Saratoga Sampler
Docs celebrate blessed event ... 30th anniversary
By Mary Ann Cook
TWO DOCTORS MARK ANNIVERSARY: Doctors Anthony Damore and Sidney Sogolow are marking their 30th year working together in their Los Gatos practice. The two married high school sweethearts (Anna Damore and Rosalie Sogolow) and settled in Saratoga, where they first went into private practice on May 1, 1972.
Combined, they have probably delivered 1,500 babies, some 50 babies a month being the norm. As for their own, the Damores have six children and 11 grandchildren; the Sogolows have two children and three grandchildren.
The two were instrumental in establishing an alternative birth center, The Family Birth Place, at Community Hospital of Los Gatos, with rooming in for mothers and babies. Rooming in allows the mother to labor, deliver and recoup in the same room while never being separated from her baby.
The two met at Kaiser, became fast friends and decided to practice together. Though they no longer deliver babies, they still have a thriving infertility and gynecological practice. Purdy, who has worked for them since 1974, says the medical partners are revered and loved--both professionally and personally. Including by her.
PROTECTING WILDLIFE: Saratogan Trudi Burney was named president of the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley early this year. Burney has been in active participant in the center for the past four years. The center is a non-profit operation dedicated to rehabilitating injured and orphaned birds and animals and then releasing them back into the wild.
The center deals with such critters as bobcats, foxes, song birds, raccoons, skunks, possums, bats and coyotes. Volunteers are trained in how to handle and feed the creatures under their care. People bring in injured wildlife.
For Burney this is one of the most satisfying parts of the job: meeting the wide variety of people concerned about living things. Finding a balance between civilization and wildlife is one of the chief concerns of the center. The center also has an active outreach program.
Volunteers are eager to talk to schools and service groups about their services to and adventures with wildlife in this county. The organization began in 1994, an offshoot of the humane society. Today it's located at 3027 Penitentia Creek Road in the Berryessa area of San Jose, 95132.
The phone is 408.929.WILD and their website is www.wcsv.org. The center is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily.
EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT HIM: You have to look closely and quickly to spot Saratogan Jack Dunstan in several movies now on view, but he's there, rest assured. As witness: in Princess Diaries with Julie Andrews he's in the scene where the Ford Mustang backs into a cable car.
He's a bystander in a gray suit who gradually comes into focus. Then there's War Crimes in which he plays a colonel in full dress uniform, plus overcoat. He's descending the stairs behind Morgan Freeman, and you have to look fast, he advises.
In Boys and Girls, he's wearing a yellow shirt and tie and evaluating the bridge projects students have constructed for their final architectural effort. No sound is heard from him, however. That's one of the beauties of being an extra. Nothing to memorize.
Dunstan recently taught a one-day class at Cabrillo College called Work as an Extra in Film and TV. He's an actor/model and communications consultant.
MEETS WITH CONGRESS: Nurse Emily Leo, diabetes educator at Community Hospital of Los Gatos, was part of the delegation that went to Washington last week to influence Congress to allocate more money for diabetes research. She is the only Bay Area participant.
Chosen by the American Diabetes Association to participate in the Call to Congress: Conquer Diabetes, Leo joined 300 other educators, patients and their families who met with congressional leaders.
Some 16 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, and it's the seventh leading cause of death. The Diabetes Management Program at Community Hospital, which Leo started, includes training in blood glucose control and monitoring, meal planning, exercise and medication.
A support group meets the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Rehab Center, 355 Dardanelli Lane, Los Gatos. For more information on the diabetes program, the number is 408.866.3935. The federal government spends about $40 billion a year treating diabetics, but less than $1 billion researching a cure, Leo laments.
TV TIME: Saratoga painter Maree Lubran and her paintings of celebrities were the focus of a recent segment on Channel 5. Bill Schechner interviewed her about these paintings, which she autographs and often sends to the subjects themselves. She calls this work her Art-O-Graphs.
Some of the famed personalities Schechner highlighted include Harry S. Truman, Charo, Bette Davis, Muhammad Ali and Swedish tenor Jussi Bjoerling. One of Lubran's latest is a watercolor of Mel Gibson, which she intends to send to him. Granddaughter Rebecca's likeness was also part of the TV show.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
