Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Main Street

Mary Ann Cook

Graduate heads for the big lights of Broadway

It all started at Paul Curtis's studio: Bronwen J. Carson, Los Gatos High School grad, recently won a Performance Award for best newcomer from the American Musical Theatre of San Jose for her deft toe work in Kismet, The Will Rogers Follies and Me and My Gal. She added to her 18 years of classical ballet training with voice lessons and is now singing, acting and dancing. She's just finished a film in Los Angeles, Shut Up and Dance!, starring such luminaries as Vanessa Williams, Kris Kristofferson and Joan Plowright. She has a speaking role in that one.

"She's on her way," says her mother, Isobel Carson, who doesn't mean that metaphorically: Bronwen will head for New York by the end of the year. Those at the American Musical Theatre told her she was ready for Broadway, and she'll give it a try. Stay tuned.

Hammering for Humanity: Three Los Gatans are working for Jimmy Carter's Habitat for Humanity this summer, helping build affordable houses in the Appalachian Mountains. The three are Mary Ahearn, George Ahearn and R. Patrick Hamm.

The project they're working on, designed to eliminate poverty-level housing, is called Hammering in the Hills. It's a joint venture between Habitat and the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises Partnership Build.

The $7.75 million project is expected to build 153 houses this summer using donated materials and contributions, plus volunteer labor.

The houses come complete with interest-free loans to potential homeowners. States involved are Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The three Los Gatans are working in Kentucky.

TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT? Try hiking the Pacific Crest trail, the route from the Mexican border to the top of Washington State. That's what Jenny Coughlin and boyfriend David Ferguson are doing this summer, and they've each lost 20 pounds so far.

They started May 1 at Campo, Calif., and expect to finish up Oct. 2. They've already negotiated what is considered the roughest leg of the trip--from Mt. Whitney to Florence Lake, where they navigated five snowy passes in five days. They average 20 miles a day and receive a box of food and supplies each week from Jenny's mother, Judy Coughlin, prepackaged by Jenny.

Meanwhile, father Tim keeps their Web site updated via communiques to David's brother Andy in New York City, who is in charge of the pair's progress electronically.

If you, too, want to keep up with them, their Web page is http://Personalweb.Sierra.Net/~Ferg/PCT.HTML. They planned this trip in fine detail for a year, but didn't do anything special to get in physical readiness, Judy reports. But when they're not hiking, Jenny and David are on ski patrol at Sierra Tahoe and work as dealers at Harrah's during the off-season. Judy is a library assistant at Los Gatos Library, and Tim is an optometrist.

For the first time, the International Convention of Germans from Russia is being held in the Bay Area--at the Hyatt San Jose Airport hotel July 20-27. The focus will be on genealogy, ethnic heritage and current conditions in Russia. It's open to the public, and all genealogists are encouraged to attend.

Many Germans fled to Russia to resist oppression early in the 19th century, then fled Russia to escape oppression there late in that same century. More than 1,000 descendants of those emigrants are expected at the convention. Don Wolf at 395-2921 is the correspondent. The founder of USA magazine and Los Gatos historian George Brunz were members of this organization.

KiwaniAns and Rotarians both recently heard Andy Doty, former director of community relations at Stanford University, talk about his experiences as a tail gunner on a B-29 during World War II.

After his retirement in '93, Doty wrote a book called Backward Into Battle. On one of the 21 missions he flew, the plane was damaged when forced into a thundercloud to escape the spotlights beaming up from Tokyo. The crew had to jump ship and plunge into the Pacific, but the radar operator couldn't swim and chose to go down with the plane. Doty is quite a speaker, both clubs agree.

WanNa be the next poet laureate of Los Gatos? OK, then, submit three poems of 25 lines or less to Poetry for Everyone, c/o Forbes Mill Museum, 75 Church St., Los Gatos, 95030. The only requirement: that one poem be about the joy of reading. A junior division is offered for those under 18 and the deadline is Aug. 1, so get your muse and your computers cranked up.

This is the eighth annual contest sponsored by Poetry for Everyone, a group that meets at Forbes Mill Museum the second Sunday of each month. Mary Foster at 353-2043 is the one to call for more information. The Weekly-Times' Bob Aldrich won this contest and was last year's poet laureate.

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