Ernie, My kids are now adults, but the legacy that you have helped to perpetuate is very special indeed. You clearly understand how those years of middle school can pressure the carbon of those awkward years into the diamonds of caring, nurturing adults who will leave this world a bit better than they found it! So many people, young and old will appreciate your gift for their lifetime, and beyond. With gratitude and appreciation for your lasting legacy to our children and our community!

Ernie, the power of your images drew me into the world of underwater photography as I began to dive. I wanted to see even a part of what your eyes have seen and you shared with your lens. I have purchases several of your prints you have so generously donated to ocean causes and when I am with you such as DEMA WDHOF you share your smiles and hugs along with your encouragement. Thank You

Thank-you so much Ernie. You inspire me because of you're great kindness. Thank-you.

Ernie - I don't know you. But, I know your heart.
You don't know me, But, you know my heart.
Your many contributions to the planet are wonderful gifts.
The Middle School will honor that gift by instilling compassion, caring, gratefulness and selflessness in its students over and over and over and over again.

Gratitude,
The Prudden Family

Dear Ernie, Thank you so much for your incredible gift of the Jefferson/Brooks building to SBMS. It means the world to the kids and families and teachers at SBMS. We are so thankful and appreciative. Your gift is, and will continue to be, a gift that inspires long into the future. Thank you for your vision and generosity. We are really thankful. Tiffany Foster (SBMS parent and trustee)

Dear Ernie and Family,
How can the benefits of your gift be measured? Maybe in the expansion of student minds, expanding parent smiles, the way benevolent teachings ripple through the generations. Or the expansion of our hearts through the force of generosity. But a quantification of expansion goes against the spirit of the phenomenon, and so like your gift, we will just watch in awe as it grows wider and wider. Wendelin Wagner --Alumna and science teacher at SBMS for 11 years.

Hello Ernie. We have never met yet clearly we have much in common. At my end I was the Headmaster of SBMS for 20 years. Before that Beloved Brian was my student (then my assistant teacher) and before that Beloved Whitney was my student (then my assistant teacher). I saw SBMS truly change over a thousand lives. I mean that. Including my own two children! You have done a wonderful thing which will allow a dream and vision to continue and to serve. Even as I write this I can tell you that SBMS is helping a very poor and very wonderful "sister school" out here in New Mexico where I now live. 7 pueblo children visited SBMS last year. SBMS teachers have helped out here, as have alumni. Come to SBMS in March to meet (march 6) Losang Samten, who was sent to the west by the XIVTH DALAI LAMA of Tibet. He will, again, make history by constructing a Tibetan Sand Mandala in the busy hallway of an American Junior High as it were. This school was meant and was born to cut a groove in American Education and it has, it does, and it will. YOU have ensured that.
Hey, unseen brother. I am 73 and old enough to call you that. You and your wife and your family have done a wonderful thing. Now If I can stop crying long enough to find the send button I shall hope you someday read this. No, not exactly read it. Feel it. I salute you both.

Dear, Ernie, I don't know you (yet) and I'm not familiar with SBMS as I my kids are elementary school age, but as a Santa Barbara local - born and raised - I am deeply moved by your vision, generous heart and this incredible gift you've enabled for generations to come. If this isn't legacy I don't know what is. Thank you. I hope to one day visit SBMS and consider it a school for my children.

Mr Brooks, thank you so much. My daughter, Clare, just started 7th grade. In this short time, I can feel how much positive energy abides in this school. I don't have much to offer, other than my thanks and this poem by Wendell Berry. He, like you, and the school, loves the outdoors and understands its healing properties.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Thank you for the gift of your faith in the Santa Barbara Middle School mission, Ernie! The tangible gift you gave of the building and property is immense, but your blessing is immeasurable and will continue on throughout the ages.
Thank you. Susan Moe

Such a beautiful gift. I am so grateful for you, for this beautiful, amazing school. Thank you. My daughters are truly blessed to have been at this school. Their lives are fully enriched forever. Blessings to you.

Ernie: Because of your generous philanthropy, our school community has gained an unshakable foundation from which to spring forth. It is awe inspiring to think of the caliber of students that will graduate from our SBMS home for generations to come. We trust that each one will have you as their inspiration to live a life of gratitude, wonder and love.
With eternal thankfulness,
The Prudden Family