Mountain Views News May 9, 2026 

WHO PAYS FOR THE 
FOURTH OF JULY 
ACTIVITIES? 

By the Sierra Madre Events Committee 

You’ve likely enjoyed them—invited neighbors to the park 
for music and a cold drink, or gathered at home on the 
morning of the Fourth for coffee, donuts, and our beloved 
hometown parade. But have you ever stopped to ask: who 
makes it all possible? 

The answer is simple: a small but dedicated group of 
hardworking volunteers, supported by a generous and 
engaged community. 

Each year, the full weekend of Fourth of July festivities costs 
upwards of $50,000. These celebrations are funded through a 
combination of individual household donations, communityfundraising efforts (like T-shirt sales), and contributions 
from local businesses and organizations. 

Members of the Sierra Madre Events Committee devote 
countless hours to planning, organizing, fundraising, 
and coordinating volunteers to ensure the success of this 
cherished tradition. 

While the City does provide important support—such as 
public works and public safety services—the vast majority of 
financial responsibility, including event insurance, is carried 
by the committee and the community. 

We understand that times can be challenging. However, 
without the continued support of volunteers and donors, 
this beloved Fourth of July celebration simply would not be 
possible. 

For generations, these traditions have thrived because of the 
pride and participation of our community. Whether it’s $5 
or $500, every contribution helps keep this special tradition 
alive. 

Thank you for being a part of what makes Sierra Madre so 
extraordinary. Donations can be made directly at: 

www/sierramadreevents/org 


WALKING SIERRA MADRE: 

The Social Side by Deanne Davis 


By EB Converse for Mountain Views News 
The space is about a hundred and fifty squarefeet, with one large window onto the street andenough light for two practices to share. KaitWalsh paints; Gina Pecho photographs. Theyhave been working out of Pill Box Studios onBaldwin Avenue for two years, and last Satur-
day they threw it open for a Mother’s Day por-
trait event — Pecho behind the camera, Walshselling work on the patio, no husbands and no 
men allowed. 
“It’s meant to be the moms who never get theirphotos taken,” Pecho says, “because they’retaking all of them.”
The studio name came from the landlord, whodelivered the key inside a pill jar. Pecho had 
already been thinking of pillbox hats — small, 
vintage, the kind of thing meant for tiny magi-
cal objects found in tiny measures. The namestuck. 
Walsh and Pecho met two years ago throughSamira, who then owned Dakota and Rowan 
in town. Walsh had painted a mural for theshop; Pecho had been taking photographs forthe business. Samira knew them both as pa-
trons and knew they were each looking forstudio space outside their homes. She set them up. (Samira’smuch-loved store has reopened as The Loop,Los Angeles, asecond-hand boutique on San Marino Avenue.) 
“I had never met Kait,” Pecho says. “I just knew she’d paint-
ed the mural. Then I had a pop-up portrait session at the 
store, Kait signed up, and it was love at first sight.” “We’ve 
texted that we feel like we’ve shared past lives,” Walsh says.
They later discovered they had both worked at Maker’s Messin Silver Lake at different times. Walsh thinks she may havetaken Pecho’s job. 
Their work moves in opposite directions. Walsh is a maxi-
malist — patterns, saturated color, white as the only neu-
tral. Pecho’s photography reaches for hard contrast and 
clean lines; she names a love of Vivian Maier’s portraits asa touchstone. Recently her work has developed softer linesand more color. “Kait has actually helped me introduce col-
or into my life,” Pecho says. The two work side by side mostdays, Walsh’s canvases spreading across the floor whilePecho edits at her laptop, which now has paint splatters onthe screen. 
Walsh grew up in Sierra Madre. Her parents’ house is half 
a mile from the studio; her in-laws live down the street. Af-
ter years away she finds herself, with some surprise, back. “Icall it my Sierra Madre Renaissance,” she says. “I took it for 
granted as a kid, the way I was allowed to grow up here. As 
an artist, I give a lot of my art back to the town. It’s not lost 
on me how much this town shaped my aesthetic.” 
Pecho’s path was longer. She grew up in Wheaton, west of 
Chicago, studied at Columbia College in the city, and vis-
ited Ojai with her family throughout her childhood — herfather, a RISD graduate, had a close friend there. Ojai’s artcommunity was a private mythology in her Midwest girl-
hood. Decades later, when she moved to Sierra Madre,
something in the town’s quiet recalled it. “We call this build-
ing our Ojai moment,” Pecho says. “We both looked at a lotof other places.” 
“They carry us beneath their 
hearts,
That’s how every new life 
starts. 
The beating of our mother’s 
heart, 
The first sound that we hear. 
Love and peace surround us...
And God....is very near.
Your mother, my mother,
And Mary....the mother of….
God.” * 
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, 
a joyful time to get together 
with family and celebrate all 
the mothers we know. I’m sending Blue Mountain cards 
to all the moms in our family and I have kept some of mybest Mother’s Day cards. The words on this one are so 
encouraging, so loving, so worth repeating… 
“Family is love and laughter, strength and smiles, hope and 
happiness. Every Mother’s Day is agift – a chance to go back through the memories of the heart 
and say thank you; for a home that was warm and welcoming 
and filled with life and laughter – where every day seemed 
to hold some small adventure and something new to learn. 
For a family that loves being together – cares for each other 
and helps one another through all the big and little ups and 
downs of life, for a connection that gives meaning, purpose 
and joy to every day.” 
I came across a little article by Clay Thompson entitled, 
“Mom wasn’t always right, but she always had our backs,” 
that I thought I’d share with you. 
To summarize, it’s all the stuff our mothers told us that was 
totally incorrect: You have to wait an hour after eating before 
you go back in the water. Actually, unless you’ve eaten a huge 
prime rib dinner, that’s just not true. Here’s another one: 
Putting butter on a burn. Nope, putting butter on a burn 
holds the heat in and makes it worse. Did she tell you if you 
swallowed your chewing gum it would stay in your stomach 
for seven years? Nope. But she was right about not running 
with scissors, an apple a day is a good idea, and every time 
she told you she loved you, she meant it. 
I think the best essay ever about mothers was written byErma Bombeck around 1974. I share this with you each year 
as I think it’s just the perfect thing to say on Mother’s Day. 
“When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into 
His sixth day of “overtime” when one of His angels appeared 
and said, “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.” 
And God said, “Have you read the specs on this order? She 
has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 
moveable parts…all replaceable. Run on black coffee and 
A WARM SOFT LANDING: 
leftovers. Have 
a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can 
cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. 
And six pairs of hands.” The angel shook her head slowly 
and said, “Six pairs of hands…. no way.” “It’s not the hands 
that are causing me problems,” God remarked, “it’s the 
three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.” “That’s on the 
standard model?” asked the angel. God nodded. “One pair 
that sees through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you 
kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another in 
the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what 
she has to know, and, of course, the ones here in front that 
can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ‘I understand 
and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.” 

