The paper was called "Snail Trails: The Effect of Environment on the Color of a Snail's Shell." Dickerson had noticed that snails at Rancho San Antonio Wildlife Preserve are cream-colored, not brown like the snails at home. He hypothesized that diet plays a major part in their color.

The snails at the preserve eat dead plants; those at home feed on growing greenery. To test his theory, Joe brought some baby snails home from the preserve and began feeding them live greens while feeding the homebody snails dead plants.

The babies seemed to take forever to mature: He found them in the fall and they weren't big enough to show their true colors until spring. But the wild snails still emerged cream-colored and the garden snails brown. Joe thinks that if he were to conduct the experiment over a 10-year period, the snails would gradually change color, but one generation didn't do it.

Joe is no stranger to science fair wins. He won grand prizes at the county fair as a sixth-grader with "Into Thin Air: The Effects of Temperature and Altitude on Air Pressure" and in the seventh grade with "The Effects of Urban Development on San Tomas Aquino Creek." The air pressure project was done with classmate Kyle Kozlowski.

Joe, who credits his St. Mary's sixth-grade teacher Dianne Connelly with sparking his interest in science, is the son of Lynne and Francis Dickerson and has a sister Lindsay, 11. He'll be a freshman at Bellarmine this fall.

AT THE MEADOWS: Barbara Reid is the new administrator of the Meadows. She started last week in a role that has been traditionally held by males. Reid is the first woman to direct the retirement facility, which is affiliated with the Episocopal Church. She has served as a consultant to the Meadows for the past seven years.

She has operated her own management consulting firm—Bloom, Reid and Associates—since 1995, and has been involved in acute care hospital administration. Most recently she was acting director of nursing for Ave Maria Convalescent Hospital in Monterey.

Reid has a master's degree in health services administration from St. Mary's College; her B.S. in nursing is from Biola College.

NEW LAWYER: Benedict C. Di Duca, LGHS '75, graduated No. 1 in his class at Cal Northern School of Law in Chico last year and was selected valedictorian. That was in June of '01 and he was admitted to the bar in January of this year. He is now an associate in the law office of Christensen & Schwarz, LLP, in Chico.

Before taking up law and moving to Paradise, Calif., the fledgling attorney operated his own construction company in Los Gatos, Di Duca Construction. The company was the developer of New Town. Ben's sister, Renee T. Patton, LGHS '82, apprised us of his achievements.

A goodly portion of the Di Ducas moved to Paradise some 20 years ago. One such was Ben and Renee's father, Joe, who was president of the Los Gatos Lions and a past international director of that organization. Joe's brother, Mark, is a former mayor of Los Gatos. Renee was on the LG-Saratoga high school board. SPECIAL OLYMPICS: The Special Olympics bocce ball team sponsored by Campo di Bocce finished first in a sectional tournament against such other teams as those from Monterey and San Jose. Pete and Sally Pavicich coach the team, which trains at Campo di Bocce.

The competition will definitely be part of the Special Olympics next year as well, said Matt Coen, a Special Olympics director. Participants included Heather McFarland, Peter Weller, Edmund Ma, Dan Wilson, Dustin Rodgers, Phillip Beckerheath and Kelly Anderson. Other players were Curtis Sedgwick and Scott Velasquez. Volunteers for the team were Matt Bertlet and Eric Martin.

JAZZY YOUTH GROUP: The Fisher Five recently won the combo division of the youth competition at the San Jose Jazz Festival. The Fisher Five are 13- and 14-year-olds Marcus Dufort, Tim Switzer, David Lindskog, Brandon Manning and Forrest Gallien.

All are Los Gatos students. Andrew O'Neil subbed for Gallien during a performance at the kickoff party for council candidate Mike Wasserman.

OPERA GUILD: The San Jose Opera Guild kicks off its lecture series Sept. 5 with Conrad Susa discussing Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss. The talk is at 10 a.m. at the Los Gatos History Club and includes lunch. For more information, call Corinn Carter at 408.378.4823.

PORCHES?: The Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce's Beautification Committee is looking for inviting porches to acclaim—either a residence or a business porch. If you want to nominate one that's taken your eye, call Shirley Henderson at 408.354.7878.

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