Almaden Resident

Community

Almaden businesses 'network' for charities

By Anne Gelhaus

A baby seat makes an unlikely centerpiece for a business networking roundtable, but for the Almaden Valley Networking Group, it was tangible evidence of a larger mission.

The plastic seat was filled with baby clothes and supplies for newborn triplets, whose father is a severely wounded Iraqi War vet. His first VA check had yet to arrive when his three sons were born.

Networking group co-founder Susan Babaoghli donated the items through Helping Hands, the group's charitable arm. Co-founder Sue Datta arranged for a friend with slightly older triplets to provide the family with hand-me-downs for six months, giving the family much-needed assistance until their trio of infants, born prematurely, are stable enough to come home from the hospital.

Babaoghli's donation was on display at a Nov. 7 meeting at Unwined, where Babaoghli, Datta and fellow co-founder Farah Bani-Taba made their pitch to a dozen Almaden business owners about the merits of the networking group. The four-week-old organization already boasts about 40 members, who signed up at last month's inaugural meeting.

"The only thing that makes this different from other networking forums is that we have a charitable layer under us," said Datta, who used to run an international retail business called Holikow. "We want to help all the little groups that fall through the cracks of big charitable organizations."

Helping Hands is set up to serve charitable groups throughout the greater South Bay.

"There's not as much need in Almaden, but there's so much to give from Almaden," said Bani-Taba, broker and co-owner of Castle View Realty.

Bani-Taba got her inspiration for the networking group from the television show Extreme Makeover Home Edition, in which communities come together to build a new home for a family in need. She contacted the South Valley Collaborative, a Gilroy-based coalition of 50 local charitable organizations, one of which sent her a request for help before the networking group was even established.

Gardner Family Health Network was asking for $300 to pay for two weeks of baby-sitting services for the children of a suicidal mother, allowing her to get the help she needed. Bani-Taba and her husband Mo came to the family's aid.

"The husband called me afterward to thank me and let me know the money went for what it was supposed to," Bani-Taba said. "It's the one-on-one that's really special; you know where the donation's going and what it's being used for."

It's also important to the group's co-founders that its members know and can vouch for each other. New members are asked to join only through an existing member's referral, and each member must represent a different profession.

"My business motto is, 'Dedicated to excellence,' " Bani-Taba told the assemblage at Unwined. "I wanted to bring a group together that feels the same way."

South Valley Collaborative chairwoman Dina Campeau is counting on this dedication to translate into emergency assistance for individual clients.

"Sometimes filling a certain need for a family can prevent them from falling deeper into the abyss," Campeau said. "That's where I see the networking group coming in: They can prevent the downhill slide by providing one-time assistance."

In return for their good works and a $300 annual membership fee, business owners in the network will be featured in quarterly newspaper ads and on the group's website. The group's founders also plan to set up a referral system for members and to publish a group business directory that will be mailed to homes in the Almaden Valley. Membership dues will also be used for charitable works if no one steps forward to help with a particular case.

Lack of response hasn't been a problem for the group so far. When the South Valley Collaborative asked for a car seat and stroller for a teenage mother who'd been kicked out of her foster home, Kelly Dippel, owner of Design Events, delivered the items in less than 24 hours.

"This is a dynamic group," Datta said.

For more information about the group, visit almadennet.org.