The name is new.

The logo is new.

The mission is the same.

That was the message at the association's press conference staged at its 1469 Park Ave. headquarters on Feb. 1.

Gone is the familiar red double-barred cross, and in its place is a set of white lungs outlined inside a blue circle.

"It's a bold move, but we had to decide the best way to meet our mission to serve people," said Margo Sidener, executive director of the organization for 17 years.

"As Breathe California, we will be able to focus all of our efforts, resources and expertise on improving the quality of life enjoyed by our local residents."

Joining the Santa Clara-San Benito county group as Breathe California are the San Francisco-San Mateo counties, Central Coast, Los Angeles and Sacramento groups.

Breathe California now includes five of the 11 groups formerly affiliated with the American Lung Association. The others will be merged into the American Lung Association of California.

The decision to form Breathe California followed the national group's decision to require all California affiliates to merge into one statewide organization.

"It was a matter of having local control," Sidener said. "We had no confidence our community would get the services they need under the new organization."

Sidener said many people have the misconception that the national group funds local programs, which it never has.

"We have paid for all local services as well as our share of the national and state budgets. We funded everything," Sidener said.

Additionally, whenever anyone local called or emailed the national organization seeking help, those calls and emails were forwarded back to the Santa Clara-San Benito group.

The move to become independent was made after much discussion and with the unanimous support of the board of directors.

The local group was founded in 1911 as the Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. In 1960, it changed its name to the Tuberculosis and Health Association and a decade later became the American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties.

That chapter now serves more than 100,000 people each year. Major efforts are focused in the areas of tobacco control, environmental health, asthma and other lung diseases.

Sidener acknowledges the switch in name and logo is going to cause confusion.

"It's going to be hard to brand another organization when we've done a great job branding the one we're leaving," she said.

A January court settlement prevented the new group from using the word lung or lungs in its name so it chose Breathe California and incorporated lungs in its logo.

Sidener's concern is that people seeking help may have trouble finding it.

Breathe California is giving up its current phone number of 408.998.LUNG and its main line will now be 408.998.5865. However, callers to the old number will still reach them for the next year.

One thing it won't have to change is its main website of www.lungsrus.org because the local group created it.

Sidener is concerned about donations.

If donors give to the American Lung Association rather than Breathe California, she fears, "We'll be unable to offer the same services we now do."

"We're very frugal, but we have to make people understand we're the ones who have been out in their schools and their community offering services."

Looking ahead, Sidener said she hopes the change will allow the group to offer more services to the south county and San Benito areas.

"You can't be all things to all people in Silicon Valley. It's been tough for nonprofits. Some have gone out of business and some have merged, but we're the only one that does exactly what we do, and we needed to be here to do that."