Community

Steve Pomeroy/Rotary Club of Los Altos
Dick Henning, second from right, is feted by Rotarians Marlene Cowan, from left, Allan Varni, Suzanne Small and Lina Broydo for his 50 years of community service. The retired Foothill College dean received a pair of boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali, a nod to Henning’s early days as a boxer. He won a boxing scholarship to San Jose State.

The Rotary Club of Los Altos honored Rotarian Dick Henning, founder of the Foothill College Celebrity Forum Speaker Series, for his 50 years of outstanding community service in the club.

The Oct. 18 surprise party drew the anticipated response from Henning: “What a shock!”

Thanks to all who participated in the Town Crier's 2018 Spooky Stories contest. Below are the stories received. Be sure to vote on your favorites, either in the comment section at the end of this entry, or by emailing editor Bruce Barton at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The winning entry will announced in a near-future issue and will receive a prize. Now read on, and prepare to get spooked!'

Los Altos resident Angela McConnell is excited about Sunday’s opening of the new Bruce Munro exhibition, “Stories in Light,” at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga.

McConnell, the center’s executive director, called new exhibition, “the most ambitious, impactful exhibition Montalvo has ever presented. … With anticipated attendance in the tens of thousands, we believe this show will elevate Montalvo to increased relevance and prestige in the national and international art scene.”

The center’s 175 acres of lawns, gardens, terraces and historic structures will be illuminated by 10 of Munro’s works of varying sizes, all based on the artist’s readings of C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia.”

In one notable example, Montalvo’s large “great lawn” is covered by a sea of “lily pads,” pictured at right, created from more than 4,000 illuminated stems in an installation called “Silver Sea” – named for Narnia’s freshwater ocean.

Montalvo will be the internationally acclaimed artist’s first public West Coast exhibition.

Tickets for the exhibit, running through March 17, 2019, are $15-$27, and must be reserved in advance for specific dates. For tickets, a full schedule and more information, visit montalvoarts.org or call the center at (408) 961-5858.

Courtesy of City of Los Altos
Members of the Los Altos Amateur Radio Emergency Service test their newly acquired communications equipment.

New equipment and the work of members of the Los Altos Amateur Radio Emergency Service (LAARES) has strengthened amateur radio emergency communications capabilities in Los Altos.

Funded by the city’s Los Altos PREPARES program, the Rotary Club of Los Altos Endowment Fund and LAARES members, LAARES acquired a repeater system with battery backup and installed the equipment at the Los Altos Police Department building Oct. 14. The repeater system improves amateur radio coverage across the city, enabling emergency volunteers to receive and broadcast information and assure citywide reliable communications capabilities during a disaster.

Courtesy of Viewpoints Gallery
Jan Grady’s “Copper and Flowers” exhibition of watercolors is scheduled to premiere Tuesday.

Gallery 9

Gallery 9 in Los Altos has scheduled an extended exhibition for the holiday season. Opening Tuesday and running through Dec. 23, the all-gallery show will feature members’ work in an array of media, from paintings to jewelry, photography, woodwork, mixed media, sculptures and ceramics.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the gallery has scheduled artists receptions 5-8 p.m. Nov. 2 and 5-8 p.m. Dec. 7. The gallery also will open for two additional evenings: 5-8 p.m. Nov. 9 during the annual Holiday Stroll and 5-8 p.m. Nov. 30 during the Los Altos Downtown Tree Lighting event.

Steve Pomeroy/Rotary Club of Los Altos
Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Angela Alvarado speaks last month before the Rotary Club of Los Altos.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Angela Alvarado, who teaches safety in digital behavior, especially among adolescents, outlined the most dangerous social media trends in a presentation last month before members of the Rotary Club of Los Altos.

“We are seeing a trend that links increasing digital use and crime,” said the 19-year criminal prosecutor at the Rotary Club’s Sept. 6 meeting. “In court, we now see a digital component in many of our cases.”