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News Archives: 2011-2012 year
| Four pediatric urgent care rooms receive makeover |
| May 20, 2012 |
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The second weekend of mural painting for the VMC Foundation was a huge
success, despite needing to paint while the Pediatric Urgent Care
clinic was open. Four exam rooms received bright murals depicting
dinosaurs, a ship at sea, a friendly tree surrounded by frogs and
rabbits, and a Peter Pan theme. Approximately 30 exam rooms remain,
with painting weekends scheduled for July 6-8 and Aug 3-4. Artists
are still needed for these events. For more information, please see
our event page.
Donations to the project are 100% tax deductible and can be made at
the
VMC Foundation website.
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Sasha, Laura, and Carissa.
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| Kiwanis Special Games a huge success |
| May 18, 2012 |
President Dick Gardner, warily eyeing the obstinately wobbly pins.
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Approximately 900 special needs student athletes participated in at
least 6 athletic events at the 34th annual Kiwanis Special Games
hosted by Divisions 34 and 12. The transition to the temporary
location at Mission College was relatively smooth and we had perfect
event weather. In addition to supporting the games financially,
members volunteered at the registration table, assisted student
athletes at the bean bag throw (one of our division's three events),
and cheered everyone throughout the day. Two of our members also
served as Division 12 Special Games co-chairs and visited the other
fifteen clubs in the division, drumming up financial support and
volunteers for this great event.
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| In memory of valued member and treasurer Stan Harris |
| May 4, 2012 |
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After joining our club January 1, 2009, Stan Harris quickly became a
valued member, receiving recognition as one of the two "rookie of the
year" awards given at the end of the year. He accepted the role of
treasurer for the 2010-2011 year and held the position until he passed
away on May 4. His enthusiasm for projects, fresh ideas, and sense of
humor will be sorely missed.
His obituary in the San Jose Mercury News can be found
here.
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Real-life movie producer Stan Harris.
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| Six new turn-around scholarships awarded |
| May 4, 2012 |
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Six students attending Pioneer Plus, Leland Plus, and Gunderson Plus
received renewable $1,000 scholarships after turning their academic
careers around. These students faced a variety of hardships and were
not on track to graduate prior to joining the Plus programs, but
improved their grades and earned enough credits to graduate this
spring. At our annual luncheon, recipients from the Kiwanis Clubs of
Willow Glen, Pueblo de San Jose, and Almaden Valley received their
awards and shared their experiences with their families, teachers, and
members who were present in a touching ceremony. This year,
scholarship recipients will also be mentored by Kiwanis members.
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| Finger-knitting at a meeting |
| May 3, 2012 |
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Ten members of the Simonds K-Kids Club demonstrated their
finger-knitting-for-the-troops project at our breakfast meeting, which
started extra-early so everyone could get to school on time. After a quick
video demonstration while everyone ate, the K-Kids helped Kiwanis
members start the project, to be completed at home. The K-Kids
will then combine everything and send them to Afghanistan. Everyone
enjoyed having the young volunteers with us. A big thank you to
advisor Laurel-Sue Moore for her work with these students the last
couple years and for coming to our early meeting!
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Belinda, Johnny, and Tom having various degrees of fun finger-knitting.
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| VMC Pediatric Murals |
| April 21-22, 2012 |
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On April 21st, eight local artists (and over seventy volunteers) created murals for
the Pediatric Specialty Clinic exam rooms at
Valley Medical Center's
Bascom clinic as part of Kiwanis One-Day.
Plain white walls were transformed into an undersea wonderland,
a pair of zebras on the African Serengeti, a bear floating through the sky
with balloons, astronaut animals playing in space, kids frolicking outdoors,
a colorful rabble of butterflies, whimsical cats, and rainbow in the clouds.
Our artists were community members, Kiwanians, and Key Clubbers who
designed and led small teams of volunteer painters in the creation of each
mural. We are humbled by the donation of supplies that came from the community
for this project:
Tacos Al Pastor on Bascom, Home Depot, Ace Hardware in Almaden, Safeway,
Kelly-Moore on Bascom, Glidden Store on Bascom, and Sherwin-Williams
on Blossom Hill.
With 8 rooms successfully completed, our attention is now turning to the
remaining 40 rooms and hallways making up Urgent Care and Primary Care.
Donations are still needed to keep it going! This project is eligible for
tax-deductible donations by going through the VMC Foundation. Checks
can be made out to the VMC Foundation (remember to direct the donation to
the "Almaden Valley Kiwanis" fund!) and sent to:
2400 Moorpark Ave, Suite 207
San Jose, CA 95128
Donations by credit card can be done from the VMC Foundation's
charityweb
site, or by calling the Foundation at (408) 885-5299.
To see more pictures from our event, please visit our Facebook galleries for
phase one
and
phase two.
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Community artist Mariah Roberts with her room's artwork.
