This year's event focuses on the growing number of women being diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. According to the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, 277 women in Santa Clara County are living with HIV and AIDS.

Proceeds from the walk benefit nine local HIV/AIDS programs that together reach 30,000 people annually with education and information, and more than 5,000 people through direct services. More than 2,200 walkers participated in last year's event, raising approximately $311,000.

For more information, contact Walk for AIDS Silicon Valley at 408.451.WALK or visit www.walkforaids.org.


Plans for outdoor ice skating melt away

The annual opening of the Downtown Ice skating rink is on hiatus, another victim of the soft economy.

Officials at the nonprofit San Jose Downtown Association (SJDA), which has managed the outdoor ice skating rink since it opened in 1995, said that not enough corporate sponsorships could be acquired to support the season.

The rink was first opened at the corner of San Carlos and Market streets, across from the annual Christmas in the Park display in Plaza de Cesar Chavez. The rink moved to the intersection of Market and Viola streets when construction of the Mariott hotel began in 2000.

The SJDA plans to compensate for the rink's absence by supplementing Christmas in the Park with its "Winter Wonderland" program, scheduled to open in mid-November. Amusement rides, live performances and snow machines in various downtown locations will be part of the festivities.

The SJDA said it will explore various possibilities for bringing back Downtown Ice.


The United Way Silicon Valley has new leaders

Seven new members have been elected to the United Way Silicon Valley's board of directors, and four current board members have been reelected.

New officers elected to two-year terms are Del D. Borgsdorf, San Jose city manager; Robert C. Coradini, president, LifeScan Inc., Milpitas; Luba Kipnis, California corporate services manager, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara; Bill Morgan, chief marketing officer, Microsoft Corporation, Mountain View; Tom Rosamilia, vice president of worldwide data management development for IBM, San Jose; Jose R. Villarreal, Santa Clara County public defender; and Angela Yip, chief financial officer and treasurer of the San Jose Water Co.

Reelected to two-year terms are John Eichhorn, director of finance for Procket Networks Inc., Milpitas (board treasurer); Bill Hahn, senior vice president of corporate relations for Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto; L.H. (Louie) Rocha Jr., president of communications for Workers of America Local 9423, San Jose; and Connie Rogers, a community volunteer, of Gilroy.

United Way Silicon Valley is a nonprofit charitable organization, governed by a volunteer board of directors, that works with and through 100 Santa Clara County health and human services agencies.


Preservationists to celebrate landmark

The Bocca House, in the River Street Historic District in downtown San Jose, will be the focus of the Preservation Action Council of San Jose's third annual preservation celebration on Nov. 15. The event will be held between 6 and 9:30 p.m. at the Bankers' Club in the Bank of America building at 8 S. First St. The celebration acknowledges those who take part in historic preservation efforts in San Jose.

Superior Court Justice Paul Bernal, an historian and eighth-generation descendent of ranch founder Jose Juaquin Bernal, will be the event's honorary chairman. Tickets are $35 each and can be purchased by calling and leaving a message at 408.998.8105.

There will also be an auction of various items like old seats from the Towne Theatre, radios from the 1940s, a lunch appointment with historian Leonard McKay, plus antiques, rare books, art, hotel credits and theater tickets. Accordionists John De Vincenzi and Frank Maggi will perform.

For more information, call Sarah Sykes or Patricia Curia at 408.998.8105, email preservesanjose@netzero.net or visit www.preservation.org.


Program gets award

The Smart Start San Jose program has won the 2002 California Community Partnership Award.

The award—presented to program officials by the Cities, Counties & Schools Partnership, the California Center for Civic Renewal, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation—recognized the city's work in combining the efforts of schools, parents, community-based organizations, businesses, and early childhood development professionals to help get San Jose's youngest children ready to learn.

In addition, the San Jose City Council approved a long-term collaborative strategy to expand the capacity for child care and improve the quality of child care and early education in the community to further the city's goal of learning readiness.

Mayor Ron Gonzales announced his commitment to new child care and early education priorities for San Jose earlier this year at his State of the City address. The strategy adopted by the city council will coordinate a broad range of city and community programs to increase child care capacity by 2,000 spaces over the next four years while improving quality through more training for 1,000 child care professionals.

The San Jose Redevelopment Agency has allocated $10 million for building or expanding childcare capacity in redevelopment project areas in neighborhoods throughout the city. The city has also allocated more than $3 million to address growing child care and early education needs in downtown San Jose in partnership with existing child care centers.

Smart Start San Jose was one of Gonzales' first early education initiatives when he became mayor in 1999. Over the last three years, San Jose has established nine Smart Start centers in cooperation with school districts and community organizations, and 11 more are planned to open over the next two years. The 20 Smart Start centers serve approximately 1,200 children a year.

Through Smart Start San Jose, the city provides capital funding to build or expand centers that meet its standards for educational effectiveness. School districts and community organizations operate the centers. In addition, Smart Start San Jose works with community childcare providers to upgrade curriculum standards for kindergarten learning readiness.

Evaluation of the first Smart Start centers in San Jose have shown that more than 90 percent of the 220 children in the Ready-For-Kindergarten pilot project successfully met early literacy and learning standards developed in consultation with preschool and kindergarten teachers in San Jose.


Symphony needs funds

By the end of October, the musicians of the San Jose Symphony hope to raise $150,000 to purchase the symphony's music library.

The musicians are contributing $8,900 of their own money as well as soliciting outside donations in the next few weeks to save the library from being lost to the impending bankruptcy proceedings.

"We are taking on this tremendous responsibility because losing the library is unthinkable," said Galen Lemmon, the musicians' spokesperson and principal percussionist of the symphony. "Without the library, which has been built up over decades and contains many irreplaceable, out-of print works, there will be yet another enormous obstacle to restoring a symphony orchestra to our community. The symphony organization itself has been unable to raise the cash needed to preserve the library through bankruptcy, so it seems that it's going to be up to us."

The musicians have joined forces with Working Partnerships USA, a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, which will hold in escrow contributions toward the "Musicians' Library Fund." If sufficient money is raised, the musicians will become the library's new owner; if not, donations will be returned. Checks may be made out to Working Partnerships USA with "Musicians' Library Fund" in the memo field, and sent to Working Partnerships USA, 2102 Almaden Road, Ste. 107, San Jose, 95125.


Traffic network meets

The Traffic Safe Communities Network (TSCN) will hold its quarterly meeting on Oct. 16 between 1 and 3 p.m. at the United Way office at 1922 The Alameda, Room 105, in San Jose.

The TSCN has cooperated with the Santa Clara Department of Alcohol and Drug Services (DADS) to conduct a study of nearly 2,000 DUI offenders and where they had their last drink just prior to being arrested.

The public is invited to a discussion of the study, which identifies areas prone to abundant alcohol consumption, including commercial "hot spots" that have experienced drinking and driving problems.

Reservations are requested. Call Lisa McFarlane at 408.885.2113.