Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
East Palo Alto resident Marquisa Hawkins, above, has benefited from generous contributions from the anonymous Los Altos angel who has helped her with many necessary steps toward applying for college.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Anonymous donors answer prayers for church, help youth with education
On the eve of Christmas and the beginning of Hanukkah, thoughts and songs of angels fill the air. It seems appropriate to tell the stories of two Los Altos angels.
They don't know each other. They insist on remaining anonymous. But their love and generosity has reached far beyond themselves and into the community.
One angel gives, through a foundation, to an East Palo Alto student, to provide her an emotional and financial boost as she heads down the road to college.
The other angel donated "a stunning amount of money" to Foothills Congregational Church in Los Altos as a matching gift, the income to be used for outreach.
Here are the stories of two angels in our midst.
A personal connection
Marquisa Hawkins, 17, an East Palo Alto teen who is a senior at Palo Alto High School, is heading to college.
And there's a Los Altos angel in the background helping to make it happen.
"We want her to know we're there plugging for her, we believe in her."
This angel does not want to be known to Marquisa. "It's much better that she doesn't feel beholden to someone," the resident said. "I don't want her to be overcome and falling over herself with gratitude.
"It's fun that she just thinks there's someone who loves and cares for her and is so proud of her."
Marquisa is part of the Foundation for a College Education, a non-profit program based at Palo Alto High School with the goal of getting more kids of color to go to college.
"We're working intensively with 15 kids," said Sarita Berry, executive director of the Foundation. "We provide academic support, cultural exploration, and letting the kids know the steps (for applying to college) and then helping them do them."
Through Berry, the Los Altos angel learned of Marquisa.
Our angel said she is "a fanatic advocate of education." She worked as a Head Start teacher years ago in New Orleans. "My little 4- and 5-year-olds, they were so bright but stuck in the grinding poverty of the projects.
"I would hold those bright little faces in my hands and wonder, 'How are we ever going to help you?' Every kid who wants to go to college should have a chance."
She's helping to make sure that chance is there for Marquisa. Through her friend Sarita Berry, our angel is paying all the college application fees. At $50 a piece that can add up. Our angel paid for the SAT tests.
Marquisa plays varsity softball. Sometimes the angel "provides a new pair of shoes for a ball game."
The evening the Town Crier met with Marquisa and her parents, she had just had her first college interview - at Santa Clara University, her college of choice. She was still glowing from a good interview.
"My goal is for her to get out there and spread her wings," said her mother, Tommye Hawkins.
Tommye works as a receptionist at Gemfire Corporation. Larry Hawkins, her dad, is retired, and works now as a mail processor at Stanford Hospital.
Marquisa's parents did not go to college and said they appreciate the guidance they get from the Foundation.
Through Berry, there is help with completing college applications, preparing for the SATs, finding people to read Marquisa's essays.
"Without that information, you'd be completely stuck," Tommye said.
"A lot of little gifts and blessings keep popping up," Tommye said, "as we go along. We have been very blessed and received help."
The Foundation found a Stanford student to tutor Marquisa in math, Tommye said. "It made such a difference. And it was totally free!"
Another gift, Tommye said, was for Marquisa to take the prep classes for the SATs without charge.
She's on her way, filling out 10 college applications, looking ahead and working hard.
"We're going to continue to help her," said the angel. "We're there for the long haul."
Taking action
for a better community
"When you tell people that the messiah is among you, they change how they act," said the Rev. Jim Manley, associate minister at Foothills Congregational Church in Los Altos. "And that's happened here - by not knowing who has made that incredible gift."
In less than a year, an anonymous gift of $500,000 given as matching money for funds raised within the congregation, has grown into a local outreach endowment of more than $1.2 million.
The final tally shows the donor giving $353,000 to match the $353,000 raised by the church. In addition, the process generated about $500,000 more from the congregation as deferred gifts.
"And most of the church doesn't have a clue" as to the donors' identity, Manley said.
The donors insist on keeping it that way.
"They don't believe in bragging about giving," said the Rev. Diane Phillips, senior minister at Foothills, who knows who the donors are.
"It reminds me of prayer. You don't stand in the corner shouting your prayer so everyone knows how holy you are. The donors thought the gift and use of the money more important than who they are. They didn't want the focus lost.
"At first we heard a lot of speculation about the 'who,'" Phillips said. "Now the talk is about the gift-givers among all of us."
The donors, through their attorney Francis La Poll, first approached the church last February.
They wanted to give money to create an endowment for outreach, the income of which could be spent.
"It's up to the church to define outreach," Phillips said. "They didn't put any restrictions on how the money could be used."
At first many at Foothills had reasons why the church shouldn't accept the gift.
Benevolence giving was already high, 20 percent of the budget, Phillips said. The church had just finished an ambitious fund-raising campaign and had promised no fund-raising in 1998.
A new project like this would be time consuming for the staff, some said.
After two months of meetings and conversations, the congregation voted with a 3-1 margin by written ballot in April to accept the gift and go forward "with excitement and gratitude" with raising matching funds.
"Mostly people had a sense of 'wow,'" said Don Boeckling, church treasurer.
But some continued to believe the effort would sap the normal level of operating and outreach giving, Manley said.
It's too soon to tell if that is the case, Boeckling said. "Indicators are that it has not affected the '97 income."
The fund-raisers created a theme, "Count your blessings and make your blessings count." They sent out an "endowment for outreach invitations."
And people started writing checks.
"We had no dinners. No meetings. We sent no letters," Boeckling said.
By mid-August, $61,000 had come in. By the end of August the total had grown to $89,000.
Then an avalanche of giving began and grew to the final $1.2 million. All gifts had to be received by Dec. 1, but checks could be dated Jan. 2, 1998. By mid January, all moneys, except the $500,000 of deferred gifts, will be in the church account.
The money will be managed by the five current trustees of the Foothills Fund, and they will determine how much is available each year to spend, Philips said. Only income will be spent and not all of that.
Suddenly, in less than a year, the church will have an astounding amount of money to give to "outreach projects."
Among the seven criteria for choosing an outreach project are two key items: the project should offer opportunity for involvement by members of the congregation; and the project should have some ecumenical benefit.
"Absolutely these donors are angels, without a doubt," Boeckling said.
"These messengers not only brought the message, but they brought the blessing with them and encouraged us to become part of the blessing, too," Manley said.
"I know a donor who originally voted no. He subsequently made a contribution," Manley said. Initially some folks were coming from fear. Then "they moved from a sense of scarcity to abundance - that there's enough for both - the gift and the church's operation."