Los Gatos Weekly-Times Letters Many in Los Gatos made Thanksgiving special for seniors The town of Los Gatos Senior Drop-In Center hosted the annual senior Thanksgiving dinner, Nov. 21, at the Los Gatos Neighborhood Center, serving more than 150 local senior citizens. The menu included tossed green salad with poppyseed dressing, roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, candied yams, gravy, rolls and butter and pumpkin pie. Chris Benson of C.B. Hannegan coordinated the food donations from local restaurants and distributors, prepared the salad dressing, cooked and carved the turkeys and cooked the mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. A very big "thank you" to Chris for his dedication to this dinner for our seniors. Paul Pavicich of the Los Gatos Brewing Company, donated 10 20-pound turkeys; five 20-pound turkeys were donated anonymously; salad and fixings compliments of Golden Rule Produce; Le Boulanger furnished the rolls and butter; Marcella Calloway, The Calloway Co. prepared the candied yams; and Delizioso made the 20 pumpkin pies. The following businesses, organizations and individuals were also responsible for providing the seniors with this memorable afternoon of fun: Across the Bridge, Erna Bernin, Diddams, Domus, Fiori's, Sheila Hanes, International Hair Design, Jerome's Hairdressing, Los Gatos Lodge, Los Gatos Village Flowers and Gifts, McWhorter's, Model Nails, Purrsnickety, Vasona Gifts and Happy Hoofers Walking Group (Los Gatos Seniors members who donated gifts as well as asked for donations from local businesses). Ben Wilson entertained with a number of lively tunes on the piano. Waiters and waitresses were provided by St. Mary's Junior High School Ministry and members of Girl Scout Troop 082. The students and seniors really enjoyed each other's company. Thank you to Tom Dodge, Jim Hempler and other members of the Los Gatos Rotary Club for arranging for music and setting up and taking down all the tables and chairs. A very big "thank you" also to the many behind-the-scenes people who came and helped in many different ways to put on this wonderful event for the seniors in our community. Finally, St. Luke's Church in Los Gatos picked up seven boxes and bags of food donated by the senior attendees for the Holiday Food Pantry run by the volunteers at the church. They were thrilled with the donation. Sue Hamilton Volunteer, Los Gatos Seniors Thanks to everyone who make AIDS Quilt memorable Four sections of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt were recently at Los Gatos High School for five days. It was a powerful experience for the students at LGHS, as well as community visitors and the many volunteers who worked on the project. I need to extend my sincere thanks to those in our community that helped make the event a success. First hats off to the Los Gatos Weekly-Times! The newspaper began publishing requests for volunteers last July. They continued with articles in the school section, the Opinion page, an editorial and finally the excellent feature article. Next I must thank my small, overworked but determined committee: Tina Hiltgen, Wendy Cosgrove, Molly Fumia, Noreen Clark, Steve Bumbaca, Julie Ciraulo-Ray and the Peer Advocates at LGHS. Providing the volunteers that the NAMES Project requested was truly challenging, and Tina worked endless hours developing a schedule. To have the quilt open for both high school students and the community at night required 139 different volunteer positions over the course of the five days. Volunteer coverage was provided from these sources: 48 percent from LGHS students, 30 percent from community volunteers (including the Kiwanis Club which staffed one whole day), 14 percent from parents of high school students and 8 percent from LGHS staff and faculty (One teacher made up 50 percent of those volunteer hours.) Obviously, we could not have done this project without the community support--adults in our community who care about our youth. Thank you! I also need to mention two courageous, caring families, the Yontz and Raap families. Their participation and sharing of stories added immensely to the impact on everyone. We need to applaud their courage and that of Mary Anne Cook, who wrote the cover story in the Dec. 19 issue of the Weekly-Times, for sharing her own personal loss to AIDS. Thank you to everyone involved with the project. Rebecca M. Herr Event Coordinator Local volunteer saw aftermath of the hurricane As you all know, Hurricane Mitch left devastation in its trail during the last few days of October and the first few days of November. Countries affected were Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Belize and Mexico. This disastrous event was one