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BLOSSOM VALLEY |
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| ASSOCIATION | |
| March 2000 | Promoting Friendship, Service and Preparedness in Blossom Valley |
-by Ray Batchelor
In the event of an emergency many homeowners are not prepared to care for themselves for the first 72 hours. This is the time that many of our fire and police resources are so busy that they cannot respond to many emergencies. To help our neighborhood residents prepare themselves to assist each other, the Blossom Valley Neighborhood Association will be presenting its Fourth Annual Preparedness Fair, Thursday March 30, 2000 at George Miner School.
Your local representatives from San Jose Prepared! will be presenting information on home and neighborhood preparedness, emergency medicine, fire suppression, light search and rescue, and emergency communications. This will be your chance to see the new communications equipment that we have purchased for the benefit of our neighborhood.
We have received information from the American Red Cross that we will be sharing with those in attendance, as well as the valuable experience that the San Jose Prepared! volunteers have learned at their practice sessions with the CERT teams from San Jose State University.
If you would like to be a Helper rather than a Victim we will have information about San Jose Prepared!. We also hope to have Dr Earl Stevens from San Jose Prepared! present to answer any questions you may have about the program and preparedness.
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We are presently in negotiations with the Oak Grove School District to place our Emergency Ark on the school grounds. If we have new information before the meeting we will bring you up to date at that time.
Just a Reminder: Daylight Savings Time will be starting April 2, 2000 and it is a good time to check the batteries in your smoke detectors. Smoke detectors that are over 10 years old should be replaced, as the active sensor parts deteriorate after that period of time and become ineffective. |
Any musicians? Take note:
The BLOSSOM VALLEY WIND ENSEMBLE, your conveniently located, instrumental opportunity is alive and well and would like to have a few more players join them on THURSDAY evenings from 7 - 9 p.m. at Herman Middle School on Blossom Avenue at Shawnee. This band was formed four years ago for adults who played an instrument in high school or college and would enjoy practicing with an organized group on a weekly basis and perform in concert now and then. This newsletter is delivered to over 800 homes between Snell & Lean Avenues and Blossom Hill Road & Highway 85. Are there not a few more adults in this area (or even high school student musicians) who would enjoy dusting off their trumpets, horns, trombones, clarinets or flutes and coming to play with a fine group once a week?? In this stressful Silicon culture, of which Blossom Valley is a part, playing an instrument can be a wonderful creative after-hours activity. Come check us out. Our director is Judy Bingman, retired Los Gatos High School Band director and presently directing the jazz band at Santa Teresa High School. She makes playing lots of fun.
Call Beverly Moffitt (281-3070) for more information.
Want a dance, anyone?
May meeting input needed! The BVNA Board is considering holding a D.J. or Juke Box dance at Miner School for the May meeting and changing the meeting to a FRIDAY night. We need to hear from a good representation in the neighborhood as to whether or not you would enjoy and support this event (support = attend). Please call Marie Arnold, BVNA vice president, at 629-5340, Bruce & Diana Mann at 226-4585, or Bev Moffitt at 281-3070 with your input. Let us know if you would like a family dance, an adult dance, or both at different hours of the evening ( family from 7:30 to 9: p.m. and adults only from 9: to 11: p.m.).
Senior Games 2000
Have you heard of these? Game dates are June 1st - June 4th. They consist of athletic competition in 22 different sports such as archery, badminton, ballroom dance, basketball, golf, cycling, horseshoes, soccer, swimming, tennis - you name it. Applications are available April 1st from California Senior Games - Sacramento, 6005 Folsom Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95819. No phone number was included with the information I received.
Our City Forest
Spring 2000 volunteers are needed. Help revitalize San Jose neighborhoods and make Silicon Valley a greener, healthier home for all of us. Call 999-7337 to sign up for projects or for a Tree Amigo volunteer training course. April 22nd is an Earth Day Interfaith Event at 9: a.m. in Kelly Park.
New tree grants are available through Our City Forest. If someone in BVNA wanted to head up a project in our neighborhood we could take advantage of this program. Call 281-3070 to volunteer to head up such a project.
Fourth of July Celebration 2000
Call Linda Boman at 225-0180 to volunteer your help for the neighborhood parade and picnic on July 4th. Many hands make light work and if we want this popular annual family event to continue we need more people to help plan and carry out the plans. Don't hesitate or be shy. Step forward and volunteer your help.
Cancelled Stamps Needed
This information was submitted by Sally Champlin on Colville Drive: There is a dire need of cancelled stamps for the 84,000 hospitalized veterans in VA hospitals for use in therapy & rehabilitation programs.
Please send your used stamps to:
Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Medical CenterVeteran's Stamp Club
3601 South 6th Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85723
The Veteran's Stamp Club is a non-profit group of volunteers who use the hobby of stamp collecting as a vehicle to support the medical staffs of VA Medical Centers nationwide in the rehabilitation and treatment of disabled, handicapped, homebound, and outpatient veterans. They do not sell or trade stamps. They just forward the stamps to these patients at no cost to them. U.S. or foreign stamps, on or off paper, are needed. Thanks for your help.
The Family
Mayor Gonzales said in his state of the city speech in February, as reported in the Blossom Valley Times, that "Schools are the heart of our neighborhoods and the keys to our city's future." I have to publicly disagree with him. The HOME is really the heart of a neighborhood and the key to any city, state, or nation's future. Values of honesty, self-reliance, respect, compassion, and service are most effectively taught in the home by parents starting very early in a child's life and continuing all the years the child lives in the home, parents teaching both by precept and example.
A great article by Kathleen Bahr on the value of family work is available on the internet (http://www.worldcongress.org/gen99_speakers/gen99_bahr.htm.) This is a talk she gave at the Family Congress in Geneva in November. Spend time with your children and teach them your values.
- Beverly Moffitt, BVNA President
Previous BVNA Issues Online
January, 2000
September, 1999
July, 1999
May, 1999