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Saratoga Sampler
Anna Rainville knew where she was headed
By Mary Ann Cook
BEST IN STATE: Saratogan Anna Rainville won the Audrey Sanchez Award for Most Outstanding Early Childhood Teacher in California at the recent California Kindergarten Teachers Conference. Rainville, a kindergarten teacher at Lakeside for seven years, now teaches at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos.
"She's remarkable," says Lakeside Principal Martin St. John. "One of those rare individuals--a child advocate who can get the most out of children." The garden at Lakeside was named for Rainville. "She was the inspiration and the one who got things rolling," St. John said.
"She used it for her class more than anyone else did--for snacks, for reading aloud--so it's only fitting."
Rainville's undergrad degree was from UC-Santa Cruz in religion; her master's from Adelphi on Long Island in childhood education; and her credential was earned at Mills College in Oakland. She taught at a Waldorf school in Boston before her children were born.
They are Sarah, 12, and Merina, 9. Rainville has taught at various times in Brazil and Mexico, is fluent in Spanish, French and Finnish, and spent her senior year in Finland, having been chosen for an American Field Service program. She is a graduate of Saratoga High School.
At age 8 she told her mother, "I want to be a teacher, but I don't want to wait till I'm an adult. I want to be one right now!" Her mother, a well-known kindergarten teacher herself, eventually obliged. So Rainville worked as an aide at Oak Street School while a student there.
Her mother is, of course, Betty Peck.
TORCHBEARER: Another Saratoga torch bearer in the recent Olympic Torch run was Tim Worley, 15. Worley is a sophomore at Saratoga High, and is active on the crew team. His crew members nicknamed him "100 Percent." His father, Steve, nominated Tim with an inspirational letter to the Olympics Committee.
The letter told how Tim persevered in sports for the past 10 years, despite having severe asthma. At age 5 he was on an award-winning gymnastics team.
TO ICELAND: Arthur Belton is a firefighter paramedic who was chosen by the Saratoga Rotary Club to spend the month of May in Iceland. Rotarian Gene Zambetti is leader of the group. The purpose of the trip is for the travelers to learn the culture and customs of Iceland and then share their experiences on their return.
The Group Study Exchange program sponsored by the Rotary Club will also include three others heading to Iceland--John Koller, an artist; Cynthia Hsich, a research librarian, and Koina Freeman, an independent film director.
QUOTABLE: Highlights from the recent American Association of University Women authors luncheon: Jonnie Jacobs, who has written a stream of mystery novels, is a former English teacher and taught at Saratoga High for five years. She also has a law degree and practiced law for several years.
She started writing because "I'm just naturally nosy," she said. Her books have been described as "mysteries of mirthful mayhem." She believes the appeal of mysteries is that "justice is served and loose ends are tied up," unlike real life.
The memoir that Lillian Rubin wrote, Tangled Lives, is three-pronged: her rise from an impoverished immigrant family; the difficulties of the mother-daughter relationship with a violently angry mother; and the trials and triumphs of her "ever so reluctant" entry into old age.
Rubin is 78, a psychotherapist who has written 10 books. She cited some startling demographics: 100 years ago the life expectancy was 47; today it's 80. The fastest growing segment of the population: 100-year-olds.
Terry Ryan explained how her mother kept a family of 10 children afloat by entering and winning hundreds of contests in the '50s and '60s. Every appliance in the home came from contest winnings. The down payment on their house was courtesy of her mother's winnings.
In one poetry contest of 1,500 entries, 10 of the 12 winners were her mother's. Chests full of contest entries were found at her mother's death, and Ryan realized she had the makings of a memorable story.
The book is The Contest Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Children on 25 Words or Less. Ryan writes the T.O. Sylvester cartoon in the San Francisco Chronicle.
GROUNDHOG DAY: The annual Groundhog Day celebration, organized by Saratogan and Pennsylvania native Jack Mallory, was held this year with a breakfast meeting in Rancho Shopping Center in Los Altos. Some 75 attended and the $600 raised will go to the USO, Second Harvest and a local charity.
MORE FLAGS FLAPPING: Mike Fox donated $2,500 and the West Valley Associated Student $500 to buy flags for the college district to honor Nicole Miller. Miller was a West Valley student who died in one of the terrorist plane crashes Sept. 11. Fox is president of the West Valley-Mission Advancement Board.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
