Jun 1, 2008

Lives of service honored at Avenidas benefit

By Janet Duca Norton / Society Columnist

Picture-perfect described the 19th annual Avenidas Lifetimes of Achievement Awards benefit on May 18. The very Palo Alto event featured interesting people, perfect weather, a gorgeous garden, great food by Beverly Aarts and entertainment by the Gunn High School Jazz Combo. About 300 friends, family members and former honorees saluted the six outstanding seniors honored for their significant achievements and community leadership.

Co-chairwomen Ninna Traugott and Cathy Kroymann, along with their 19-member committee, worked a year to produce the celebration. "It's a spectacular group of honorees, and we're pleased with the turnout to honor them," Kroymann said.

Before Avenidas executive director Lisa Hendrickson introduced the honorees, she said, "Living well is what we're all about. The tag line for all the honorees should be 'still at all these years; they are not finished yet.'"

The event was a reunion for Marcie McCue and honorees Becky and Jim Morgan. (McCue had been an intern for Becky at Joint Venture Silicon Valley.) The Morgans were honored for their contributions in both the public and private sectors, including the establishment of the Morgan Family Foundation. Becky started on her community leadership path as a Palo Alto School Board member, and went on to serve as a Santa Clara County Supervisor and member of the state Senate. Jim, a former CEO and current chairman of Applied Materials, has had leadership roles in the American Electronics Association and is current vice chairman of the President's Export Council.

David and Lynn Mitchell share a commitment to sharing with others who have less. Among the beneficiaries of Lynn's fundraising endeavors are the YWCA, CAR and Bring Me a Book Foundation. David has volunteered with the Palo Alto Community Fund, Stanford University, the Rotary Club and Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Event co-chairwoman Hendrickson said honoree Janet Owens makes low-income housing make sense, and honoree Walt Hays has concentrated on environmental causes and promoted world peace.

Some of the guests studying picture boards and offering congratulations included former honorees Penny and Roy Lave, Bea Hubbard, Bill Alhouse, Margaret Abe, Bill Bloom, Leonard Ely, Harry Hartzell, Merrill Newman, Jeanne Ware, Sam Webster and Roberta Yee, as well as past event chairwomen Fran Codispoti, Judy Marcus and Marcia Rehmus.

Proceeds from this year's benefit will support the grocery shopping assistance program.


"BOOKS ARE TREASURES" AT CHILDREN'S AUTHORS SALON

Known for presenting 17 years of interesting authors salons, Menlo Park-based Peninsula Volunteers partnered with the Rotary Club of Menlo Park and Books Inc. to present a first-time Children's Authors Salon. About 250 children, parents and grandparents turned out for the May 18 "Books Are Treasures" event at Little House in Menlo Park.

"Thanks to a terrific group of Peninsula Volunteers, to stimulating, engaging authors and illustrators and to a very enthusiastic audience, our Children's Salon was extremely successful," event chairwoman Amalia Popell said.

Children from 13 elementary schools from Redwood City, East Palo Alto, Woodside, Portola Valley, Palo Alto and Menlo Park were invited to meet 10 award-winning authors, illustrators and filmmakers. Attendees had the opportunity to meet the authors during small group presentations and to have their purchased books autographed. (Sponsors donated coupons so all children at the event could purchase books.)

Featured authors included Stephanie Bauer, Betsy Franco, Elisa Haden Guest, Elisa Kleven, Mark J. Gordon, David M. Schwarz and Ashley Wolff. Suzanne Morgan Williams used puppets to engage with the children and Caryn Huberman Yacowitz gave an interactive presentation.

Jeanne DuPrau led a discussion about the basics of planning a story. First, she said, one must decide on an interesting or scary idea, next comes the creation of characters and finally, one should open the story with a problem or disturbing situation. The buzz during the event was about the Oct. 11 premiere of the film "The City of Embers," starring Bill Murray, which is based on DuPrau's first best-selling novel.

Author Gordon demonstrated how his festival award-winning film "Her Majesty" progressed from the original book, talking about the process of writing the script and showing clips from the original film.

Among the guests meeting the authors, and sampling lemonade and popcorn were Marilee Gardner and her young neighbor Valerie Kramer, Samantha and Jeffrey Frenkel-Popell, Ramona Cole and her granddaughter Maddie Suter, Julia Teymourian and her mother Gail, Lorie Congress and her granddaughters Jasmine and Josslyn Congress, Alisa Tu and her children Alice and Kwika, and Peninsula Volunteers President Mary Young and her granddaughters Lily and Charlotte Hallenbeck, as well as Sandy Ferrando and her grandchildren Piper and Jack Deaser and their mother Joi Deaser.

For more than 60 years, Peninsula Volunteers has improved the quality of life for senior citizens in our community with quality programs, support and guidance. Each year the nonprofit organization provides more than $4.2 million in services, including the delivery of more than 10,000 hot meals to seniors and the homebound, and touching 4,500 households through its programs.


Janet Duca Norton's society column appears every Sunday in the Daily News. Send event information to 255 Constitution Dr., Menlo Park, CA 94025 or e-mail society@paloaltodailynews.com.