SUPER 'STAR' NURSE: Nurse Cheryl Brandt has been named Employee of the Year by Community Hospital of Los Gatos. The award is also called a Superstar Award because the hospital sees to it that a real star in the firmament is named after its outstanding employee of the year.
Brandt works in the intensive care unit. However, she willingly lends a hand to whatever department needs help. Before coming to Community 13 years ago, she worked for the Intensive Care Registry for 13 years. Here's how dedicated this night nurse is: she worked on the due date for her first child. That child is Jessica, 13. Her other offspring is Justin, 11. Husband Allan is self-employed in the marketing field.
Co-workers describe Cheryl Brandt as joyous, hardworking, intelligent and tenacious. She is a natural educator and gives classes to other staff nurses in the hospital. And she spends one week of her vacation as a volunteer nurse at her daughter's summer camp in the Sierras.
Church is an important part of this family's life: they are Mormons. A family trip to Disneyland, part of the award Brandt won, will probably be taken this summer.
Brandt says going to work is like going to see friends because Community Hospital is small enough to have a community feeling. And returning patients become friends, too. The retention rate for nurses is "incredibly high" at Community, she says—a number have worked there for 10 years, which is unusual.
Winning the award was a total shock but certainly made her feel special. The International Star Registry will send Brandt a celestial map so she can find her star.
ADVENTURES FOR KIDS: Los Gatan Elina Wong has written a new resource guide for families called Kids' Adventures Around San Francisco Bay: Educational Places to Go, Things to Do, and Classes to Take. The mother of two young daughters, Wong has written a book that has an educational twist, with children learning through play.
Kids' Adventures offers sections on science, art, music, drama and sports. The book is self-published by Kids EdVentures of Los Gatos. The phone is 408.356.2450 and the price is $16.95. The Wooden Horse on Los Gatos Boulevard carries it.
Wong is developing a database for her readers so that the information about destinations is continually up-to-date. One appendix in the book lists seasonal events and one offers a potpourri of free activities.
Before writing the guidebook, Wong was a project manager for an HMO and was a market researcher for Apple. She holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from UC-Berkeley and a master's in health finance and management from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
She'll hold a booksigning at Linden Tree Children's Books in Los Altos April 3, 11 a.m.1 p.m. Some favorite adventures of the author's are fruit picking, whale watching, tide pooling, chantey sings, living history and going to the Asian Art Museum. The website is www.KidsEdVentures.com.
NOWROOZ: Nowrooz is the Iranian version of New Year's and it's celebrated at the time of the equinox, usually March 21, and over a three-day period, with a lusty spring-cleaning preceding the event. The holiday has been celebrated for the past 3,000 years throughout the Middle East.
Los Gatos has quite an enclave whose members celebrate Persian New Year, including Amir Farsio, Suesan Hamidieh, Dr. Shahram Shawn Gholami and Amir Elmjouie. Besides food, gifts, and visiting family and friends, the celebration includes a ritual called 7 Seen, whereby seven special things, all starting with the letter "S," are grouped together.
Also in the grouping are the Koran, a jug with colored fish and a mirror. Another tradition involves jumping over a burning bush of twigs. All the relics and rituals involved symbolize a new beginning and a call for a better year for the assembled.
There's a follow-up celebration, too—a deadline that honors nature. The idea is, some 13 days after Nowrooz, one is expected to get out of the house, go for a hike and enjoy the blossoming trees. That date should fall on April 3, a fitting date for a walk on the Persian side.
CHILDREN'S ART: This year's Children's Art Show will be held at Faith Lutheran Church, 16548 Ferris Ave., through April 2. Student work in grades K5 is featured. Hours are 8:45 a.m.4 p.m., closing at 1 p.m. April 2.
The Los Gatos Art Docents give hands-on workshops, as do the San Jose Museum of Art, district teachers and artist Jack Toolin. The docents teach art appreciation to K5 classes monthly and give frequent presentations to sixth-grade classes.
BESTSELLER: A Telling Time by Glynnis Hayward of Monte Sereno was Amazon.com's No. 1 bestseller in Los Gatos last week. The book is set in South Africa in the '70s, during the dark days of apartheid. There's attempted murder, police brutality, terrorism and a love story. It is on sale at British Food Centre, Campbell. Hayward is known locally as Glynnis Belchers.
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By Mary Ann Cook