Having grown up in Orcutt, I can’t help but wish I had a book like Strawberry Moon says, Goodnight, an upcoming children’s book set in and around the Santa Maria Valley. The book is full of clever rhymes that lovingly celebrate all things Santa Maria, from tri-tip to one of my favorite pieces of local folklore. Take a peek.
“Beneath the moonlight, the town is amused/ While people display classic cars on a cruise./ They make a pit stop at the hotel they love most/ The Historic Santa Maria Inn. Will they see a friendly ghost?”
It’s lines like that I would have loved reading growing up; the rumored hauntings that surround said hotel sparked my imagination as a child and still fascinate me as an adult. Although each verse for the book has already been written, Strawberry Moon says, Goodnight is yet to be illustrated—and that’s where local students come in, explained co-author Diana Moffitt, of Leadership Santa Maria Valley (SMV).
“We collectively as a class came up with the idea to have students draw the illustrations for the book,” she said.
Moffitt and other members of Leadership SMV co-authored the verses of Strawberry Moon says, Goodnight, which will be published in both English and Spanish, as part of the program’s 2020 Legacy Project. The illustration competition is open to Santa Maria Valley-based students, grades four through 12.
“Every leadership class must come up with a Legacy Project. I was the one that proposed the idea of writing and publishing a bilingual children’s book to our class,” Moffitt said. “[I] thought it would be quite a legacy to leave the Santa Maria community with a book that highlights all the beauty the Santa Maria Valley and surrounding areas have to offer.”
“I wanted the book to be bilingual because a large majority of the population in Santa Maria speaks Spanish,” added Moffitt, who also serves as the chair of the project’s book committee. “And, as a children’s book, I didn’t know very many that were bilingual.”
As there will be 20 pages in the book, 20 student artists will be selected from the illustration contest. The original plan was for submissions to be collected during school hours, from participating elementary, middle, and high schools, Moffitt explained.
“The shelter-in-place order really threw our art contest for a loop,” she said. “We had distributed 1,000 templates to 27 schools in Santa Maria and Guadalupe. One week later, we had to scramble to pick them all up.”
After statewide COVID-19 mitigation measures shut schools down, the illustration templates and other application materials became available for pickup at the Abel Maldonado Community Youth Center in Santa Maria. They’re still available there, and the contest will remain open through its Sept. 25 deadline. Parents can also choose to have materials mailed instead (email artcontest2020@gmail.com for inquiries).
The templates include verses of the book for children to base their illustrations on, which must be completed using only colored pencils (one of the contest’s official rules). Participants have a diversity of local landmarks and town staples to choose from.
“The moon sees folks gather at Los Flores Ranch Park; To hike the trails in the day and view the stars when it’s dark,” one verse reads.
“The moon wants to see kids reach for the stars/ Start at the Discovery Museum; the next stop may be Mars,” another exclaims.
The strawberry moon motif was proposed by Leadership SMV member Emily Kitts, as both a fun narrative device and a nod to Santa Maria’s most famous fruit, Moffitt said.
Strawberry Moon says, Goodnight won’t just serve as this year’s Legacy Project for Leadership SMV, Moffitt explained, as its future publication will also be the legacy of its participating students.
“We hope this [project] will inspire some [students] to continue to pursue art,” she said. “This book will be their legacy and something that no one can take away from them.”
In case you don’t see him, Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood says, good afternoon, good evening, and good night. Send your favorite movie quotes to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 18-25, 2020.
