Saturday, March 14, 2026

Five Altadena Business Owners Take the Stage Tonight for Mariposa Night’s Return

A smaller venue and a sharper focus mark the storytelling series’ second installment, 14 months after the Eaton Fire

Five Altadena business owners will share personal stories of community and recovery Saturday evening at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory, as the Mariposa Night storytelling series returns in a smaller format than its 600-person debut last summer.

The storytellers are Adriana Molina, owner of Sidecca, which the Altadena Chamber of Commerce named its 2024 Business of the Year; Steve Salinas, owner of Steve’s Bike Shop; Scott Uriu of Uriu Architecture; Alfred Haymond of Observational Photography; and Joey Galloway of Summit Enterprises, whose family has owned the Mariposa Junction building for more than 40 years.

Mariposa Night 2 is free and produced by Leadership Pasadena, a Pasadena-based nonprofit, with sponsorship from the Altadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with dinner catered by Fair Oaks Burger for the first 150 registered guests, live music from the Rhythms of the Village Family Band, and an art gallery by Drawing Together featuring work by Eaton Fire survivors. The storytelling program starts at 7 p.m., with chamber music performed by Pasadena Unified students between sessions.

The first Mariposa Night, held July 12, 2025, at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium, drew 600 attendees and featured eight speakers. Co-founder Kitty Cahalan, a Leadership Pasadena board member who also serves as assistant director for educational outreach at Caltech’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach, said in an interview with the Pasadena Weekly that the series began as an impact project for Leadership Pasadena’s spring 2025 cohort.

“Our mission was to do community building,” Cahalan said. “We wanted to have opportunities for people to gather, and be together even while they’re displaced.”

Cahalan, who lost her home in the Eaton Fire, said she conceived of the event after hearing Caltech seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones describe the importance of sustained community gatherings during long-term disaster recovery. Jones has said that communities need events “not just for the next three months but for the next three years, so that this remains a place that you want to be in,” according to a 2025 Pasadena Now report.

Saturday’s event shifts from Caltech’s 1,136-seat auditorium to the Collaboratory, a recovery hub at 540 W. Woodbury Road that opened in October 2025 and houses more than 200 partner organizations serving fire survivors. The capacity is approximately 150.

Cahalan said that the storytelling format serves a dual purpose for the speakers themselves.