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Founder's Day must be salvaged
By Sheila Sanchez
It truly is sad news when an event that has been a part of a close-knit community for more than two decades is cancelled. I'm talking about the demise of the popular Founder's Day celebration in Willow Glen traditionally held after the Labor Day weekend.
I had heard much about the uniqueness of this event and was looking forward to our newspaper reporting on it as a truly community-based celebration. But when I found out from our Willow Glen reporter Kate Carter that the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association was thinking about canceling it, my heart just sank. I had heard from community members how excited they were this year about the event and in weeks' past, my phone had rung more than once with an inquiring voice wondering when the event would take place this year.
What could be more important than an event honoring the founding of the Willow Glen community on Sept. 8, 1927? What party poopers! Willow Glen is celebrating its 74th birthday next month, but nobody wants to help out with the party!
I contacted Karen Naegeli, the association president, a couple of weeks ago and briefly introduced myself as the new editor of the WILLOW GLEN RESIDENT and then proceeded to ask about when this year's celebration would occur. Her response was that she didn't know and that the association was going to meet to discuss when the event would take place. Naegeli never even hinted that the event was in danger of being cancelled. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps a final decision had not been made.
What I don't understand is how the association could let an announcement of this magnitude be postponed until the last minute. At this point, the community has been building up excitement and looking forward to the events around it.It's not a good idea to tell the community that the celebration has been cancelled just two weeks before it was expected. It was not a very professional move on the part of the association.
Why would the association choose to vote in a closed-door meeting to cancel this event? Wouldn't it have been wiser to invite community members to an open meeting and explain why the event was being cancelled? I'm sure more than one Willow Glen community member would have come up with ways to salvage the celebration. The association could have invited key political Willow Glen figures such as District 6 City Councilman Ken Yeager and his office staff to such a meeting. I've been to such meetings. Community officials fear them because they tend to be lengthy and community input is gigantic, but they get things out in the open and solutions to problems are found.
From everything I've read about the event, it sounds like the party organizers have been getting lazy or didn't make it a priority for quite some time. First they cut the party from a two-day celebration to a one-day party; then as far back as a couple of years, association members started reporting financial problems.
This year, Association Vice President Bob Carris said the reasons for canceling the event were three-fold. He said party organizers don't have sufficient funds, don't have enough volunteers and those serving alcohol must take a required alcohol beverage-control class. While these may have been obstacles, they don't seem overwhelming.
Then the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association got involved and said it would try to find a way to continue to mark the event in some other way. That still doesn't make things better for those who were looking forward to it year after year. It's like telling your child, "Sorry, honey, we found out we didn't have enough money, volunteers or punch servers for your party, so we decided to cancel it. Perhaps next year, instead of a party, we'll find another way to mark the occasion of your birthday."
Because of the money problems that the association has had and in light of a San Jose Police Department investigation into possible embezzlement of its funds, I suggest the association get its act together and start to truly represent the Willow Glen business community.
Sheila Sanchez is the editor of the Willow Glen Resident. She can be contacted via email at ssanchez@svcn.com.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
