Photograph by George Sakkestad
Fashion show coordinator Adu Bagley poses in front of the Hansel and Gretel house on the 30-acre mountain estate of Barbara and Mark Beck, the setting for the Community Foundation's Sept. 28 fundraiser. Her gown is from Fancy Feet.
By Dale Bryant
The Los Gatos Community Foundation is calling its Sept. 28 garden party in the Santa Cruz Mountains "Tennis Shoes & Tuxes--Elegance in Nature." While the theme suggests proper attire for the event--dress elegantly, but leave your dainty dancing slippers at home--it also serves as a metaphor for the organization.
The foundation, with its feet planted in the town's park system, has grown from its first tentative steps just five years ago into early adulthood.
With the awarding of two grants and recognition of a major contributor to its brand-new endowment fund on the agenda for the Sept. 28 event, it's small wonder the foundation's president, Don Callahan, is calling Tennis Shoes & Tuxes the organization's coming-out party.
Foundation's roots
When it first began as a steering committee in 1991, the foundation's three founders--Ardith Sams, Emma Vargo and Susan Huntley--could hardly have imagined how quickly the foundation would grow or how broadly it would expand its scope.
As activists with the town's Parks Commission, the three envisioned an organization that could raise funds for parks-related projects.
It wasn't long, however, before the little band of fundraisers encountered its first obstacle: Unless it was incorporated as a charitable organization, donors would not receive tax deductions for contributions. By the time organizers had worked through an attorney and an accountant to obtain nonprofit, charitable status from the state, they had an idea of how they might help other groups in the community.
According to Callahan, "They realized that anyone else in the community who wanted to raise money for a project would have the same problem, so they decided it would make sense to become an umbrella group." They incorporated in 1993 and went out looking for board members.
As an umbrella group, the organization met early success by offering its 501 C3 status to the ad hoc neighborhood group that wanted to clean up Belgatos Park and replace equipment that had grown old and dangerous.
Great expectations
Although Belgatos Park was really just a small success, it inspired inflated expectations about what the foundation could do. Those expectations were undoubtedly related to the timing of the foundation's incorporation at about the same time the town recognized it was facing a $500,000 shortfall and the once community-spirited Chamber of Commerce was in the early stages of its death throes.
The town had begun to turn a deaf ear to requests for funding at the same time people in the community were starting to wonder who would pick up the ball if the chamber were no longer around to cosponsor the Christmas parade, take charge of the holiday tree lighting and downtown open house, host the Fiesta de Artes and take responsibility for other Los Gatos traditions.
When local celebrity Peggy Fleming approached the town with her idea to put a portable ice-skating rink in the Town Plaza during the holiday season, officials optimistically sent her to the Community Foundation.
After nearly a year of frustrated fundraising attempts and debates with the town over whether or not the plaza was an appropriate site, Fleming dropped Los Gatos and entered into talks with the city of San Jose.
Although Fleming's ice-skating plans never took hold in San Jose either, the experience was a black eye for the foundation.
"It was definitely a setback," Callahan says. "We were a fledgling organization, and Peggy thought our sphere of influence was greater than it was. It affected us financially because we invested some money into the effort."
Immediate past president Adu Bagley recalls, "When we first incorporated, the town was sending everyone to us. We weren't in a position to meet all the expectations. But we'd like to get to the point where we can handle much more."
Los Gatos wasn't the only area where local citizens were forming community foundations. "Los Altos and Palo Alto both started similar foundations because of the lack of funding for community projects from local governments," says Callahan. "And we've taken a close look at what they're doing."
Board members realized, however, that they would have to overcome a major hurdle if the foundation was ever to have a major impact: In spite of its reputation as an affluent community, Los Gatos is a very tough place to raise money.
Says former foundation President Bagley: "A big part of the problem is that there's so little involvement from high-powered people who live here; they're involved in 'Silicon Valley' rather than Los Gatos."
Joyce Bisbee, a longtime Los Gatos activist and a member of the foundation's fund development committee, says: "For most high-powered people, Los Gatos is just a place to live. They don't get involved in the community."
San Jose's the place
Callahan, who recently retired after 38 years as founding partner of the accounting firm Callahan, Pascuzzi & Co., admits he used to be one of those people. "I was chairman of the San Jose chamber and active in San Jose Rotary Club. I've also been active in the Metropolitan YMCA for years and am president this year," he says. "All of my affiliations were in San Jose because that's where my business affiliations were."
Longtime Los Gatan Peter Carter, a high-profile San Jose advertising executive, often advises clients to get involved in the community, by which he means the San Jose Symphony, San Jose Rep, the Museum of Art, the Cancer Society and a number of regional organizations. His take on why executives who live in Los Gatos prefer to do their community work in San Jose: "The bulk of the people who move to Los Gatos like it here. They don't want to change it. Besides, they don't see anything pressing."
