The Los Osos-Baywood Park welcome sign and bear statue have greeted visitors coming into one part of this coastal town for decades.
Volunteers with Celebrate Los Osos are working to clean, paint and reseal the sign and bear that greet visitors heading into town from Los Osos Valley Road. The last time the sign was restored was four years ago.
“We scrubbed the big sign. The dirt just running off the sign. And I did a little bit of work on the bear. It had lichen about this thick on its face. Poor thing. So, we’re working on that in preparation for sandblasting it down to the concrete in January and seal coating it and then painting it again, so it looks like a bear,” said Pandora Nash-Karner, Celebrate Los Osos president.
Volunteers hope that by maintaining the bear and sign, every year or so, the well-known pieces will last another 20 to 25 years. They say the welcome sign and bear provide a sense of pride to the community.
“Visitors, family members, people from out of the area when they come to Los Osos, go out to Montana de Oro, and you start with a welcome. I hope they feel like they’re welcomed, and I also hope that they also try to respect the community a little more so that they are willing to come back and enjoy our area,” said Tom Needham, Celebrate Los Osos volunteer.
“I think it’s important to maintain our iconic pieces in our community because that’s what we’re all about. This community is really remarkable. We only have 15,000 people but we have a lot of energy and the people within this community come together for this kind of project,” said Nash-Karner.
The bear was hand-carved in the 1970s by a local painter. According to the Chamber of Commerce, bears once inhabited Los Osos-Baywood Park which is why the town's name means the “Valley of the Bears”.
Those interested in volunteering for Celebrate Los Osos can visit their website.
