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Published on 09/21/1998 All articles from this issue

Foundation reaches $1 million milestone

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

Projects reach into the community and build volunteer base

The Los Altos Community Foundation recently reached a milestone: The $1 million mark. This includes money the foundation manages for other groups in town in a pooled fund as well as its own assets.

The Foundation then uses some of the income from its assets to develop "community building" projects that "promote positive relationships among community members that create a shared vision for the future," according to the Foundation's stated purpose.

Last year the Foundation gave away about $20,000, said president Roy Lave. Maybe those aren't big bucks by some standards. But those bucks have enabled local projects that have created a ripple effect, reaching far into the community.

Consider LEAD, a Foundation-sponsored program of leadership, education and development, that presents volunteer opportunities within the community.

It's only in its fourth year.

And it has only graduated 35-40 adults. But the impact of these folks on the community is almost beyond measure.

Just ask Los Altos resident Joanna Medin.

She had lived here just a few years when she took the six-month course.

"LEAD was a catalyst for my involvement in the community. I wanted to get involved, but I didn't know how."

Now she does, and she's jumped in with both feet. She's chairwoman of the "Partner's for New Generations," a program that recruits and places volunteers in youth-related projects.

Thursday night there will be a symposium for volunteers, 7-9 p.m., at Graham Middle School, 1175 Castro St., Mountain View.

Los Altos mom Mary Cunneen Lion was "a star pupil" in the first group of LEAD graduates, said Penny Lave, one of the volunteers who organizes the LEAD course.

Now Lion has begun a similar course for children.

This year's series began Monday, for fourth to sixth graders, from 6:30-7:45 p.m. at Hillview Community Center, Room 18, 97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos.

This five-session workshop for kids will explore how to make a difference in your community. Cost is $25 and includes a T-shirt.

Francis La Poll was also in that first LEAD class with Lion. During the class he shared that he would be running for Los Altos City Council.

"That caught a few people off guard," he said. "The class didn't cause me to run, but it gave me another insight into the community."

La Poll was elected to the council in 1995 and has since served as mayor.

Other graduates include Connie Chronis, who has gone on to serve on the Los Altos Arts Committee; Jeff Warmoth, who currently is chairman of the Los Altos Planning Commission.

Curtis Cole, a member of the planning commission, took the class. "I thought I knew a lot already, yet it opened my eyes to many new things," he said.

Now he is also a fund raiser for the school bond, Measure H.

For Mary Marley, who took the class and now is involved in a community feasibility study for a local arts center, "It gave me a better understanding of volunteer opportunities in the community. I had never done any volunteer work before," she said.

Many communities offer similar training, La Poll said.

But they tend to be by invitation only and to cost major money.

Here, "Anybody can go and the cost is zero.

"That's because of the Community Foundation.," La Poll said. "That's a huge thing."