YOUNG CREW: Rosemary Adamson of Saratoga is a 10-year member of the Los Gatos Rowing Club and is the outreach chairwoman for that group, which means she helps set up the programs aimed toward youth. Its numbers tell its success: There are 124 in the youth program; participants are called juniors.
The adult members are called masters, and there are about 80 of them. Adamson got involved because of her son, Eric, who is now a coxswain on the Stanford crew team. It's a sport for all ages, Adamson says, because of its thorough and demanding conditioning.
The Los Gatos Rowing Club attracts athletes of all ages, from teenagers to octogenarians. This year the outreach program is partnering with the Downtown College Prep High School in San Jose, and this year the club will award three full college scholarships to crew members from that school.
The club offers programs to corporations, too, to help with team-building. The juniors in the rowing club have won recognition or gone on to glory in their college careers. One outstanding example is Rachel Jeffers, a bronze medalist with the U.S. National Women's Crew, chosen over scores of others for the eight-woman crew. She is a senior at Los Gatos High School and will go to Yale next year.
Another Los Gatos High School senior, Graham Watts, went to the selection camp for the Junior Men's National. He'll go to Berkeley in the fall. Eric Adamson , too, went to selection camp for Junior Men's.
Saratoga junior members of the rowing team are Kathryn Daly, Michael Hnojewyj, Courtney Johnson, Brent Nose, Peter Pavlidakis and Alix Pruzansky.
WINNING ARTISTS: Elke Groves, David Hunt and Kathy Keenan captured first-place honors in the annual Los Gatos Art Association Open Juried Show. Keenan's mediums are oil and acrylic; Groves is a watercolorist; Hunt works in pastels. Groves and Keenan are Los Gatans; Hunt, a Saratogan.
Winning a second-place award for photography was Judith Bingman of Los Gatos. Third-place ribbons went to Ruth Condit, oil/acrylic, of Saratoga, and Ron Hanner, watercolor, of Los Gatos.
Honorable mentions included Nacera Guerin, oil/acrylic; Mary Ann Henderson, watercolor; Cynthia Riordan, pastel; Michiko Shimoda, 3D, all of Saratoga. From Los Gatos, more honorables: Audrey Armstrong, mixed media; Debbie Blessing, photography; Amy Konsterlie, watercolor; Evangelina Miller, mixed; Sandi Okita, oil/acrylic; Ardis Nagler, photography; and Judi Snyder, watercolor. The show was juried by well-known muralist John Pugh and will be on display at the art museum on Tait in Los Gatos until May 3.
AT THE TRACK: Encountered Louise Webb at Montalvo and she mentioned going with regularity to the track. I got fired up, thinking she was a devotee of the racetrack, in close cahoots with a bookie, and wanted to hear her latest tips.
Alas, it turned out she was talking about her exercise regime conducted at the high school track. Vastly disappointed, my heart rate slowed to normal. Webb, however, did have endearing news about her memoir class at the Saratoga Senior Center.
Memoirist Ginny Johnson put the individual contributions of the class into a booklet, and Ed Smith provided photos. Another member of the memoir class, 91-year-old Cecilia Frizell, wrote about how at age 90 she took her first helicopter ride.
We were at Montalvo for a poetry event: Saratogan Mary Lou Taylor reading from her new book, The Fringes of Hollywood.
SHOW 'N TELL: Local antiques dealers donated their time and talents to the third annual Antique Show and Tell, a recent fundraiser given by the Assistance League of Los GatosSaratoga, which capitalizes on the appeal of finding hidden treasures in one's own home, a la the TV show Antiques Roadshow.
Appraisers were Lynne Denman of Greenwich Antiques and Carol Mitchell of Carol's Gallery, both of Saratoga; Sue Okey of DBA/Opera House, Los Gatos; Juanita Nikki Peters of YesterYears, Cupertino; and Steve Wayne Yvaska, antiques columnist of the Mercury News.
From San Francisco came Michael Weller of Argentum and Howard Settle of Antique Art & Exchange. Some unusual notes struck: Peggy Corr brought sheet music from early in the 20th century with lyrics by F. Scott Fitzgerald for a look by the experts.
The range is vast, from a cookie jar set with cartoon characters thereon to a small cat by Tiffany, commended by the dealers. A Victorian centerpiece described as one of the best of the genre drew an estimate of several thousand dollars because it was in such fine condition.
Could they make a killing in case they ever sold? Or was it simply curiosity about how much their personal treasures might be worth that drew attendees?
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By Mary Ann Cook