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Saratoga Sampler
Good wishes transcended generations
By Mary Ann Cook
VALENTINE FOR SENIORS: Each year for some five years Susanna Wong has provided a Valentine Chinese luncheon for the Saratoga Senior Center. It's a combination Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year celebration. She buys and cooks the food, and money collected goes to the Senior Center.
It's her way of giving back to the community. Wong was a dietitian at Stanford for nine years. After that she owned three restaurants--Gelato Classico and Deli Cafe in Sunnyvale and the Tea Garden in Cupertino. After she sold the restaurants she became a Realtor. She works at Century 21 SCVA in Westgate.
Along the way, Wong volunteered at the senior center, working on special events and the men's luncheons, as well as the Chinese New Year/Valentine's lunch. Six years ago she coordinated that luncheon and the center bought the food. Since then she's picked up the tab. The annual event is now a sellout.
This year 125 people savored the efforts of Wong and her helpers. This is her gift to the community. Third-graders from Argonaut School made and presented valentines to the seniors. Mine was from Trevor, decorated with candy hearts and the admonition: "Don't eat these candies."
The Argonaut youngsters lined the walls of the senior center and sang a medley of Valentine songs. Children from Rogers School made the place mats. Wong's helpers were: Shirley Ly, Nancy and Bonnie Wong, Romena and Lisa Lung, Winnie Tang, Pao Chen Ho, Josephine Hui, Rosa and Mei Chen and Annie Sattayapiwat.
TOURING: Pianist John Boswell toured Europe recently as audition pianist for productions of the musical The Lion King. His mother is Luann Boswell, who works at Paperfunalia on Big Basin Way.
HONK: Honk, a musical retelling of the Ugly Duckling story, will be performed Feb. 2-March 3 at Montgomery Theater by the Children's Musical Theater and several Saratogans are part of the cast. Shawn Platzker plays main character Ugly, a cygnet mistakenly born into a family of ducklings.
Julie Thomas plays Ida, the devoted mother; Danielle Coleman is Maureen the Moorhen; Cathryn Paolini plays Quaker, a duckling; and Dana Tranchina plays Queenie, the cat. The cast of 140, ages 8-13, is directed by Leslie Hardy Tamel. This musical beat out Lion King for the Olivier Award in England for Best New Musical.
Tickets are $15, adults; $11 for children 12 and under. The box office can be reached at 408.288.5437.
NEW BOOK CLUB: Though in smaller quarters, the Saratoga Library is not shorting new programs. Case in point: A new book club was recently started. It met for the first time this month, and the book up for discussion was Steinbeck's Cannery Row.
Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw from San Jose State University even addressed the fledgling group. The book club's moderator is Betsy White and the club was the brainchild of librarian Joan Zedlar. The group meets the second Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at the library.
Next up: Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr; for April, it's Shipping News by Annie Proulx; and May is Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende. Though the library has only one-third the books and one-third the space in its temporary quarters, attendance is not down as much as expected.
It stands at about 75 percent of last year at this time, reports director Dolly Barnes.
CANCER BENEFIT : Cancer survivor Georgina Burgess of Saratoga, her daughter Emma Burgess and her niece Ashleigh Coffeng of Los Gatos hosted a dinner at the Chart House recently to raise money for the Avon 3-day walk. The event is a fundraiser for breast cancer research, education and treatment.
Some $5,700 was expected to be raised from the $50 tickets and silent auction for up to 75 people. The Chart House donated the place and staff. The three women and Chart House manager Tom Hess helped serve. Chart House vendors Sysco, Pacific Harvest Seafood and City Meat donated the food.
BREAST CANCER STAMP: In another cancer-related item, the Postal Service has released a "Fund the Cure" stamp to help fund breast cancer research. The stamp costs 6 cents more than the normal stamp: 40 cents as opposed to 34 cents; $8 for a book of 20, compared to $6.80 for most stamps.
If all the stamps are sold, it will bring an additional $16 million to cancer research.
WRITERS: Newcomer to Saratoga Sheri Hastings is looking for a writing group. She has a full-time job that requires travel, yet has managed to write a book that has been optioned to Random House.
It's a historical romance, set in Tucson, Ariz., in the 1700s. Hastings is looking for short story writers and poets. Her phone number is 408.867.0598.
CLOSE HARMONY: The Garden City Chorus will present "Harmony Kicks on Route 66" at 2 and 8 p.m. March 2 at Flint Center. The Gotcha Quartet is featured. For tickets, $15-$30, call 408.235.9744. This 80-man singing group is a nine-time Northern California chorus champion.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
