MONTECITO, Calif. _ Hope can be plucked from a heap of dirt with gentle hands.
A gold-rimmed teacup with a chip in its pedestal. A pink vest knitted for a niece. A canvas book bag carrying a bracelet and a headband.
Once as brown as the angry earth that barreled down the hillsides of Montecito, hundreds of possessions like these have been restored and returned to eager arms.
Much of the salvaging is done by the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade, a group of volunteers that formed after the deadly mudslides in January to help neighbors dig sludge out of their homes.
Finding relics soon became their specialty, and then, an obligation.
The tiniest of trinkets mean everything these days.
Now, the group searches for the invaluable. A girl of 2, with doe eyes _ Lydia Sutthithepa _ and John "Jack" Cantin, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout. Both missing since the storm.
Their fathers died that day. Their mothers pass by the remaining mounds of rubble, wondering if they serve as graves for their children.
If there is peace of mind somewhere in all this churned-up soil, the Bucket Brigade feels a duty to find it.
