It’s a big week for Santa Barbara County’s first responders.
They are sharing more than a million dollars in grant money from the One805 organization. It’s paying for things like new communications equipment, a K-9 dog, and supporting mental health wellness programs.
$500,000 went to agencies ranging from the Guadalupe Police Department to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
Another $500,000 went to a wellness program which provides free confidential counseling for first responders.
“The mental wellness thing is so important. First responders come up to us and say you allow me to carry on, and go and be a first responder. I couldn’t have done it without you,“ said Richard Weston Smith, the Co-Founder, and COO of One 805.
The nonprofit raises money through concerts, and other fundraisers, as well as collecting grants and donations. It has a March 8 concert coming up at Santa Barbara’s Granada Theater which features Hootie and the Blowfish, Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald, Alan Parsons, Macy Gray, and Toad the West Sprocket.
