I walked by the Willow Glen Middle School April 3 and there were adults and students planting flowers and cleaning up the flower beds. They really deserve a great thanks for their efforts in keeping our school beautiful.

Barbara Martin

Malone Road

Alano Club helps many in the Willow Glen area

As a local Willow Glen resident who lives near the Alano Club and also a proud member of the Alano Club, I was offended to read the article in the March 24 issue of the Willow Glen Resident where neighbors and businesses complained about a place where people, like myself, attend Alcoholic Anonymous meetings.

If it is was not for the Alano Club, I would not have a place in my community to attend meetings or help me stay sober and fight my life-threatening disease.

Downtown Willow Glen is a noisy area to live near, and right up the street we have the fire station. Those fire engines and sirens are much louder than the Harley-Davidson engines that Ms. Whitney complained about hearing early in the morning.

In regards to the parking, the meetings do not last all day long, so local businesses should look somewhere else to blame their lack of success. Parking in Willow Glen has always been an issue, and the Alano Club members have a right to park in public places. The coffee shops and restaurants also get tons of business from Alano Club members.

What frustrates me about the article is that residents and business owners do not realize how important the Alano Club is for our community. Maybe the noise and parking frustrates them, but they should be able to put that aside when the fact is that every day people die from the disease of alcoholism and realize that The Alano Club is a place in our community that helps to keep people alive.

Leslie Kanter

Willow Glen

It is the policy of our newspapers to print the first and last names of the letter writers to maintain the integrity of the SpeakOut section. We realize, however, that at times it puts us at odds with the policies of certain organizations like Alcoholic Anonymous. The letter writer above allowed us to print her full name. But we had several letters from writers who wished to remain anonymous. These individuals voiced concerns similar to Ms. Kanter's.

—Editor

It's time to slow down and drive responsibly

I read with great sorrow about the tragic death of Anthony Abreu.

As a parent of a 14-month-old myself, incidents like this land close to my heart. It is with this in mind that I would like to call upon all Willow Glen residents to please consider the way in which they drive on our narrow and overcrowded streets.

The intersection of Curtner Avenue and Almaden Road seems, in my opinion, to be of specific concern. The proximity of Highway 87's connection to Curtner Avenue and the Bird Avenue/Almaden Road shortcut to Almaden Expressway, not to mention the parking-lot traffic associated with the nearby shopping center, makes this intersection particularly dangerous.

Couple these geographic issues with the fact that a growing number of drivers seem to be speeding and making radical lane changes in order to shave off five or 10 seconds from their driving times, and the recipe is disaster.

I call upon all residents of Willow Glen to bear in mind and reflect upon the unbearable hurt that the Abreu family is experiencing with the loss of little Anthony as well as the lifelong burden that the other drivers of the vehicles involved must carry when they get behind the wheel of their cars. We all need to drive with more vigilance and greater consideration.

C. Benjamin Cornforth

Bennett Way

Bales article example of committed citizens

I enjoyed the recent article in the March 31 issue of the Willow Glen Resident regarding Willow Glen resident Andrew Bales, which described his energy and efforts to maintain a viable symphony orchestra in Silicon Valley.

Having had the opportunity to personally work with Andrew, I thought the article represented well his positive attitude and "can-do" philosophy. Like Andrew, there are many others, staff and volunteers, who lead our community-based nonprofit arts organizations and who share a vision of making the arts for our community a reality. All of those who share their "time, talent and treasures" to make the arts a reality should be featured as was Andrew.

Phil Sims

Willow Glen