"We were looking around for places to live, and we couldn't find a thing," Leon remembers. "With my income, we couldn't afford much. I was really getting kind of desperate."

One day, the couple answered an ad they saw in the newspaper. It listed a one-bedroom adobe house nearby. They drove out to see it.

"When we drove up, I looked at it, and then I looked at Joann, and I said, 'If this is it, we'll have it,' without ever having seen the inside," Leon recalls.

The couple went inside, where they saw that another family was there to see the house as well. They knew there was a chance another family might get the house over them. So, they prayed.

"We made a promise, and we said that if we got the house, and we were ever able to return the favor and help out someone else, we would," he says. "We ended up getting the house. I still remember the address."

Decades have passed since that day. But true to their word, the Milburns have been unselfishly "returning the favor" ever since.

Coming to Los Gatos

In February 1960, the Milburns moved to the Silicon Valley when Leon accepted an engineering job with IBM.

The couple tried in vain to find a Bay Area apartment to rent. Finally, they began to consider old houses, and contacted a few Realtors. After more searching with no prospects in sight, someone told them about the old Wake Robin Inn—a summer resort built in 1911 in the Los Gatos Mountains. Leon and Joann fell in love with it, and in April 1960 they moved in.

Wake Robin Inn has a large main house, and five smaller, woodsy cottages. Leon says by combining his income with his mother's and renting out the five small cottages, they were able to buy it.

Finally, the Milburns had found a way that they could return the favor that had blessed them with their first home back in New Mexico. The couple decided to help out others less fortunate and rent the cottages to nice people at a minimal, monthly rate, below-market value.

Today, 45 years later, the Milburns have helped to provide a decent place to live—and, thanks to the low rent, some have even been able to save up money each month and go on and buy houses of their own.

"Joann and Leon are incredible landlords," say tenants Krista and Gordon Witter.

Giving back

As the years went on, the Milburns raised three sons. Joann was a stay-at-home mother, and Leon worked as an engineer until his retirement in 1991. Despite their busy days, the couple continued to give back to the community in many ways.

Joann remembers one of the first projects she became involved with—the Braille Center, which helps translate books for the blind.

"I had seen their booth at the Santa Clara County Fair for years, and finally decided to get involved," she remembers. "I took the [transcription] class, which lasted a year. It was something I could do at home. We had children in school. I wanted to be available for them, and this was something I could do in my spare time."

Joann says she worked on translating fiction books into Braille for about 17 years, until 1989.

"Then I took a class in technical Braille, which allowed me to transcribe textbooks, like any kind of math or chemistry. That was more challenging, and more interesting," she says.

Joann has now been volunteering at the Braille Center for 32 years. Susan Williams at the center says, "We could not do this without Joann. We all love her down here."

Leon says he is concerned that all of the current transcribers at the Braille Center are older, and that the program could suffer when they lose them and there is no one to replace them.

"They need young folks to learn how to do this, to keep the project going," he says.

Joann says those who don't want to learn Braille or don't have time to take the class can help out in other ways, like operating equipment or helping in the library, which desperately needs volunteers, she says.

That was only the beginning.

When the Loma Prieta earthquake struck Northern California in 1989, many people were affected—their homes devastated, loved ones lost.

The Milburns especially felt for their neighbors in the local mountains. Leon says while local American Red Cross chapters were able to help many, there was difficulty getting to those up in the hills. So, the Milburns got involved. Following the earthquake, the Red Cross began to train a special group of people, which included Leon and Joann. The group was called MERC, or Mountain Emergency Response Corps.

"We are authorized to open shelters in the mountains and take care of residents there until support comes from either of the two local chapters [in Santa Clara County or Santa Cruz County]," Leon says.

He and Joann continued their involvement when MERC started the ARK program. ARK is the name given to containers—which look much like outdoor storage sheds—that are placed in key locations and filled with emergency relief materials such as cots, blankets, diapers, toiletry kits, towels and more. A number of ARKs were placed locally to serve areas such as Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga, and there is one up at Lakeside School in the hills.

The Milburns have been active in the local chapters of the American Red Cross for 15 years, and Leon was called upon recently to aid in the hurricane disaster relief effort in the Florida region. Longtime Red Cross employee Rex Painter says, "[Leon Milburn] motivates others, and has personally helped raise over $20,000 to help the community be better prepared."

Another project that aided those in need after the Loma Prieta Earthquake is LOVE, INC. Leon says the "INC" does not stand for "incorporated"; rather, the program's title means "Love, In the Name of Christ."

LOVE, INC literature explains the program's purpose as "connecting willing volunteers who want to help, with people who have genuine needs."

"We got involved through our church, the Mountain Bible Church," Joann says. "Our pastor was one of the founders. It was originally started in Michigan 15 years ago."

Leon says there is a "clearinghouse" set up in an undisclosed location. When someone in the community who has a need visits a member church and asks for help, the church gives them the phone number of the clearinghouse. When the clearinghouse receives the call and hears of their need, the need is first validated.

