Talinn Hatti is this year’s Town Crier Spooky Stories contest winner. The 11-year-old sixth-grader won for the story “Gargoyle’s Trick,” about a father-son experience at Ghost Mansion.
The Town Crier asked readers to weigh in on their favorites, and Talinn’s entry received the most praise. Honorable mentions go to John Allan’s “Something Fishy,” Laura Allan’s “The Doll” and Scott Klusaw’s “A Halloween Ribbing.”
• Mission: The East Palo Alto Kids Foundation (EPAK) was formed by Faye Brown, Nicki Smith, Tricia Berke Vinson and Jacqueline Widmar Stewart, four local residents who became appalled when per capita funding for California schools plunged in the 1990s.
“Without school parents’ participation, children had no gym, art or music classes, and the library and classrooms were woefully understaffed,” Stewart said. “We agreed that the best way to benefit students in individual classrooms was directly through their teachers. Teachers were best positioned to identify their students’ needs.”
• Mission: Hidden Villa aims to inspire a just and sustainable future through programs, land and legacy.
• 2018 update: Hidden Villa added the Outdoor Innovators program, which focuses on engineering in the outdoors. In the one-week overnight camp for youth entering fourth and fifth grades, participants stayed in a geodesic dome, Viking tent, carousel tent or teepee and studied hands-on engineering in nature ranging from structure building to how termites construct homes with natural air conditioning.
• Mission: Sunday Friends empowers families to break the generational cycle of poverty by fostering positive development in children while educating and guiding parents to support their children’s life success.
• 2018 update: James McCaskill joined Sunday Friends as its new executive director. Rather than trying out new things, McCaskill said the nonprofit organization is working on investing more in the existing aspects of the program, including literacy (both reading and writing), financial literacy, health and wellness, parent engagement, digital literacy and educational opportunities.
• Mission: WomenSV aims to empower victims of affluent abusers by providing education, support and resources. The nonprofit organization serves to inform the public and professional communities about the prevalence of domestic violence and equip providers to better serve their clients and patients.
• 2018 update: WomenSV helped 140 survivors, including 28 in Los Altos and 24 in Los Altos Hills. In the past year, the organization gave presentations to the Los Altos Police Department, the Atherton Police Department, the Los Altos History Museum, the Los Altos City Council, Google Inc., Kaiser, the Sacramento County Bar Association, the Santa Clara County Superior Court and more. Representatives also presented at the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals International Conference in Anaheim and the Santa Clara County Domestic Violence Council’s Domestic Violence Conference.
Los Altos resident Robin Chapman, author of the newly released “Historic Bay Area Visionaries,” is scheduled to discuss her book and sign copies noon Nov. 15 at a luncheon in Bailey Hall at Union Presbyterian Church of Los Altos, 858 University Ave.
Cost is a $15 donation.
