Speak Out

Thank you for article

We would like to thank Kate Carter for the Aug. 29 article she wrote about Jeff Michel and his recent cancer diagnosis. We are Willow Glen residents, marathoners, and members of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training program.

We approached Jeff two years ago to host Willow Glen Cares, an annual event that has raised more than $25,000 for cancer research in the Bay Area. Jeff saw this as an opportunity to bring many other Willow Glen restaurants, businesses and residents together to support a good cause in our community.

He donated 100 percent of his time, energy and chef expertise to these events. He has a very big heart for people. We are hoping Willow Glen residents will be as generous to him as he has been to others. Thank you for including his email, phone and donation information.

Garth and Kathy Nobis
Nevada Avenue

Cafe owner missed

Thank you for the article about Jeff Michel in the Aug. 29 issue of the Willow Glen Resident. My husband and I have been patrons of the White Dove Cafe since it opened and we will miss the great food and warm atmosphere. Jeff is a creative chef and a wonderful person. Our thoughts will be with him and his family.

Kim Fredericks
Settle Avenue

Liked nostalgic piece

As a busy professional traveling to my office in San Francisco daily and frequently to New York and elsewhere to visit clients, I rarely find time to read our community newspaper. However, I want to thank you for writing the nostalgic piece in the Aug. 22 issue of the Willow Glen Resident.

I have only lived in Willow Glen since 1989. However, for my grandmother, Willow Glen was a special place. Her name was Lucille Eastman and she was a longtime English teacher at Willow Glen High.

For many years during my youth she recounted stories of the children she taught at the high school. She loved Willow Glen High very much and was an enormous asset to the Willow Glen community at large. In the 1950s, Lucille earned National Teacher of the Year honors and enjoyed an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City. She and her prize pupil stayed at the Tony Waldorf Astoria hotel and represented San Jose, Willow Glen and Willow Glen High School with grace and humility.

When my boys were much younger, I would frequently take them for walks around the neighborhoods of Willow Glen. On several occasions I engaged in conversations with longtime residents of our community, many of whom remembered my grandmother as a demanding but fair teacher who encouraged all her students to strive for academic achievement. I know this to be true because she demanded that I work hard in my studies.

Although my grandmother retired from teaching in 1965, she always thought of herself as a teacher, proud to have positively influenced the children of Willow Glen.

Paul Martin
Norval Way

Enjoyed column

My Willow Glen High School class will be celebrating its 50th year next year.

I enjoyed Cookie Curci's article in the Aug. 22 issue of the Willow Glen Resident. I was born in San Jose in 1934 at the O'Connor Hospital on San Carlos Street. This makes me an old-timer.

My friend and I were discussing the Pronto Pup creamery. We went to school with Tom Towner who passed away a few years ago. We believe that at one time the Towners operated the business. Can you clarify this for us? After all we are getting older but still are on top of things pretty well.

I have lived in this town since 1940 and my parents built a home on Willow Glen Way. I still go by there often, even though I now live in Cambrian Park.

Thank you for your wonderful articles. They are very much enjoyed.

Geraldine Kulish Kaletta
Cambrian Park

Founder's Day attracted business

Reading about the loss of Founder's Day was quite the letdown. This was the event. It was one of the reasons I moved my office here--the mood, the open booths and painted faces. I saw that before I really looked around and noticed The Glen.

While I had a fine place picked out on one of the higher floors of an old building downtown, once I concluded I could neither really afford or needed two offices at that time, it was the festival, the people it brought together, that swayed me.

Regrets have been few, until this sad situation that could well have been avoided.

There was no reason for Founder's Day to be cancelled.

There are enough of us, I believe, that would have stepped up and helped out and brought our wares, set up and volunteered had there been time.

I see no honest reason for this. Not one on my radar, or for the most part, anyone that I have spoken with. Does anyone know why this was a "closed meeting" situation?

Soda J. Parks
Lincoln Avenue

Run for District 9

Many of us in District 9 are extremely disappointed that 300 residential units will be built on the Hacienda Gardens shopping site in our neighborhood and that our elected council member, John Diquisto, voted to make it happen.

Therefore, I would like to encourage all my fellow residents to consider running for the San Jose City Council as a representative for District 9 in the March 5, 2002 election. The term would begin Jan. 1, 2003. Due to term limits, Diquisto can't run again. So this is a golden opportunity to elect a new person who truly reflects the views of his constituents.

How do you begin? Simply go to the city clerk's website, www.ci.sanjose.ca.us.cty, or call 408.277.4422. It identifies all the district seats that are up for election and re-election, and explains, in easy format, what you need to do to become a candidate. For example, there are no fees to run as a candidate for council member and you only need 50 signatures of registered voters in the district to get on the ballot. Most people have 50 friends or neighbors who would love to see them run for the council and have a councilperson living in their neighborhood.

Joseph J. Czosek
Briarwood Drive

Around the Glen

Carl Heintze: How can those who saw live with the memory?

Sports Briefs

Willow Glen High School football preview

Field Hockey Jamboree returns to Willow Glen

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