration. The evening was nothing but smiles and fun – a rip-roaring toast to the donors who pushed our fundraising over the TOP. Civic leaders came, other Executive Directors came, the former fire chiefs (City and County) came, HTO co-founder Jeff Youngcame – it was a giant smiling jamboree!

This was a 25th anniversary party celebrating HTO’s Silver Anniversary, donated to us by HTO Board Member Tom White and Santa Barbara Shellfish Company CEO, Adam White, and the Cabrillo Blvd. restaurant was aglow with lights and flowers, designed and arranged by HTO Board Member/Event Manager Heather Hudson, and HTO Operations ManagerJasmin Tupy. There was a vast array of fabulous seafood goodies, wine, and song. (Music by Sam Adams).

There were three speakers giving tribute to Heal the Ocean:

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the Honorary Chair of this event, took the microphone and started speaking about HTO Executive Director Hillary Hauser. “She’s insanely intelligent, she’s insanely passionate, she’s insanely dedicated, she’s INSANE!”
Former Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson recounted the first HTO gathering in a Biltmore Coral Casino conference room in 1998. There was no dinner served, only rows of chairs, “like a revivalist meeting,” Hillary quipped. Hannah-Beth looked to HTO Board member Jean-Michel Cousteau, who was in the audience, “I remember how you held up one of your father’s books, and sold it for $5,000, and then you said you had two, and that sold for $5,000, too. I wish I’d had your father’s books on my campaign trail.” Jean-Michel father is of course the famed Jacques Cousteau, and the book was The Silent World. In 1 ½ hours HTO raised $60,000 without dinner or entertainment. “People were passionate and upset,” Hannah-Beth recounted.
Mayor Randy Rowse said about HTO, “They walk the walk, they don’t sue, they fix, and there Harry Rabin is down on the beach at 5:30 a.m. grabbing stuff out of wrecked boats.”

Heal the Ocean extends our deepest gratitude to every Gala Sponsor and Supporter for their unwavering generosity. The success of our mission to keep our beaches clean is directly attributable to their commitment to Heal the Ocean. Oh, what a night! Thank you, all!