The members of the Los Gatos community have been asked to step forward with their support time and again. And at each opportunity, the townspeople rise to the occasion in impressive fashion.

The town's elementary schools and middle school need financial support for science, art and other programs, and community members step up with donations to the Los Gatos Education Foundation; the Los Gatos Community Foundation sells bricks to raise funds for a bandstand in Oak Meadow Park, and the townspeople buy them all; and the high school needs funds to equip a new theater, and local supporters donate to the Theater Improvement Project.

That giving spirit is just one of the many characteristics that makes this community, and the people in it, so special.

But now members of the community are being asked to dig deep again for a cause not quite so close to home, for people they don't even know.

Half a world away, the tsunami in the Indian Ocean that has devastated southern Asia--killing tens of thousands and leaving countless others injured and homeless--has sent waves of concern that have rippled throughout the world.

Individuals, organizations and corporations in the United States have already come through with more than $322 million for relief. And right there in the middle of that relief effort is Los Gatos.

A town thousands of miles away, on the other side of the world, doesn't have to respond. But Los Gatos has. Los Gatos Mayor Mike Wasserman details in a letter in today's Los Gatos Weekly-Times what many local organizations are doing to support this cause.

The Lions Clubs of Los Gatos, through Lions International, is soliciting donations that will be distributed to clubs in the affected areas, and 100 percent of those donations will support disaster relief. And the local Kiwanis Club is funneling donations through the American Red Cross, which donates $91 of every $100 to tsunami relief.

In addition, corporations--like Applied Materials--are matching the individual donations of employees offering relief funds, and the Courtside Club of Los Gatos has teamed with the International Community Foundation to offer a matching funds donation program.

Even the students and parents at Los Gatos High School have joined the cause by raising and donating funds to the humanitarian relief effort.

Los Gatos will not see any tangible results for its effort--like a fully-equipped high school theater or a bandstand to feature cultural events. But residents who participate in this relief effort can take comfort in knowing that they were part of his important program.

And the Los Gatos community can take pride in its support of an important humanitarian effort a half a world away.