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Saratoga Sampler
Saratogans gear up for annual Symphony Gala
By Mary Ann Cook
SYMPHONY GALA: On the auction block at the San Jose Symphony Gala on Sept. 18 will be such coveted attractions as the chance to personally conduct the symphony, a signed Mark McGwire baseball bat and a seven-day cruise on the Mediterranean.
Opera star Kathleen Battle will be the featured performer, singing with the San Jose Symphony at the Center for Performing Arts. Before the concert, gala-goers will have dinner under the tent in Discovery Meadow. "A Night of Renaissance" is the theme.
Cost is $250 for concert, cocktails, dinner, dessert, live auction and dancing. Tickets for the concert only are $25, $50 and $75. For reservations and tickets, the symphony box office can be reached at 288-2828.
These locals are helping maintain the health of the symphony by taking a leading role in the gala.
Joan Hackworth and Karen Krueger, both of Saratoga, are the co-chairs of the gala committee. Tent entertainment is under the eye of Lois Hanson, Los Gatos, and decoration direction is by Judith Marshall, Saratoga, and Tina Nicholson, Los Gatos
J.P. Puette, Saratoga, is captaining table sales and Marie Low of Saratoga and Cathy Gillum of Los Gatos are in charge of publicity.
HONORED GUEST: Los Gatan Margaret (Margarite) Guy will be an honored guest of the Japanese government in October in Tokyo as a participant in the Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program. Guy, who teaches Spanish and ESL at Prospect High School, was selected from more than 2,500 applicants by a panel of educators for this honor.
Under this program, American teachers tour Japan in groups of 20 for three weeks to promote greater intercultural understanding between the two nations. Some 200 educators are selected. Guy's visit will include a homestay with a Japanese family.
She will visit teachers and classrooms directly and take in cultural sites and local industries. The Japanese government fully funds the program and initiated it as a payback for the United States' Fulbright program, through which nearly 6,000 Japanese students have come to the United States for graduate education and research.
Guy has won many awards throughout her 27 years in teaching. Four years ago she won a similar Fulbright scholarship to Poland and Hungary. "I am intensely interested in the culture of other countries," she says. And that passion must shine through her application essay.
She lived in Saratoga before moving to Los Gatos. Her children are Alexander, who graduated from Los Gatos High School in 1991 and Natasha, who graduated from Saratoga High School in 1995.
NEW TEAM: Up next to Madronia Center, at 14800 Bohlman Road to be exact, is the headquarters of the California Province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. They bought the land in 1906 at a price that would make the rest of us latecomers cry, I'm sure, and they've been quartered there since 1937.
However, they'll be moving eventually to be next to their sponsored schools in Belmont--the College of Notre Dame, Notre Dame High School and Notre Dame Elementary School. And there's been a changing of the guard. A new leadership team was named in early August and will serve for five years.
"It's like having three CEOs," says spokeswoman Ellen Johnson. The new Provincial Team members are Sisters Mary Laxague, Nancy O'Shea and Virginia Unger. Laxague was dean of students and worked in the division of Business Administration for more than 32 years at the College of Notre Dame.
O'Shea was pastoral associate for St. Patrick Church in Sonora, working with renewal programs and with volunteers to the sick and elderly. Unger was principal and president of Notre Dame High School in San Jose. She is director of the Notre Dame AmeriCorps for California.
REUNION: Two Saratogans are co-chairing the 50-year reunion celebration of the Santa Clara High School class of 1949. They are Lee Rossetti (the former Pasqualina Dilonardo) and Ed Panelli. Panelli was a state Supreme Court judge and started off his leadership career by being elected senior class president.
The reunion will be held on Sept. 12 at La Hacienda Restaurant. Other Saratogans on the reunion committee are Barbara Diaz Thurnher, Marilyn Orr Brown and Angelo Triana, a retired dentist.
AUTOGRAPH HUNTER: An article by Maree Lubran appears in the September issue of Autograph Times, a publication directed toward autograph collectors, or their fancier name, philographers. Lubran's article describes how she combines portrait artwork with autograph collecting, two passions she has pursued since she was 10.
On the cover of the magazine is her portrait of Shirley Temple Black and accompanying the article are six other of her portraits--Lauren Bacall, Mickey Rooney, Maya Angelou, Red Buttons, Rich Little and Jane Withers.
VOLUNTEERS BOOST EMQ: The three shops that benefit Eastfield Ming Quong have announced a banner year in sales. Proceeds for the past fiscal year were $607,000, a $200,000 increase over the previous year. The three volunteer-run shops are the Butter Paddle in Saratoga, the Happy Dragon Thrift Shop in Los Gatos and the Unicorn Thrift Shop in Almaden Valley.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
