Saratoga News

Saratoga Sampler

Mary Ann Cook

Saratogan sings for Survivors International

SINGING FOR SURVIVORS: Mezzo-soprano Constance McKee and pianist Daniel Lockert will present a concert to benefit Survivors International at the Palo Alto Cultural Central June 12 at 8 p.m. Survivors International provides health-care services to survivors of torture living in the Bay Area.

Since its founding in 1990, the organization has provided assistance to more than 650 men, women and children from 57 different countries. "These are courageous people who have survived repressive governments or the horrors of war," McKee says. "Some are deeply scarred. The right kind of clinical care can make a positive difference, so they can rebuild their lives emotionally and economically."

McKee, of Saratoga, will sing romantic and inspirational German songs by Brahms, Schumann and Schubert. McKee, who has lived in both Germany and England, wears at least two hats. She has a master's degree in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an MBA from the Yale Business School. She is on the board of West Bay Opera Company.

And she's the president and CEO of a startup neuroscience company called Xavos with the motto: "We get in your nerves." At Survivors International she offers strategic planning help in fundraising, a specialty. Besides all that, she sings for survivors. "It's the hardest thing I do and the most rewarding." Survivors International can be reached at 415/765-6999.

RIDING HIGH: Michael and John Endicott of Saratoga will participate in the Portola Valley Classic Equestrian Festival June 16-21 at the equestrian training center in Menlo Park. Both are now in training at Rancho Santa Fe.

Michael is a former member of the World Cup team and former instructor of the Saudi Arabian team. The festival, a world-class Grand Prix event, will offer hunter/jumper class competitions by day and fundraisers at night. Included are events for children, a vaulting exhibition and a dressage exhibition by Marryanna Danielson.

Jennifer and Joe Montana and KGO-TV weatherman Joel Bartlett will demonstrate cutting horses, keeping one cow separated from the herd for 2 1/2 minutes, on June 18 at 7 p.m., with a barbecue beforehand and a dance afterward. Cost is $30.

Proceeds from that event will benefit the New Children's Shelter Fund of San Jose. June 19 is Monte Carlo night, and the Grand Prix is June 20 at 2:30 p.m. That night there's a dinner/dance with dressage to music of the S.F. Symphony Youth Orchestra alumni. Cost is $125.

Father's Day breakfast will be June 21; cost is $5. Admission is free for the competitions, but parking is $3. For more information, call 888-440-7469. For tickets, call 650/725-2787.

ALL GREEK TO THEM: Five Saratoga couples are just back from a sun-filled cruise to the Greek isles and Istanbul, embarking from Athens and taking in Delphi, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, Ephesus and Kusudasi. Most signed up through a brochure sent to UCLA alums.

Since nearly all are Presbyterian Church members, they got wind that other Saratogans had booked passage too, before boarding the 185-passenger cruise ship, Raddison's The Song of Flower.

Here's the Saratoga passenger list: Mona and Charles Brooks, Pat and Bill Campbell, Margaret and Tony Ciraulo, Carol and Ed Neumann, Mary Lou and Jack Taylor. The Parthenon, the Minoan ruins complete with beds and baths dating from 2000 B.C., and the Sultan's Palace in Turkey were but some of the 10-day highlights.

At a dinner reunion at the Brookes' recently they shared photos and memories. The Brookses' photos--a mere 27 rolls--weren't back yet, though.

OUT-OF-THE-WAY: "Reeked of quaint" is the way another Saratoga couple described their lodgings in England. Slanting floors and beams t caught you on the bean if you weren't careful. Doors were never locked. Even the house cats had the run of the place. Three cats came and went at will, surveying the room of Norma and Bill Ford.

How'd they know he's a retired veterinarian? The Fords particularly gloried in the gardens at Stourhead, Wiltshire, southwest of London. So little known is its existence that two locals, when asked for directions, had never heard of it. Could it be the Fords' Yank accent was too hard to interpret?

AVID GARDENER: Another avid gardener who's just back from England and Belgium and who raves about the Chelsea Flower Show and longs for the 80-degree weather she encountered is Tessie Young. She and two compadres stayed in an apartment overlooking Harrod's while in London and popped in and out for wonderful take-out. To say nothing of the view.

OUTFITTED FOR PLAY: A Children's Play Therapy Center opens June 11 at Next Door, Solutions to Domestic Violence. The center is at 1181 N. Fourth St., San Jose. Design Response, a nonprofit that helps equip other nonprofits, was responsible for furnishing the center. Saratogan Helen Carreker is the founder of Design Response.

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