EXCHANGE TRIP: Craig Akimoto, 13, has just returned from a student exchange trip to Toyokawa, Japan, with nine other students from Miller Middle School and two chaperones. His fondest memories, he says, will be of his stay with his host family, the Suitos in Toyokawa.
In his own words, "We went to a theme park, shot off fireworks, they cooked really good meals for us and took us shopping and bowling. After our homestay, we went to Kyoto for two days, then returned home."
Craig is the son of Steve and Karen Akimoto of Saratoga. He will be a freshman at Lynbrook High in the fall. His great-grandparents came from Japan in the early 1900s.
Craig is no stranger to being in the news. When he was in the fifth grade he made a film called Tom's Outer Space Adventure, which was presented at the Santa Clara County Fair and at the Discovery Museum. It was about a whale and an eagle that traveled into outer space. The Saratoga News ran a story on it in September '99.
WILDLIFE REFUGE GIFT: Anaflor Q. Smith, a Silicon Valley philanthropist, donated 34 acres to the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge on the southern Oregon coast. The donated land and improvements are valued at $400,000 and include a small house and shop on 11 acres of uplands.
Smith was one of the founders of Hotmail. She co-founded the Bay Area Youth Fund for Education and formerly owned the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. She was honored at the official transfer ceremony recently in Bandon.
Besides the uplands, the remaining land is made up of nine acres of cranberry bogs and 14 acres of riparian, forested and shrub-swamp wetlands. The Bandon Marsh refuge is in the lower Coquille River estuary near Bandon.
A 400-acre tidal marsh restoration project is planned for an area including the refuge, the largest tidal marsh restoration project ever undertaken in Oregon. Smith's donation will allow the project to expand and diversify and provide needed facilities.
SEEING DOUBLE: Louise Webb may want to contact the Chabrier family for her book about twins. Webb herself is a twin. The family father in question is Greg Chabrier. (He pronounces it Shoe-briar.) His older set of twins are high school students Meredith and Matthew.
Matthew is just back from touring Europe with the Saratoga High band. Meredith goes to Mitty. Their mother is Barbara Carlson, who has since remarried. Greg Chabrier, too, remarried and again produced twins—Dana and Carly, both girls about a year old.
Their mother is Dean Chabrier. The composer, Emmanuel Chabrier, is a distant relative and he pronounced the name Shah-bree-ay. This historical musical note is tossed in because I got this item from a music teacher and Dean's mother is also a piano teacher.
CIAO: Saratogan Bill Ford thought it would be a fine idea to arrange a treat for the historian of his high school class in Wyoming, since she had done so much work for the class over the intervening years, sending out newsletters and keeping the far-flung in touch with each other.
So he called on some movers and shakers from the class of '52, Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyo., and nearly all those he called pitched in with funds. Eventually his entreaties netted $3,800, monies that Vaneta Wilson was to use for a trip to Italy.
This was a destination that she had long expressed a longing to see. But the funds were in place many months ago and Wilson has still not actually left the country. Now that she has the wherewithal, she seems reluctant to depart. However, she is expected to fly off this fall.
Hasn't she ever seen that '55 movie Summertime where Katharine Hepburn finds romance with Rossano Brazzi during an Italian holiday?
10TH ANNIVERSARY: Aegis Gallery will look back for its 10th anniversary with a display featuring 11 former members. Some have moved, and some have jobs that don't permit the time involved that a co-op like Aegis requires.
Two exhibitors are founding members: Nancy Jo Lopp, photographer, and Sandie Bradshaw, ceramic jewelry. Others are Bonnie Epstein and Kathleen Lepopi, both watercolorists; Stacey Miller, pastels; Martha Zappe, etchings; Vivi Weeker, needlework; Sean Monaghan, bronze sculpture; Rob Voice, bone constructions; Judith Maxwell, oils; and Ed Lucy, acrylics.
A reception for the artists will be held Aug. 3, 47 p.m. Incidentally, "aegis" means "shield," Athena's shield to be specific, so these are artists under a classical protectorate.
HORSEBACK THERAPY: Los Gatan Ed Sayre will talk about the National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy at the Saratoga Senior Center at noon on July 30. Sayre, retired Naval aviator and engineer, is a volunteer at the equine center, which offers horseback riding to those with disabilities.
An avid horseman, Sayre designed jet and rocket engines, space propulsion systems and nuclear plants.
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By Mary Ann Cook