"For example, if they need money, why do they need money? Do they need budget counseling? Is this the first time they have asked for money? Is it their car that needs repairing?" Joann says.

Once the need is validated, the clearinghouse will call the designated contact person at a nearby church. He or she will then match the person in need with someone who has signed up as a willing volunteer to help in that specific area. For example, Leon says, a mechanic at the church may sign up to help those who cannot afford vital car repairs.

The Milburns are the contact at Mountain Bible Church, and also help with newsletters and mailings, and volunteer answering phones in clearinghouses.

Los Gatos history

The Milburns have lived in Los Gatos for 45 years, and say they consider themselves blessed to live in such a beautiful home, in such a beautiful town. So when they discovered the opportunity to help preserve the town's history in local museums, they jumped right in.

They first became involved through a service project at the Elder Hostel. A decade later, the Milburns have helped improve preservation procedures at the Museums of Los Gatos for the better.

"Our job is to preserve artifacts for future generations, not to alter them or harm them in any way," says Laura Bajuk, museum director.

Passionate about the cause, the Milburns decided to learn more. They began on-the-job training across the country, at locations such as the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and McGregor Ranch near Estes Park in Colorado. They gained hands-on knowledge from professional preservationists and learned a lot about artifact identification.

"Every time we go to a different museum, we bring back new information," Leon says. The couple still travels to other locations to continue their education on the subject, most recently trekking to Sharlott Hall in Prescott, Ariz.

The couple regularly volunteers for collections at Forbes Mill. They help preserve, catalog and identify items that are not on display, taking photos and giving items ID numbers—all the while wearing white protective gloves. Leon says the museum is slowly moving toward the digital era with cameras and files for the cataloging process.

Bajuk says the photo catalog the Milburns helped create was commended in a federally-funded conservation assessment.

"We still have a long way to go, but with Leon and Joann on board, we know we'll get there," she says.

Leon also volunteers as a docent, greeting visitors to the museums and showing them around.

The Museums of Los Gatos, such as Forbes Mill, are typically open only a few hours each, on only a few days per week.

"Maybe we could be open seven days a week, if we had more docents," he says.

As if they don't do enough, Joann decided she could do more. Despite being a grandmother twice over, she became a cuddler in the neo-natal intensive care unit at Good Samaritan Hospital a year and a half ago. She first learned of the program after reading an article in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, she says. She took a class, and now cuddles babies every Friday.

"The babies are usually premature, or have some sort of health problem and need intensive care, like being hooked to machines to have their vital signs monitored," she says. "They have found that holding babies is good therapy because they get a sense of being loved, and its good for their growth and feeling. They're used to being inside the mother and feeling the heartbeat, so this gives them that feeling again, the duplication of that environment."

Joann says that mothers with babies in Good Samaritan's neo-natal unit hail from as far as Monterey and Salinas, so they are not always able to be there to visit their babies as often as they would like.

"Those babies are less likely to be held because their mothers have to come from so far away," she says. "The parents are very appreciative of the cuddlers because they realize it's important."

Joann says that anyone wishing to become involved with the cuddler program must put in 40 hours of on-site volunteer work, which qualifies them to take the official training class.

Inspiring others

The Milburns do not want glory for their contributions. Rather, they hope that the story of their lives and what they have done will help "wake up some people" in the community, as Leon says, and inspire them to become involved themselves. According to many in the community, they have already accomplished that in many ways.

"These two people have touched thousands of lives, and inspire others to attempt the same," says Bajuk, who nominated the couple for the 2004 Seniors of Distinction Award, put on by the Terraces of Los Gatos and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. The Milburns won won. Mayors Steve Glickman of Los Gatos and Erin Garner of Monte Sereno presented the couple with the award during a special champagne reception at the Terraces of Los Gatos in May of last year. Pamela Bancroft at the Terraces says the Milburns are the first couple ever to receive the award, which is usually given to individuals.

"They are tremendous role models," says Pastor John Haak of the Mountain Bible Church.

And they know how to keep a promise.

PROMISES KEPT

Leon and Joann Milburn dedicate their volunteer efforts in many different ways. For information on the organizations they work with:

* The Braille Center—To get involved, call Susan Williams or Helen Coughlin at 408.298.4468.

* American Red Cross—The Milburns say the Red Cross can always use more volunteers. Those interested can take general education classes to figure out how they want to help, or there are many short-term and long-term projects that need a hand, such as data entry and registering people for classes. For information, call 408.577.2023.

* LOVE, INC—Those interested can call the Santa Clara County branch at 408.379.9226 or the Santa Cruz County branch at 831.457.1054.

* Museums of Los Gatos—The Milburns encourage others in the community to get involved in helping to preserve and treasure the town's history. Anyone interested can contact Laura Bajuk at 408.395.7375.

* Baby cuddling at Good Samaritan Hospital—For more information, people can call the hospital's auxiliary office at 408.559.2345.