LOS GATOS SANTA: Mike Frangadakis has been playing Santa Claus for the Rotarians for the last half-dozen years or more, and this year was no exception. The Los Gatos Rotary receives the names of five needy families from the Emergency Housing Consortium office and then provides each family with food, toys and clothing.
Julian Rodriguez is coordinator of the project. But Frangadakis is the one who started it, calling his whole family into the act that first year. Today members of Interact, the high school version of Rotary, help out, wrap the presents and help deliver the goods. Other Rotarians buy the gifts and food.
"You should hear the excitement when they open the door to Santa Claus," says Frangadakis. The recipients of the baskets often don't have enough to eat or enough money to heat their houses.
"One year we took packages to a family living in a rented garage, and the woman said it was the best Christmas she ever had," he says. "Another time a Spanish-speaking grandmother had us take hands and led us in prayer."
It's a very touching program that often has Interact members in tears. Mike's message to the children: Stay in school, work hard, and someday you'll get everything you want. Remember, Santa is always with you.
"I'm ready to be Santa anytime," he says, "except for Dec. 25, when I'm far too busy." In his other life Frangadakis is a real estate appraiser. His wife is Liz and the offspring are Ellen, Anthony and Victoria.
VIDEO WINNERS: Ann Marie Dallas and Jenny Heath created and produced a short video titled How the Animals Got Their Dolls this summer and recently won first place in their category at the 2002 Backyard National Children's Film Festival, San Jose chapter.
Their film featured Ann Marie's pet cat, Tigger; her chicken, Squeakers; and a neighbor's dogs, Zoe and Bailey. A leopard gecko, which the Dallas household named Speckles, was borrowed from Clyde Laird's classroom. The Dallas household babysat the gecko over the summer. Laird himself has a policy of not naming his classroom critters.
Jenny and Ann Marie are in Brian Houg's fifth-grade class at Blossom Hill. Ann Marie's parents are Alastair and Peggy Dallas; Jenny's are Doug Heath and Hsiao-in Wang.
The San Jose chapter of the Backyard National Children's Film Festival is associated with the Children's Discovery Museum. Its coordinator is Linda Fischetti, who can be reached at lfischetti@cdm.org or 408.298.4537.
NEW AUTHOR: Retired doctor Bill Frey has slipped into a new role: that of author. He has written a book titled Oblivion, a novel exploring the moral dilemmas of euthanasia. It was published by Protea Publishing of Atlanta, a firm Frey found through an Internet search.
In the novel, the protagonist has suffered massive head injuries from an auto accident and has been on life support without showing any signs of response for four months. Euthanasia has just been made legal in California and pivotal character J. Weldon Shafer is destined to be the first to be accorded that fate.
Suddenly Shafer wakes from the coma, but only his night nurse knows it. And she, for reasons of her own, wants to keep that knowledge secret for three days. His fate hangs in her hands.
"It's a quick read," says its author. The book is available at amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Borders.
Frey is fascinated by medical murder mysteries, and of course his background plays into this. The new author's Los Gatos practice was in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. He retired in 1991. Since that time he's called himself a musician rather than a physician. That's because he plays the saxophone and the clarinet in several local bands.
Wife Lea is a language coach for opera singers, and sons Bill Frey Jr., a dentist, and Randy, director of document production for Dataquest, live in Los Gatos.
Some years back, Randy was sports editor of the Los Gatos Times-Observer and later the Los Gatos Weekly.
FREE SEMINAR: A free seminar about long-term care will be offered Jan. 9, 13 p.m., at the Los Gatos Neighborhood Center, 208 E. Main. Long-term care considerations will be discussed and questions invited. To sign up, call the Los Gatos Senior Program at 408.354.2360.
GIFT IDEA FOR WRITERS: It may not be too late to get a gift for writers on your holiday wish list. For instance, Los Gatan Martha Alderson teaches a course in plotting. Next one to be offered is Jan. 3, 11 a.m.4 p.m., in Capitola. Those interested can sign up through the website at www.blockbusterplots.com or by calling 408.356.9516.
AD PEN REQUEST: Here's a request from 10-year-old Michel Frenzel of Germany, asking to be sent free advertising samples. He (or is it she?) collects pens, pins or keychains with advertising messages thereon, and the collection can be viewed at www.kugelschreibersammler.net.
The address: Michel Frenzel, Suedhang 6 c, 01723 Mohorn Germany.
Got a tip for Main Street? Send email to
maryanncook@earthlink.net.
By Mary Ann Cook