Home town support
One Silicon Valley executive who thinks the Community Foundation is worth her time is Barbara Beck, vice president for human resources for Cisco Systems. She and her husband, Mark, are opening their 30-acre mountain home for the Sept. 28 garden party.
She first heard of the foundation last year when Los Gatan Alrie Middlebrook, who was doing some landscaping work on the mountain property, introduced her to Adu Bagley, who, in turn, asked Beck if she and her husband would be willing to open their vast grounds for a foundation function.
The grounds, complete with varied gardens, a sunken grotto, lakes, waterfalls and a children's Hansel and Gretel house, were the perfect setting for an elegant fashion show, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. But few attended last year's fundraiser, priced at $25.
Bagley recalls, "I knew how wonderful it would be because I had seen the fashions and the setting, but I couldn't convey how great it would be."
The Becks, who still spend weekends at their mountain home, but who moved to town this year, say they were surprised the foundation wanted to hold the event at their place again because of the small turnout, but they say they're happy to do it--and this time, they'll buy a couple of dinner tables' worth of tickets to help out.
One reason they support the foundation is because they're enjoying small-town life so much. Shortly after moving into their elegant old home in town, a neighbor called and introduced herself by saying: "Hi. I hear you're a lot of fun. Let's get together."
Soon after, Barbara and Mark walked around the neighborhood and dropped off invitations to neighbors for a get-together. These days, all the neighbors are involved in helping them decide what color to paint their house.
"We've been painting different colored patches," Mark says. "The ones that have neighbors worried are the green ones. I feel like we should put up a sign that says: 'The green wall will go.' "
They didn't have that sense of community when they lived in the Rose Garden area of San Jose, they both agree. And while small-town living also means an occasional visit by a building inspector because a neighbor suspected you were working without a permit, they love living in a small town.
"The Community Foundation is where our home is," Barbara says. "We'd like to be involved. It seems to be a group of good people doing good things for people."
The Community Foundation would like to see a lot more executives who call Los Gatos home take that same attitude. And to get their attention, the foundation is making changes in the event and in the scope of the foundation itself.
Attention-getter
Working on the popular theory that people sometimes stay away if an event is underpriced, they upgraded the garden party from cocktails and fashions for $25 to cocktails and fashions, dinner and dancing at $65 per person. Last year, they crossed their fingers and hoped they'd get a good turnout; this year, they're handling ticket sales the way the established charitable organizations do: by requiring each board member to sell 10 tickets.
The foundation has also planned a short program that should signal a turning point for the five-year-old organization: For the first time, the foundation will make two direct grants from its newly formed endowment fund. Recipients are A Place for Teens and The Health Place. And the foundation will honor Vic Collord as the first contributor to the endowment fund, with an estate conservatively estimated at $800,000. In connection with his gift, the foundation is establishing the Victor Collord Fund, which eventually will make annual donations to Collord's designated activities, including the Los Gatos High School band, Boy Scouts, the Youth Park and several environmental organizations.
"I wanted to leave whatever I have to the town," Collord said. "The Community Foundation is a good way for me to be able to do that and to specify how I want the interest income spent."
The endowment fund is a major step in the organization's growth. "We realized," says Callahan, "that we would never be able to help the Los Gatos community much if we continued raising money with nothing more than an annual garden party and $50 annual dues." The endowment committee--Brent Bunger, Paul Dubois and Mike Abkin--is currently talking with several people about gifts and wills. According to Callahan, the endowment fund will maintain its principal for investments, using the earnings for community needs.
Organizations currently enjoying the tax-deductible status of the foundation's umbrella are the Claravale Dairy in Monte Sereno, the Los Gatos Kiwanis Charity Fund and the Los Gatos-Saratoga Senior Citizens (which with the support of the West Valley Federated Women's Club plans to build a senior center at the site of the senior group's current clubhouse). Some individuals have also used the foundation to direct gifts for specific purposes, such as trail maintenance.
The Community Foundation has come a long way in a short time. "This event is our coming-out party," Callahan says. "We want to let people know we're through playing around. We're out of our infancy."
"Tennis Shoes and Tuxes--Elegance in Nature" takes place Sept. 28 at the mountain estate of Mark and Barbara Beck. The event begins with hors d'oeuvres at 3:30 p.m. followed by a showing of fashions from R.L. Shugart, Sue's, Romantique and Fancy Feet, all of Los Gatos. At 5:30 p.m., guests are invited to stroll through the gardens on their way to dinner in the Party Barn. Dancing begins at 8 p.m. Reservations are due by Sept. 16. Contact MarLyn Rasmussen, 354-6834.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, September 11, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved