They were in Saratoga recently, speaking at the home of Jack Moore and Bonnie Slavitt-Moore to leadership donors of the Sharone chapter of Hadassah. Desperately needed is mobile equipment for the hospital to increase its ability to deal with homicide and terrorism. That means setting up imaging resources, operating theaters, obtaining intensive care beds. Penchas calls it terror medicine and it is exceedingly expensive.

Hadassah Hospital is considered an island of healing because it takes care of any victim of violence--Jew, Palestinian, Arab. The Hadassah organization's hope is that medicine not only has the power to heal disease and injury but also the wounds that divide hearts and minds.

Hadassah Hospital is one very significant way Hadassah can prove itself a bridge to peace in Israel. For more information on this fundraising effort or the hospital, contact Corinne Sherman, president of the Sharone chapter, at SharoneHadassah@aol.com

OUTDOOR MURAL: A group of Girl Scouts, under the direction of Kristie Liddie and Julia Anderson, both 14, is creating a mural for the Saratoga Community Preschool, located behind the senior center and planning department. It will depict a turn-of-the-century dream world of animals, flowers and moss children.

The mural is slated to be finished by the end of the month and will be on two 8-foot-by-4-foot panels. Working on the project with her sister is Jenna Liddie, 9. The scene shown is taken from a book that is popular with the preschool set, The Princess in the Forest by Sibylle von Olfers, published in 1909.

Marianne Swan is director of the preschool, and Kristie and Jenna and sister Sarah Liddie, 5, have all been students there.

SEPT. 11 COMMEMORATIVE SINGER: Saratogan Danelle Medeiros, 16, sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," "Amazing Grace" and "If We Hold on Together" at Pratt and Whitney Propulsion Lab in San Jose on Sept. 11. She was recommended as an awesome singer by a cousin, a P&W employee.

Danelle Medeiros has been active in community children's theater, having played such roles as Lucy Harris in Jekyll and Hyde, the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Rusty in Footloose.

A junior at Archibishop Mitty High School, Danelle studies voice with Richard Nichol in San Francisco and Billy Pesta in Los Gatos. Not surprisingly, her goal is to become a professional singer.

MARGARITAVILLE, SARATOGA STYLE: A Margarita Party for Women Only at $50 a head proved to be one of the most popular offerings at the Sacred Heart Auction this spring, what with more than 75 women signing on. These selfless women agreed to do some heavy drinking to help out their youngsters.

All the proceeds benefited the children's school and church. The event was held this month at the garden of Debi Colyar, who claims she was talked into hosting by auction committee chairmen Kay Singer and Andrea Kenter. Party helpers were Sueanne Gera, Karen Carte and Sue Crimi.

Promises were made about GQ bartenders being provided; don't know how those promises were answered, but the promises of lots of laughs were surely fulfilled. It's impressive the sacrifices some women will make for their children and church.

ROMANCE IN GRAND TUSCAN STYLE: Restaurateur A.J. Szenda really knows how to throw an engagement party. Szenda owns Viaggio on Big Basin Way and holds special wine dinners there regularly. At the most recent gathering, some 80 gourmet diners were witnesses to his proposal.

He presented Viaggio waitress Stacy Seehafer with a diamond that actually lit up. No one knew how he got the ring to light up. Usually it's the sight of the diamond that lights up the bride. Not only did Seehafer accept Szenda's proposal, but her father rose from his chair and accepted for her as well.

The evening's menu featured Tuscan recipes, treats that Seehafer and Szenda had brought back from a trip they took earlier this year to Italy.

The menu concluded with tiramisu, Italian for "pick-me-up." Seems those Italians know how to treat themselves--they use tiramisu as a remedy for the afternoon slump around 4 p.m.

FEATURED ARTISTS: Photographer Luisa Tosi Claeys and jewelry maker Dori Urch Kark are the featured artists for Gallery Saratoga for September. Kark's display is called "Encircling Hours Jewelry." Claeys first photographed flowers on the Stanford University campus, where she was a reference librarian. Later, at Price Waterhouse, she used the nearby Sunset Magazine gardens for her large-scale, close-up photos.

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