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| Blankets For Kids |
| February 18, 2012 |
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Our Leland Key Club created a great project: a day of cutting and tying
two-ply blankets for kids in hospitals. On February 18th, four
members of Almaden Kiwanis met up with about eight Key Clubbers from three
different schools. For three hours, we cut one-inch-wide tassles in
patterned felt, and then tied the tassles together to form the blankets.
Many hands make light work -- we completed ten blankets in record
time.
Great project idea, Leland Key Club!!
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Two Almaden Valley Kiwanians, and two prospective Almaden Valley Kiwanians!
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| Adopt-A-Park comes to Almaden |
| January 28, 2012 |
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The Parks and Recreation department of San Jose has a lot of parks to
manage, so we are very glad when we see them focus on one in our area:
Jeffrey Fontana park. (Or at least part of it that makes up the narrow
strip of greenery between McAbee Rd and Almaden Expressway.) On
the brisk morning of January 28th, we donned our favorite work
gloves and helped with two things: a little bit of planting, and a whole lot
of mulch spreading. It took about three hours, but the 50 or so people who
showed covered about 143 square meters of ground with tan bark and chipped
wood.
Afterwards we immediately went to OSH to get better gloves.
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Adopt-A-Park has lots of community support.
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| Key Clubs making a difference |
| December 23, 2011 |
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Even though it's only December, our Pioneer Key Club has been a busy bee in the
2011-12 year! They've had record attendance at training events such as the
Regional Training Conference (RTC) and Fall Rally North (FRN), and they've
done a ton of service projects. They've also adopted Pokemon in an innovative
effort to increase participation. Read all about it in
their latest writeup on our SLP page!
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I choose Pikachoo Key Club!
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| Annual Holiday Food Drive |
| November 19, 2011 |
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Each year, Kiwanis clubs in much of California spend a day at a local
supermarket, collecting food donations for food banks. This year, our club
worked in two-hour shifts at the Safeway on the corner of Almaden and Branham.
Safeway's annual
food drive actually lasts around 5 days, with only one day of Kiwanis support;
regardless, in that one day we collected 65% of all the donations!
It's nice to get such reaffirmation that our work with Kiwanis
makes a difference.
The 285 bags collected were delivered to Second
Harvest Food Bank.
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The colorful fliers we handed out.
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| 2011-2012 Officer Installation |
| October 1, 2011 |
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October 1st is the very first day of the Kiwanis adminstrative
year,
and so it was fitting that our incoming president chose that day to host the
club at his house for the installation of the club's officers. We were
graced by the presence of outgoing Lieutenant Governor John Fukasawa (from
the Kiwanis Club of San Jose) and incoming Lieutenant Governor Grant Imper (from
the Kiwanis Club of West San Jose).
Congratulations to everyone installed as a club officer for the 2011-12
year:
president: Dick Gardner
vice-president: Sarah Gianocaro
recording secretary: Belinda Chan
correspondence secretary: Ann Christiansen
treasurer: Stan Harris
president-elect(s): Pete Edwards and Mike Montanari
immediate past president: Chris verBurg
director: Jim Lucarotti
director: Tom Sisto
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Some of the evening's delicious wine/cheese pairings.
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News Archives: 2010-2011 year
| National Night Out Bike Faire a huge success! |
| Aug 2, 2011 |
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At the National Night Out, a national crime and drug prevention event,
on August 2nd for the Hoffman-Via Monte Neighborhood, we successfully
fit and gave away over 125 bicycle helmets in this Safe Neighborhoods
Initiative area of Almaden.
After SJ Redevelopment funds were cut,
this neighborhood was identified as one of 13 neighborhoods currently
determined to have the greatest needs. Program managers looked at
such indicators as incidents of violent crime, code enforcement
violations, unemployment rates, foreclosure activity, and residents’
input.
With the assistance of the Kiwanis Club of Pueblo de San Jose
(whose translation ability was invaluable!), parents were instructed in
how to safely fit and adjust the helmets. Safety information was
also provided.
Our Kiwanis club also secured the participation of two
bicycle repair groups
(Spokes for Folks
and
Good Karma Bikes),
the
Masons Friendship Lodge #210
who provided child identification services
(fingerprinting and photographs), and the Key Clubs of Leland and
Pioneer High School who organized and led two bicycle safety
activities.
We also coordinated a giveaway of 36 refurbished bicycles
that were repaired and donated by Good Karma Bikes.
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| Almaden Cares: Driving simulator highlights hazards of driving under the "influence" |
| June 26, 2011 |
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In partnership with the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training
Consotium,
Almaden Cares
recently offered teenagers the rare
opportunity to use the Academy’s Police Vehicle Driving Simulator.
On
two different days, teens were able to experience driving in "high
risk" scenarios such as driving fast, driving while texting, driving
with beer goggles to simulate drunken driving, and driving while
distracted by other teens in the car.
Formed in December 2010,
Almaden Cares secured Kiwanis as their first sponsor in the effort to
demonstrate that "Almaden Cares for the safety of our kids on the
streets and highways of our community."
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Almaden Cares co-founder and ex-Kiwanian Martha Kelley distributes brochures at Safeway.
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