The founder and president of Santa Barbara’s Unity Shoppe, Barbara Tellefson, died on Sunday. She was 84 years old.
Tellefson is leaving behind a huge legacy with her Unity Shoppe, dedicated to providing the basic necessities of life and occupational skills training to Santa Barbara’s most vulnerable populations during times of temporary crisis.
“There will never be another Barbara Tellefson in our town. She was a force of nature, but not one that ever sought the spotlight; instead, she poured all of her energies into working behind the scenes, enabling Unity Shoppe to grow and develop a physical footprint where our community’s low-income families, seniors, the disabled, and disaster victims could receive a broad range of services when experiencing a crisis event,” said Santa Barbara’s 2019 Woman of the Year, Jelinda DeVorzon.