TO BELIZE: Here's a holiday gift that may be realized after the holidays. Judy and Frank Homen are primed to take the trip of a lifetime—they hope. They are among the five finalists chosen out of thousands of entries in the "Escape With Your Perfect Mate" contest offered by Nestlé Carnation's Coffee-mate. Those who entered wrote an essay about why their mate is the perfect one.
The finalists and their stories will be on the Coffee-mate website from Dec. 17 through Jan. 15. During this time the public will decide on the most deserving couple. The story with the most votes after 30 days wins the trip to Belize. With your help, their dream of going to Belize may be realized.
Frank operates his own landscape maintenance company called Sunrise Landscape Maintenance in Saratoga.
CREEK CLEANUP: Some 25 members of St. Andrew's Youth group (SAY) cleaned up the creek behind St. Andrew's Church, between Scotland Street and Crestbrook Drive, and found some unusual objects along the way—a set of box springs, a flotation device, a bag of cement and balls, balls, balls.
The balls were returned to St. Andrew's School. SAY member Jeff Hoever coordinated the project with the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The group pledged to clean up the creek two or three times a year for the next two years. Student Lauren Foote is one of the more active members of the group.
Ramzey Amireh is the adult head and Judy Maassen a second-in-command. SAY members are junior and senior high school students and were servers at the Thanksgiving dinner at the senior center. They will be in the Christmas pageant and are contributors to the Giving Tree at church.
They also helped gather and distribute food for the holidays. They embrace each project with much enthusiasm, Maassen reports. In a similar vein to the creek cleanup, St. Andrews adopted a stretch of Highway 85 about five years ago and have been keeping that tidy ever since.
ADOPT A FAMILY: InnVision's Adopt-A-Family program has not received enough money to meet the increased needs of many families in Silicon Valley and is asking for your help. A $200 donation will enable a family in need to have a Christmas dinner and gifts for each family member.
Teaming with friends or a church group could make a difference. The number is 408.292.4286 and the website's URL is www.innvision.org.
GIFT TIP: Here's a holiday gift tip on a lighter note (pun intended): Los Gatan Chuck McCabe's new CD, Bad Gravity Day. One of the songs on the CD is "Minimum Wager," which won first place in The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival Songwriting Competition this year. And McCabe went to Nashville this summer to perform it.
The new CD was three years in the making, costs $16 and is available at Woodshed Productions, 15466 Los Gatos Blvd., Suite 109-161, or online at www.cdbaby.com
/cd/chuckmccabe2.
TIME FLEETING: A closer-to-home gift tip is the Saratoga Heritage Preservation Commission calendar for the year 2003. The photos in the calendar show Saratoga's agrarian past for the most part, with several aerial views included. Historic dates in Saratoga's history are also noted in the calendar.
Local preservationists who put the project together are Patricia Bailey, Phylis Ballingall, Paul Conrado, Dora Grens, Norm Koepernik, Tom Lowdermilk and Willys Peck. Calendars are on sale at the history museum or from one of the commission members.
CONCERTO COMPETITION: Geri and Lee Actor of Monte Sereno are coordinating a concert for high school and middle school students, sponsored by the Palo Alto Philharmonic, and the deadline for entries is Dec. 31.
The winners will be showcased in a concert June 8 at Cubberley Auditorium, Palo Alto, accompanied by the Palo Alto Philharmonic. Vocalists and players of all instruments are eligible to compete. The website is located at www.paphil.org, and the Actors' phone number is 408.395.2911.
SIZZLERS: The holidays are a busy time for everyone, but especially so for those who entertain gratis throughout the community. Such a group is the Sizzling Seniors, a dance troupe that grew out of an aerobics class led by Saratogan Bev Myers.
One recent Friday found the high-stepping seniors strutting their stuff at three different celebrations—at a foster grandparents gathering, at a retirement home and at a city tree-lighting spectacle. And their energizer batteries were still going ... and going ... and going.
ARRESTED: As part of a recent Muscular Dystrophy Association "Lock-Up" event, Kristin Davis of the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce and Kindle Smyth of Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes were arrested and locked up for being heavily armed with kindness. Bail money raised went toward fighting muscular dystrophy.
Got a tip for Saratoga Sampler? Send email to
maryanncook@earthlink.net.
By Mary Ann Cook