The Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits’ annual Be Our Guest luncheon has earned a reputation over the years as the premier fall networking event for that sector. Sometimes, though, I suspect the real reason hundreds of people show up every year isn’t to rub elbows with State Sen. Dave Cortese or PG&E Vice President Teresa Alvarado but to see what kind of pumpkin they brought.
The luncheon’s pumpkin-decorating contest is an annual bounty of creativity by elected officials, nonprofit and business leaders, and this year’s outdoor event at Excite Ballpark was no exception. There were three jack o’lanterns with a “Barbie” theme, a couple of nods to the SAG-AFTRA strike in Hollywood, a blowfish with candy corn spines, a shiny “Steampumpkin” and even a replica of the San Jose City Hall rotunda made by the newshounds at San Jose Spotlight. Cortese and Alvarado didn’t disappoint, either: He brought a fun overalls-wearing Minion pumpkin, while she went with a more job-related display about energy-sucking “vampire” appliances.
Jennifer Kelleher Cloyd, CEO of First 5 Santa Clara County, took the top pumpkin prize with her “Barbie” tribute. All the pumpkins were auctioned off, and the one that got the highest bids was brought by Janikke Klem of Heritage Bank of Commerce, who didn’t make hers but bought a succulent-filled pumpkin from Fractal Flora in San Jose. She says it saves her time and supports a local business to boot. And here I spent all day painting a pumpkin to look like the Babadook.
Many of the attendees came in costume, and while there wasn’t a prize for that, Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits CEO Kyra Kazantzis did get to present trophies to this year’s Nonprofit Impact Award recipients.
Elevate Community Center and Razing the Bar received the Nonprofits of the Year awards, and the Emerging Nonprofit Leader awards went to Katie Blevins of Humane Society Silicon Valley and Cris Unciano Jr., who runs the Here4You call center for the Bill Wilson Center.
Sherri Sager of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Children’s Health received the Nonprofit Ally award, and the Guerreras outreach team from the ¡Sí Se Puede! Collective received the Collaborative Impact award. The Patricia A. Gardner Changemaker awards were presented to Chad Bojorquez and Claudine Sipili of Destination: Home.
OFFICERS’ SALUTE: There were too many honorees to list at the San Jose Police Department’s Major Awards Ceremony on Thursday night, hosted in partnership with the San Jose Police Foundation at the DoubleTree Hotel.
But here’s one statistic worth applauding: Two dozen officers were recognized for life-saving actions that included using CPR and tourniquets, administering NarCan and preventing suicides. The awards weren’t limited to police officers either, with San Jose resident Leah Smith honored with the Simpson-Silva award for helping to save a boy who had been drowning in an apartment complex pool until paramedics arrived.
LESS CANDY, MORE READING: For the 22nd year, San Jose resident Rebecca Morgan’s Books for Treats program will aim to give kids something more substantial than candy for Halloween. Morgan started the nonprofit in 2001 after six years of offering books to trick-or-treaters from her doorstep. She spent the money she would have on candy by buying books from library sales and sorting them out by grade level.
Using tax-deductible donations to buy books, the program has been able distribute up to 10,000 books a year to San Jose kids, and the idea has spread to other communities, too. This year’s distribution is happening at the Garden Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen on Tuesday, which is Halloween. Books for kindergarteners and younger will be given out from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with books for first through sixth-graders given out from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
DECADE OF SERVICE: More than 440 attendees helped Community Seva celebrate its 10th anniversary at its Tree of Life gala this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas — and the event brought in more than $410,000 to support the nonprofit’s mission to “Feed the Hungry and Serve the Homeless” in the Bay Area.
“Community Seva serves the local community that is experiencing the heart wrenching and fast-growing issue of homelessness,” founder Nathan Ganeshan said. “100% of our donations are used for our fellow citizens in the Bay Area.”
The evening included a keynote by Robert Egger, founder of the DC Central Kitchen, the Campus Kitchen Project and the L.A. Kitchen. Gail Osmer and Shaunn Cartwright were honored for their service to the valley’s unhoused community and volunteer Saras Venkatram was presented with a special Founders Award for her dedication to the organization over the past decade.
In that time, Community Seva has provided more than 300,000 meals to the hungry and provided more than 10,000 backpacks with winter essentials and 5,000 hygiene kits to people in nine cities in the Bay Area. You can find out more about their work at www.communityseva.org.
SORRY, SAMUEL AYER: My item on Monday’s screening of “The Milpitas Monster” committed a scary mistake, placing director Robert L. Burrill and his students at Milpitas High instead of Samuel Ayer High in Milpitas, where he taught when the move was made. Ayer closed in 1981, which is when Burrill moved over to Milpitas High.
Reader Jacob Abeytia points out that Samuel Ayer has a strong alumni association and recently held its 23rd annual all-class reunion picnic with more than 300 attendees. And you can probably expect a lot of Ayer students at the Century 20 Great Mall on Monday night to watch the movie they helped make.
