TO CUBA: Ira and Barbara Spector have joined 45 other lawyers and guests as People to People Ambassadors to Cuba. The group's purpose is to learn more about how the Cuban legal system works. One main focus will be alternate dispute resolution, how to plea bargain in criminal cases.
The group is led by Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University professor and member of the famous defense team in the O.J. Simpson trial. The trip to Cuba attracted lawyers from all over the state. Guests of the lawyers will tour hospitals and take in cultural events.
Cuba is known for its health care, what with one of the lowest ratios of patients per doctors in the world: one doctor for every 162 people. Medical books are in short supply, however, and this lack forced the health industry to computerize in order to get up-to-date information.
The tourists from California will visit Havana and Varadero, a resort area, in a carefully controlled itinerary. Visitors to Cuba still have to have government approval. Musical presentations and visits to private homes are part of the package.
Professor Uelmen lives in Saratoga. The Spectors know him, and the fact that he was leading the group especially appealed to them.
MOUSE KING IN PSA SPOT: Gary Covell of Los Gatos plays The Nutcracker Mouse King in the public service announcement advertising the holiday food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank. Covell, a retired juvenile probation officer, is an Ironman triathlete, surrounded by dancers, ages 9 to 90.
There's his mother, Beth Covell, his daughter, Christine Santich, and his granddaughter, Sarah Santich, all of whom live in Los Gatos. The ad was filmed at the Second Harvest warehouse, using a real warehouse foreman, Hector Gayton.
The mice aren't real—they're Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley students to be seen on the TV screen sometime soon and at The Nutcracker production Dec. 1123 at San Jose's Center for the Performing Arts. The mice from Los Gatos, besides Sarah, are Simona Frank, Emily Fourie, Amelia Rojas, Clare Schweitzer, Amy Wardenburg, Juliana Moraes-Liu, Isabella Conrad, Holly Cornwell, Shannon Walker and Sophia Rumasuglia.
Covell is one of the ballet's regular volunteers. He plays the Mouse King at such events as tree-lighting ceremonies and parades. In the public service spot, five ballet mice help the Mouse King organize a Second Harvest collection bin. Ballet Publicist Lee Kopp wrote the piece.
Tickets to The Nutcracker are priced between $22 and $65, and the box office phone number is 408.288.2800.
YOUTH APPRECIATION: Cassandra McClintock and Aron Rachlin of Los Gatos High School were honored recently during Youth Appreciation Week by area Optimist Clubs, including Los Gatos. Some 49 young people won awards in ceremonies at the Quinlan Center in Cupertino for their outstanding community service.
SPA CELEBRATES: Valerie McNeal, who painted the murals, brochure art and walls at the Spa Los Gatos, is one of the artists whose work will be on sale at the Dec. 7 Festival of the Senses, sponsored by the spa. The event celebrates the holidays and the spa's anniversary.
Music, food, boutique displays and a silent auction will all be part of the 7 to 11 p.m. event, says spa owner Patti Rice. The cost of admission is a new, unwrapped toy for Santa's Cupboard, a collaboration between InnVision and the Junior League of San Jose for needy families. Spa treatment auction bids will also benefit Junior League projects.
HOLIDAY CONCERT: The Garden City Chorus and the Bay Area Showcase will combine forces for the Barbershop Harmony Holiday Concert Dec. 8 at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Garden City recently won top ranking at the Far Western Barbershop Convention and will compete at the international level in Montreal next summer.
Local members of the 70-man group are Jack Boyd, Vincent Emma, David Pierce, Andrew Weberg, William Weberg and Lynn Wubbels of Los Gatos; and Robert Cancellieri and Greg Sawyer of Saratoga.
BOOK DRIVE: Van Meter fifth-grader Harry Jordan reports that his school is having a charity book drive between Dec. 2 and Dec. 6. New books should be brought to room 24. Please do not gift-wrap the books. They are for needy children ages 2-17.
THE HUSSARS ARE HERE: Twelve Hungarian hussars, in town between Thanksgiving and Christmas, will ride in the town's children's parade and are part of a cultural exchange with their local counterparts, including our food columnist, Suzanne Cristallo.
The group is ensconced in four homes—with Cristallo, Ferenc Bakonyi, Roy Bigge and Peter Vadose—and the host who got the professional cook (Bakonyi) was especially lucky.
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By Mary Ann Cook