Maritime Museum dinner mystery raises funds for 2024 events and exhibits

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A mystery event held Friday at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum raised funds and awareness for all of the programs offered throughout the year at the landmark facility.

Executive Director Greg Gorga said the "Heist at the Harbor" was a dinner theater event with both actors and audience participants to discover who stole a rare gift to the museum. Clues and characters were revealed throughout the meal until the audience discovered the person responsible. It was an evening of creativity and spontaneous ad libbing.

The event overall "raises money for all the wonderful education programs we do, the exhibits we put on, the programming we do throughout the community," said Gorga.

He said, the education programs, "serve dozens of communities all over Santa Barbara County and beyond, we have schools from Bakersfield and the East Coast coming now. Most of that we provide free of charge to low income families, schools and after school groups."

4th through 12th graders just completed a program on a sport fishing boat, the Stardust. They served as hands on scientists. "We had Lompoc High School students who had not seen the ocean and now they are discovering why we need to keep our oceans clean," said Gorga. "They become hands on marine scientists."

Board President Chuck Wilson saw it first hand and said, "they were a little timid at first but when they started to get wet and see the waves and different animal life out there, they  shed their barriers and were having a great time learning about sea life out there."

Gorga said for their student events, "most of that we provide free of charge to low income families, schools and after school groups."

Honoree Robyn Parker said she has been coming to the museum since she was a child. "There's nothing like it in town, there really isn't,  it's just beautiful. The view is gorgeous, the exhibits inside are amazing, they are always changing there's always something new to  learn and lots of boats to see. "

 The maritime museum will also have tall ship Mystic Whaler returning this year with public and school tours and the current photography exhibit is the Ice Bear photographs by Ralph Clevenger around the walls of the museum and in the main theater.