The Orinda Community Foundation has chosen artist Maggie Boscoe as Orinda Citizen of the Year for 2025. The OCF also named Carlos Baltodano as Volunteer of the year, 2025.

    For 40 years, Boscoe has volunteered countless hours to help bring art to Orinda and to help local artists make their work available to the public. Boscoe has been the volunteer curator of the art gallery at the Orinda Library for 18 years. This involves finding the artists and helping them select and display their work. Boscoe also organizes artist receptions at the gallery.

    A member and supporter of the Orinda Arts Council (now Lamorinda Arts Council) for 40 years, Boscoe has served as both president and vice-president. She also was a member and president of the Contra Costa Music Teachers’ Association. She taught singing, recorders, and the “infamous” Singing Socks at Del Rey Elementary School.

    In 2019 Boscoe started Artify Orinda to add art to public surfaces in Orinda.  She was inspired by seeing paintings on trash receptacles and other public utility structures in Walnut Creek, San Ramon, Lafayette and other nearby cities. She organized funding for a bench near Café Teatro honoring the late Anne Parr, who taught pottery at the community center for many years.

    Boscoe is a fire captain and a member of the Firewise committee which organized a Firewise neighborhood for 70 homes. She participates in community service projects with St. Stephens Church, the Acalanes chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Orinda Rotary Club.

    Volunteer of the Year Carlos Baltodano is a 32-year resident of Orinda. He serves on the Orinda Community Foundation and the Board of the Orinda Association, where he served as president from 2019 to 2021. Baltadano organized candidate public forums for the election of members of the City Council, Moraga-Orinda Fire District, and the Orinda Union School District, working closely with the co-sponsoring group, The League of Women Voters. At the OCF, he works on the annual newsletter and the Annual Grant programs funded by the OCF.

    Previously Baltodano served six years on the Orinda Planning Commission. Baltodano brings the lessons from his professional career as the Director of Contra Costa County Building Department to his volunteer work. Baltodano’s volunteer work outside of Orinda includes a number of years at the East Oakland Youth Development Center.

    Baltodano’s philosophy is, “Volunteering is one of the most rewarding things you can do. You don’t have to lead a commission or chair a board every hour, but every effort helps. When we give our time, we build the kind of community we all want to live in.”
 
    The Orinda Citizen of the Year and the Volunteer of the Year will be honored at a presentation dinner on Sunday, Nov. 2 at the Founders Auditorium at the Orinda Community Center. Those wishing to attend are requested to RSVP by Oct. 28. The buffet dinner is $75 per person and reservations are required. More information is available on the Orinda Community Foundation website, OrindaFoundation.org.