Los Altos community celebrates the holidays with sharing
By Eliza Ridgeway, Town Crier Staff Writer
 joe hu/town crier Bill and Rita Kull of Los Altos Hills ring the bell outside Safeway to collect donations for the Salvation Army on behalf of Los Altos’ Christ Episcopal Church. |
Christmas is spent quietly in the psychiatric ward at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital. Behind locked doors live men and women who now, far from the battlefield, fight another war recovering from their injuries.
“War isn’t pretty. These people feel like they have been left behind,” said Monica Davis, who works at Los Altos’ Coldwell Banker office on San Antonio Road. She and a group of friends and co-workers throw a Christmas party for the veterans in Building 2 every year.
“Some of these men haven’t had a Christmas gift to unwrap in years,” Monica said. “Its hard for these men and women to believe that people in the outside world care about them.”
Last week, Davis, her husband, Gary, and a collection of friends and co-workers gathered a truckload of fresh-baked goods, gifts, cards and decorations and spent the afternoon at the hospital. Gathered in the dining room of one of the wards, veterans of all ages and ethnicities enjoyed pie, cookies and sparkling cider as they listened to the barbershop quartet, “Four Tune Cookies.”
Adults and children from the Los Altos and Sunnyvale communities joined to prepare the party. Employees of the Coldwell Banker office gathered supplies and baked goods. Los Altos Brownie Troop 467 baked brownies. Boy Scouts wrapped presents.
“It’s really important for them to have home-baked items instead of just institutional food,” Monica said.
Students from the Sunnyvale School District, where Gary works, made hand-drawn cards for every patient in the unit.
One veteran opened his card and slowly, carefully read it, his face quiet. He then propped it up and proudly displayed the illustration beside him at the table.
“Dear veteran, may the season bring peace and joy into your life,” one student wrote. “Dear soldier, thank you for risking your life to win the war and for all you have done for us,” wrote another.
The party is the small, grass-roots tradition of a group of friends and colleagues, many of whom had or have family in the military. The group shows its love and appreciation for the injured soldiers through a cascade of sweets, and by serving the veterans personally. They amassed more home-baked goods than the patients could hope to eat in a week. Many of the goodies were decorated carefully with sprinkles and bright frosting. They brought warm sweatshirts, fleece blankets and novels. The group gathered a wish list of larger items like a microwave and a karaoke machine.
The singers closed their performance last week with “America the Beautiful.” Around the hushed room, the men and women sang along. Last year, Monica said, one of the patients stood up and saluted during the song.
“We all just started bawling,” she said. “You cannot meet a nicer group of men and women.”
Schoolchildren collaborate to help others
At Pinewood School, kindergartners through second-graders collected more than 500 toys, which they donated to Sacred Heart Community Service. The nondenominational non-profit in San Jose takes low-income parents “shopping” in their warehouse full of gifts, stocking stuffers and some necessities for their children. Pinewood students also collected and cleaned 100 bikes and 48 helmets as seasonal gifts for children and adults.
Local organizations continue giving tradition
Members of the Los Altos Kiwanis Club will man their annual Christmas tree lot next to Albertsons until all the trees are gone. This year the fundraising venture includes trees, wreaths, garlands and wintry centerpieces. The tree lot is the club’s biggest fundraiser, and it supports philanthropic grants and scholarships in the community. It is open Monday through Friday 3-7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s located in the Albertsons parking lot at Grant Road and Arboretum, just off Foothill Expressway.
On Main Street and outside the Safeway on First Street, determined Salvation Army volunteers have been ringing their bells through the wind, rain and cold this month. The religious group has gathered donations in its iconic red kettles since 1898. Proceeds go to social services for the homeless, veterans, seniors and others.
INCH, Interfaith Network for Community Help, a Los Altos-based non-profit, coordinates local congregations who “adopt” family shelters. One special holiday project is a ladies tea for clients of the Clara-Mateo Alliance in Menlo Park, which offers shelter and support services for those in need. Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto and several women’s boutiques, including Stuart’s Apparel Nellie K Inc. in Los Altos, collected clothes and cosmetics to present to guests.
Downtown businesses continue philanthropy
Roy Jones, one of the travel agency’s owners, collected toys as a young Marine in 1950, when the program began in Los Angeles.
“I’ve been around for a while,” he said. His involvement with the program over the last 56 years spanned his lifelong service in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.
“When I was on active duty in the reserve, on several occasions I actually went out and made the deliveries to the kids. It tugged at your heartstrings,” he said. “It’s very rewarding,” he said of the service to both the military and the community. “It’s a lifelong history.”
Terry Jordan, owner of Something Special, a downtown florist and gift shop, is raising funds for charity with a traditional British and European flair - via a Christmas bran tub. Wrapped gifts are placed in a barrel filled with bran (the kind that’s fed to horses). For $10, donors can plunge their hands into the bran and search for a mystery gift, knowing the profits are donated to El Camino Hospital.
“We chose the community hospital because it benefits the whole community,” Jordan said.
Jordan assembles different tubs for different ages and genders - one for children under 5, a boys tub, a girls tub and a tub for adults. A similar tradition of charity fundraising is found in Europe, where it is called “Santa’s Boot,” a “Wishing Well” or “Weinachts Tute,” Jordan said.
Philanthropy doesn’t end with the New Year, and some local givers go beyond seasonally specific projects. Evi Wiratma, owner of the maternity and children’s store All About Mom and Me on State Street, collects gently used maternity clothing for Goodwill in Mountain View, which has a special maternity section.
“I thought maybe there was something I could do to help, too,” she said.