“God,” said the angel touching his sleeve gently, “Get some 
rest and look at it again tomorrow….” “I can’t,” said God, 
“I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. 

Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick…
can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger…and 
can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower.” The angel 
circled the model of the mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” 
she sighed.
“But tough!” said God excitedly. “You can’t imagine what 
this mother can do or endure.” 

“Can it think?” 

“Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” 
said the Creator. 

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the 
cheek. 
“There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You that You were 
trying to put too much into this model.” 

“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord, “It’s a tear.” 

“What’s it for?” 

“It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and 
pride.” 

“You are a genius,” said the angel. 

Somberly, God said, “I didn’t put it there.”” 
Erma Bombeck, When God Created Mothers 

I’m wishing each of you a Happy Mother’s Day. Make phone 
calls, send a beautiful bouquet, send texts, and say I love 
you! Say it a lot! May God bless all the mothers we know. 
A suggestion for you…take your mom to our brand new 
Rose Angel Tea House on Baldwin. It’s just opened and is 
absolutely fabulous. 

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne DavisWhere you’ll find the Emma Gainsworth Kindle novelettes,
Along with other goodies like “A Treasure Map, A Drunken 
Owl And 47 Rattlers in A Bag” True Tales of EarlyCalifornia 

*Lyrics from “Your Mother, My Mother” –
Star of Wonder – A Christmas Musical 
Book & Lyrics by Deanne Davis, Music by David Wheatley. 

INSIDE PILL BOX STUDIOS 

What Sierra Madre offers them, beyondproximity and walkability, is a kind ofartistic privacy. “When you first meetpeople here, they don’t immediatelyask, *what creative field are you in, howcan we network?*” Walsh observes. 
“It’s not Silver Lake or Los Feliz.” Both 
women are mothers of young children 

— Pecho has an eight-year-old and afive-year-old, Walsh a four-year-oldand a three-year-old — and the studiofits, as Walsh puts it, Tetris-style intothe rest of their lives. 
The collaboration is creative and practical 
at once. Pecho, who has been making 
her living as an artist slightly longer, 
helps Walsh with the business side.
“When she gets a job, I celebrate her,”
Pecho says, “but I also tell her, *makesure you get paid.*” Walsh calls Pechoher grounded hype-man. Pecho hasbeen known to take Walsh’s laptop outof her hands and type the subject lineinto an email Walsh has been meaningto send. 

They are co-chairs of the Sierra Madre

Art Walk, which takes place June 19.
The Art Walk emerged from a conversation Walsh and 
Pecho were already having about whether such a thing existed 
in town — and, Pecho says, “I didn’t want it to be theWisteria Festival. I wanted to know if there were actual artists 
opening up their spaces.” 

“It doesn’t lead with *come hang out and buy stuff*,” Walshsays. “It leads with *come look at beautiful things, hear really 
good music on the streets where you spend most ofyour days walking.*” After the inaugural Art Walk last year,
the December holiday fair featured live music for the firsttime, drawn from musicians the Art Walk committee hadbooked. The Friends of the Library introduced an emerging 
artist section. Pecho recalls hanging her photographs atSun Rae Skin during the Art Walk — a location far enoughoff Baldwin that some attendees didn’t usually walk that far.
They made the trip and ended up booking appointmentswith the studio. Ana Mendoza at Fables and Fancies still has 
artists on her walls who first showed at the inaugural ArtWalk; she now sells work by Carole Michele, who runs thejailhouse studio down the street. 

What Walsh and Pecho want for Pill Box, beyond their ownpractices, is for the studio to be a node in this newer SierraMadre — a place where a painter and a photographer happen 
to be working when you walk past, and the door is open.
Walsh dreams of a first-Saturday-of-the-month open studios 
event spanning the town: Pill Box, Creative Arts, theBaldwin Avenue Gallery, the ceramics wheel at World CupStudios, LMF Gallery and Darkroom, Montecito’s quieterdoors. 

“A warm, soft landing space,” Walsh says, “for makers andideas.” 

Last Saturday’s Mother’s Day portrait session is one of manyhappening at Pill Box Studios. Both artists’ work is on viewacross the street at Creative Arts in a show Kait curated,
*Kaleidoscopic: A Love Letter to Everyday Life*, throughMay 30. 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com