Apr 29, 2007

Voyage fundraiser a 'Savage Adventure'

By Janet Duca Norton / Society Columnist

“A Savage Adventure,” the first fundraiser benefiting Roz Savage and her Pacific Ocean rowing expedition, was a fun Earth Day celebration and unique support contribution event. Bob and Meryl Selig partnered with Jamis MacNiven and Joan Harlem to host the April 22 luau in their Woodside garden. At least 85 friends and athletes (some from extreme sports) turned out to meet Savage and learn about her scheduled voyage to Australia.

Savage shared top billing with her 6-by-24-foot customized carbon-fiber boat named Sedna Solo, after the Aleut goddess of the ocean. Savage said she wanted to be on good terms with the powerful goddess.

Guests took turns holding Savage’s newly fabricated 11-foot-long wooden oars and inspecting her high-tech items, including solar panels for running equipment.

Seen toasting the adventure and sampling the island feast prepared by MacNiven’s Buck’s of Woodside were Kristy and Eric Brandenburg, Gordon Kruberg, Peter Davies, Nancy Glenn, Fran Eastman and Peter Freiss of the San Jose Tech Museum. In the spirit of Earth Day, all plates and utensils were biodegradable.

After viewing the jaw-dropping video of Savage’s solo Atlantic crossing, the phrase “having the time of your life” took on new meaning. Her endurance and ingenuity were tested with 12-hour rowing shifts, navigating 20-foot waves and dealing with everything from a broken stove to splinting broken oars with a spare rowing seat.

If all goes according to plan, Savage will be the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean. She plans to divide the 7,600-mile journey into three parts: she will depart from San Francisco in July and estimates a September arrival in Hawaii, then storm season will dictate her winter row to American Samoa, and Savage will ultimately arrive at her final destination — Australia.

Savage needs to raise about $500,000 for the expedition. A life raft, duplicates of electronic equipment and satellite charges of $1.50 per minute (for transmissions of her daily video clips) are big-ticket items.

Supporters will have the chance to share in her adventure — without leaving the comforts of home — by joining the “I’m going with Roz” grass-roots fundraising vehicle. For a $20 donation, contributors’ names will appear on labels placed on Savage’s boat. She says it will inspire her to see all the names during her journey.

During Savage’s voyage, she will catalog the location and types of plastic trash she finds in the ocean for the Blue Frontier Campaign, which she hopes will focus attention on the problems of plastic pollution in the oceans. “Each one of us can make a difference,” she said.

For information visit www.rozsavage.com.



16TH ANNUAL AUTHORS SALON

The 16th annual Peninsula Volunteers Authors Salon at the Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club honored its originator Beverly Nelson. “I am grateful that over 300 people are here to support Peninsula Volunteers and their many gerontological programs,” Nelson said.

Guests at the April 15 event heard four acclaimed Bay Area authors discuss how personal life experiences influenced their fiction novels.

John Billheimer, panel moderator and author of the award-winning Owen Allison mysteries, gave the talented group of fiction writers lively introductions, touching upon the authors’ varied backgrounds, ranging from Pam O’Shaughnessy, a former trial lawyer, to Bill Broder, a teacher in the Creative Writing Program at Stanford.

In the span of two hours, guests glimpsed the dangerous life of Detroit’s Prohibition-era Jewish bootleggers as portrayed in “Taking Care of Cleo,” by author Broder, and laughed with Lolly Winston about her last stop on a 20-city book-signing tour for “Happiness Sold Separately” at the Los Gatos Book Club, which was held at a nudist colony.

Sisters Pam and Mary O’Shaughnessy related how they took the pen name Perri O’Shaughnessy and began writing the Nina Reilly mysteries, including “Keeper of the Keys,” that resulted in their making the New York Times best seller list 11 times.

Finally, guests were transported to the Civil War era for “Mary,” a historical novel by Janis Cooke Newman that has only two fictional characters. It took Newman three years to research and write her tell-all autobiographical memoir in the voice of Mary Todd Lincoln.
Applauding the authors were patron Ann Griffiths, Peninsula Volunteers President Camilla Schroff and past Salon chairs Fran Eastman, Mary Lou Taylor and Shirley Simmons.

Event co-chair Linda Dickenson spoke for the trio of chairs, saying, “My co-chairs (Marg DuBois and Helga Ausman) and I were thrilled the Authors Salon, in partnership with Books Inc. of San Francisco, exceeded our financial goals. It was also a wonderful way for the Peninsula Volunteers to start their 60th anniversary year.”

Proceeds benefit Peninsula Volunteers’ four quality senior programs and services in south San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, including Little House, Rosener House, Meals on Wheels, and Crane Place and Partridge-Kennedy Apartments.