Main Street
Joan Cross' job is more than a figment of imagination
By Mary Ann Cook
GET ORGANIZED: They're not just characters in an Anne Tyler novel; there really are people out there who, for a sum, will help people get organized. One of those people is Joan Y. Cross of Los Gatos whose two-year-old business is Organize 911.
Here are some of the tips she offers. Use four boxes to clean-up a room or office--one for discards, one for items that go in another room, one for recycling and one for items that need attention, such as repair work. Store anything you haven't used for one year in attic or garage. Sort mail over a recycle bin and line up bills in due-date consecutive order.
She was always organized, Cross says, and was a certified commercial property manager. Those skills carry over into her business now.
Cross is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers. The group has declared Oct. 1-7 national GO (Get Organized) Week. I'm listing this item a month early so that I can feel organized and so that you can prepare for Oct. 1.
Cross' number is 408.395.0505. Her recently completed booklet, The Organized Home, can be had by sending $5 and an SASE 6x9 manila envelope to Organize 911, 540 N. Santa Cruz Ave., #129, Los Gatos, 95030.
RECOGNITION: Porch owners Larry Arzie and David Stonesifer were awarded the Norman W. Robinson Community Service Award at the ARIS major donor recognition dinner held at their estate recently.
The award is named for the first director of the needle exchange program and care facility for AIDS patients in the San Jose area. Arzie and Stonesifer, who own Los Gatos Porch, are longtime ARIS supporters. They have hosted the major donor recognition dinner for the past few years.
Some 110 major donors, who contributed $2,500 or more, were feted at the dinner. Music was provided by Gail Dobson, vocalist and Bob Basa, guitarist, plus the Magnolia Jazz Band.
Emilie Bard, coordinator of one of the prevention programs at ARIS said one of the teens she talked with told her, "I used a condom for the first time last night." The remark impressively validates Bard's job.
BANDING TOGETHER: Entertainers from Saratoga High circa '80 are pooling their talents for a colossal music/variety show to benefit classmate Bob Williams in his fight against esophageal cancer. The benefit is Sept. 8, at 8 p.m. in the Los Gatos High School auditorium.
Organizers are Kevin Ruf, Lynette Bunyard and Lance Guest. Guest, an actor, has appeared in The Last Starfighter, Plan B and Stepsister from Planet Weird. Others set to perform are songwriter/guitarist Mike Gurley, pianist John Boswell, guitarist Dave Boswell and physician musician Brian Prestwich.
Also involved is screenwriter Ed Solomon, who wrote What Planet Are You From?, Men in Black and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Bob Williams' cancer is an especially aggressive, advanced form, now metastasized to his lymph system, lungs and spine.
For the past five years he's taught second grade at Rosemary School in Campbell. Says Principal Connie Elness, "He's this incredible, unique, talented teacher, who will try anything to get kids and their parents involved in the learning process."
Tickets to Bob Fest 2000 are $100 per person. Checks, made out to Bob Williams, can be sent to Bob Williams Fund, 158 N. 15th St., San Jose, 95112. For more information, call 408.294.2532.
SYMPHONY GALA: The San Jose Symphony Gala will be held on Sept. 16, at Discovery Meadow beginning at 5 p.m., followed by dinner, auctions and the concert at 8 p.m. at Center for Performing Arts with opera diva Marilyn Horne. Dessert and dancing follow the concert at 10 p.m.
Tickets are $250 per person. For the concert only, ticket prices are $25, $50 and $75. At An Evening in old Russia one of the auction items is dinner for eight donated by the Russian Consulate General at his private residence. Chairmen will wear jewels loaned for the occasion by five Bay Area jewelers.
HOLY NAMES BENEFIT: Holy Names Convent will hold its annual benefit dinner on Sept. 15, to raise funds for its international ministry programs. Tickets at $75 each may be reserved by Sept. 7, by calling 408.395.2868.
BEAT MEETS BAROQUE: Stand-up comic-turned-poet Mike Welch will be the featured reader at Borders Bookstore on Sept. 12, at 7:30 p.m. He describes his work as beat meets baroque: abstract, free-flowing, mood-producing.
CREPE MYRTLE: I'm newly impressed each year by the crepe myrtle display lining our downtown streets in late summer. Why are these blooms always so much more profuse and longer-lasting than those in our own yards? Is a better breed planted there, or is that confining street soil better?
PLAZA MUSIC : Music in the Plaza is but a memory with summer waning, but thanks go to the LG Arts Commissioners Werner Baracker, David Breidenthal, Teri Hope and Elke Groves, for those appealing Sunday concerts. Also to be applauded are Gary Addiego of Graphic Images for the new banners and Jon Robertson of ProColor Inc. for poster design.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
