Beautiful MB, a nonprofit guiding clean-up and beautification of Mission Beach, has been disbanded.
“We are sad to announce the dissolution of our nonprofit organization, Beautiful MB,” said the group’s Facebook page. “We appreciate all the support and love that the community of Mission Beach has shown us over the years. But at this time, we are reassessing our philanthropic goals and hope to align them in areas where we can have a greater impact.”
The website goes on to throw its support for beach clean-up and other neighborhood enhancement projects to I Love A Clean San Diego, an environmental preservation group, which since 1954, has been inspiring active environmental conservation and enhancement.
“Our efforts and partnership will be in support of the community work by this organization in the future,” concluded Beautiful MB’s Facebook page.
Jo Pastore, in-house counsel for American National Investments, explained why the nonprofit was dissolved.
“Beautiful MB was formed by Gina Champion-Cain to see if they could make the beach community a little cleaner and greener,” said Pastore. “They did beach clean-ups, fly abatement and a second (summer) trash pick-up.”
Noting the nonprofit subsisted primarily on “small grants from the City, County and direct donations,” Pastore added, “The overwhelming bulk of funding came from Champion-Cain. Her idea was to give seed money, and then have it become self-sufficient, which it never even came close to being.”
Ultimately, because the beach nonprofit was unable to operate independently, Pastore said the determination was made that “money could be spent elsewhere to effect more of a change.”
“This marks the end of something beautiful,” said one of the nonprofit’s founders, John Vallas. “Beautiful MB started as a conversation in 2012-13 as a way to provide Mission Beach businesses and community members an organization to collaborate, share and implement ideas for improving Mission Beach. These projects were to include an on-going community banner program, community beautification projects, promoting Mission Beach businesses and the surrounding community culture, community events such as annual festivals and markets, as well as provide a powerful unified voice for Mission Beach to local, state and federal government.”
Among the ups and downs of the journey, Vallas said, “We did finally get the banner program started (last year) and prevented more than 20 tons of trash from flowing into the ocean and Mission Bay. We organized thousands of volunteers, many of them high school and college students.
“We advocated for Mission Beach at community meetings, town halls, City Council, the mayor’s office, and collaborated with countless individuals, businesses, and organizations to promote the unique and special place that is MB.”
Pastore said Champion-Cain now intends to “concentrate her philanthropy in her foundation.”
The attorney added that it will take a little time to officially discontinue Beautiful MB. “It’s still a corporation, and we have to take certain steps before we can dissolve it,” she said.
Meanwhile, Pastore noted she will have a sit-down soon with I Love A Clean San Diego to “see if we can work with them for more neighborhood enhancement. Partnering with I Love A Clean San Diego, we’re going to continue to benefit the community. We’re just going to do it in a different way that is more strategic.”