more affliction that was added to the tragedies such as poverty, earthquakes and cruel wars that have plagued these countries for most of this century. Tens of thousands of lives were lost, and a staggering number of people were made homeless as a result of the hurricane. On this rare occasion I was an eyewitness to this catastrophe. On Nov. 4, I arrived in Antigua, Guatemala, as part of a volunteer work team prepared to build houses for poor families under the auspices of the Godchild Project. Due to the flooding and severe damage to homes in Antigua, which was the center of the affected area, our plans were changed. Instead of building homes, we assisted volunteer workers of the Godchild Project in a variety of ways: pumping water, shoveling mud from partially buried homes, delivering food, buying and organizing supplies, giving medical care to the displaced, distributing clothing and counseling people to leave dangerous hillsides. It was a sad situation, but our group was more than willing to provide our assistance to the volunteer workers associated with the project. Our arrival in Anitgua could not have been better timed, since our help was sorely needed. The Guatemalan people who are being served urgently need help. The problems are innumerable and immediate. Work is under way to rebuild homes and lives. Reconstruction will take place over many months to come. To assist in this worthy effort, financial aid is needed. The Godchild Project would greatly appreciate any financial assistance. The address is: The Godchild Project, P.O. Box 14298, St. Paul, MN 55114. Phone: 651/917-0917. For your information, the Huebsch family of Minnesota founded the Godchild Project in 1986 to help and give hope to the Guatemalan poor. It is a (501) (c)(3) not- for-profit organization, approved by the IRS. At present, the Project serves over 880 families, and over 5,000 people. William J. Venuti Monte Sereno John Glenn isn't the only creative senior citizen The recent spotlighting of John Glenn has raised questions concerning the continued potential of human beings into late life. John Glenn--astronaut, senator, has been working until now, at age 77, not to mention going back into space before actually retiring. How unusual is this and what are the chances that today's baby boomers and later generations will work into their 70s? Glenn is in good company. Julia Child is still hosting cooking shows on TV at 86. Jimmy Carter has just published a book at 77, in addition to traveling the world to work with Habitat for Humanity. Walter Cronkite is a formidable TV news program host long after he retired. Are these people unusual, and are there less famous people who are continuing or growing in their fields and maintaining strong physical and mental health past the age of 65? Yes. Human beings continue to have vast mental and physical potential well past the usual retirement age, barring disease. Recently the business world mourned the death of Ed Deming; the capitalist revolutionary who, in the '50s, sold Japan on the notion that quality drives profits up. And earlier in this decade he was applauded in National Geographic for his continuing work with U.S. businesses such as Ford Motor Company and others, while teaching statistical analysis at New York University at 89. In another field, Picasso at 90 created new works of art daily in his studio. In earlier centuries it was rare to live to the eighth decade; nevertheless there are some noteworthy examples of accomplishments as far back as the Renaissance. Michelangelo, the sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the Italian Renaissance, was 71 when he was appointed chief architect of Christendom's greatest architectural undertaking--Saint Peter's in Rome. During the next 18 years, until his death at 89, he created the vast main body of the church and also frescoed the walls of the Pauline Chapel and wrote some of his finest poetry. Perhaps it will take John Glenn's mission into space to make people stop to rethink and undo their ageist attitudes. And what is aging and why does it happen? There are many theories of aging, including the gene theory, the cellular theory, the running-out-of-program theory, the free radical theory, the wear-and-tear-theory and others. For me, the most memorable is one reported to me years ago by a fellow gerontology student at Arizona State University who had attended a lecture of Professor Robert Kastenbaum, author of Death and Dying. When asked by a student how he would define "old", Kastenbaum replied, "One is old when he no longer seeks new experiences." Rita Baum Los Gatos [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 6, 1999. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.