WILDLIFE RESCUERS: Sophie Duckett of Saratoga has a fawn enclosure at her hillside home. She cares for orphaned and injured deer until they are rehabilitated enough to fend for themselves in the wild. Pam Lavin, also Saratoga, fields calls about deer problems, is on the deer team for the Wildlife Center.
Bonnie Noehr of Monte Sereno rehabilitates squirrels in her own home and grounds. Trudy Burney of Saratoga conducts educational outreach programs on wildlife to schools and Scouts and is the president of the board of the Wildlife Center.
David Huang of Saratoga transports wildlife from the Humane Society and delivers them to the Wildlife Center near Alum Rock Park. He also helps with layout for the Wildlife newsletter, Tracks.
There are 150 volunteers at the center—and they could use more, says director Janet Alexander. Some 500 ducklings, 600 squirrels are rescued and rehabilitated yearly. Opossums and raccoons, coyotes, wild cats, birds of prey and songbirds are other inhabitants of the center.
Carmel de Bertaut is the animal care coordinator. The public isn't allowed near the creatures in cages, since the sight of humans would be traumatic and reducing stress is a huge factor in rehab work.
KID LIT: Betty Peck introduced her Brit publisher, Martin Large of Hawthorn Press, to former students and friends at an outdoor supper at her home recently. The dry wit of the Brits came to the fore when Large said he came to Saratoga looking for a place to buy. A tongue-firmly-in-cheek reference to the astronomical cost of housing here.
Hawthorn Press specializes in education and Peck, longtime kindergarten teacher now entering her octogenarian years, fits the bill. Her book is Kindergarten Education: Freeing Children's Creative Potential, and will be in print by next spring.
Some 40 folks, former students of Peck's or whose children were, heard the publisher decry the grim state of child rearing today, which he called the commercialization of children. He laid the blame for the anxiety level of today's child at the door of excessive TV watching and video game-playing.
Large, who has four children himself, would like to see all TV advertising banned that is directed to children under 7. He said Sweden already has such a ruling and he's pushing for a similar ban in England.
One woman said she had encased her family's TV in a locked wooden box and only she held the key. Now that's power. Excessive hours spent in front of TV or computers were blamed for the increase in obesity in our society and for the climate of fear and violence it engenders.
A young, lifelong TV addict is so desensitized to others' feelings that he's not aware that hitting others produces pain, said one listener. The Columbine killings were cited as an example of desensitized youth.
How to live with technology without sacrificing one's imagination or spirit is a prime issue in today's world, especially in child rearing, Large said. "We're drowning in a surfeit of things."
But the creativity that produced high tech surely ought to be able to produce appropriate remedies, short of scissoring off the electric cord to the TV, as one listener said she had done.
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT: Aegis Gallery's latest show is an exhibit of the work of five of the gallery photographers. The five are Bob Bowman, Norma Fries, John Howard, Tom Keenan and Hiroko Muramatsu. A reception for the show will be held Nov. 1, 47 p.m.
RELAX, YOU'RE AT THE DENTIST'S: Saratoga dentist Dr. Stuart Goldberg has added the services of a masseuse to his practice. Since people are often tense when they occupy a dental chair, makes sense to help soothe them. Either hands or feet are massaged while Dr. G plies his trade.
Funny more dentists haven't incorporated that technique.
ART PROGRAM: Several artists from the Saratoga Contemporary Artists group have volunteered to give art lessons to third graders at Foothill School. The effort is designed to keep art education alive, despite the elimination of the elementary art teacher.
Jolene Anderson, artist and teacher, kicked off the program this month. Among those who will be involved in coming months is textile artist Jeanne Tillman, who will teach children how to make paper. Another volunteer artist joining the teaching lineup is Carole Shaver.
The web page for the group is http://www.SCArtists.org. Nacera Guerin is the contact and organizer.
APPLE PIE?: The Bay Area's Best Apple Pie will be determined Nov. 12 at 4 p.m. at the Fountain Restaurant in the Fairmont Hotel, sponsored by the hotel. Participants should send their typed pie recipe by Nov. 7 to Lina Broydo, The Fairmont, 170 S. Market St., San Jose, 95113. Email is lina.broydo@fairmont.com.
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By Mary Ann Cook