Los Gatos Weekly-Times
Columns
Happy Dragon volunteers mark 40 years of service
By Mary Ann Cook
VETERAN HAPPY DRAGONS: Audrey Bridges and Lu Sanner are marking their 40th year of volunteering at the Happy Dragon, the thrift store that benefits EMQ Children and Family Services. Forty years can bring a cascade of change. Sanner says making $25 a day in sales at the store was once considered just grand. Today the guild is able to turn over $20,000 monthly to Ming Quong.
In those early days all transactions were handled with pencil and paper, Bridges remembers. No cash register was on hand, just a cash box. Happy Dragon volunteers work three-hour shifts three days a month.
As for amusing moments through the years: "Sometimes we sell things that really aren't for sale," Bridges reports, "things that customers may have laid down. But usually the mistake is discovered before the customer leaves the store." Money--sometimes as much as $300--is often found in pockets of donated items.
It's a great group of women, both longtime volunteers attest. Sanner, a registered nurse who wanted to help children and was new to town, found that working for the shop helped acquaint her with a broad circle of friends. She was president of the guild during the transition period when the merger of Eastfield with Ming Quong took place.
Volunteerism is becoming a rare commodity in these days of two-wage- earner families. But the dedication of these two through decades of service has had a decided impact on the children who benefit from EMQ. The Dragon is open weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; closed Sundays.
Marcia Burkhart is president of the guild; Geri Miller is vice president.
READING THE STARS: Where Do the Stars Go? is a children's book with paintings and text rendered by versatile Los Gatan Jan Pitcher. The 11 paintings found in the book normally hang on her walls. But soon they will be gracing the town council chambers, along with photographs by Kelly Castro of Santa Cruz, her son.
Castro also did the layout and design for the stars book and (as a child) was the model for one of the book's paintings. He is the one who encouraged his mother to write a children's book. The display will run from January to mid-March and a reception/book signing will be held Jan. 10, 6-8 p.m.
One of Pitcher's main enthusiasms these days is giving presentations of her book at schools and libraries. She'll be available for show and tell once the paintings come down from the council walls. Pitcher earned a B.A. in art from SJSU and has answered painting commissions through the years.
Three hospices have the book, too, which is apt, since a subliminal theme of the book is healing and loss. The fact that love never dies is the comforting undercurrent. "Where do the stars go when night ends?" the book asks. And each of the original illustrations attempts to answer that question.
Do the stars become baby deer dapples, sparkles on the bay, glimmers of kindly thoughts or the twinkle in your eye? The book costs $21.60 and the website is www.janpitcher.com. Her phone is 408.395.6497.
OPEN HOUSE: Residents of El Sombraso Oaks at Fancher Court and Poppy Lane invited neighbors to an outdoor tree lighting and carol sing early this month. But when it started to drizzle the party moved inside to Jeanette Rapp's digs. Rapp had asked a few children inside to see her dollhouse with lighted Christmas tree.
Soon she found herself hosting an impromptu open house--for everyone. El Sombraso is a special setup for retired clergy, sponsored by the Presbyterian church. Residents of the 22-unit complex pay rent of 33 percent of their income. Pastors don't usually own a house, since the churches they serve provide them, so this is a need met for retirees.
MUSICAL: Rita Baum has completed a full-length musical called Angels Don't Cry, and it was given a reading recently in her screenwriting class at West Valley College. The impetus for the project came from her son, Ed, who had composed a number of songs awaiting a framework.
And thus did the collaboration begin. Instructor Jim Callner helped the project move to completion.
HIT SHOW: Dan Jinks is one of the producers of Pushing Daisies, the new hit TV show on Wednesday nights on ABC. Jinks is an '81 grad of LGHS. Another Hollywood success story is Scott Frank, LGHS '78, a screenwriter of popular thrillers.
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