HMB Magazine Nov.2010

HMBTHE ANNUAL VOLUNTEER & NONPROFIT ISSUE

STEP FORWARD

Nonprofi t Profi lesRead about 16 groups

that do the Coastside good.

Q&A with Steve BacichHMBHS booster president.

It takes all kinds of of people to keep our Coastside non-profts and volunteer organizations moving forward. Meet a few inside and see if you too can help.

HALF MOON BAY REVIEW MAGAZINENOVEMBER 2010

VOLUNTEER & NONPROFIT ISSUE

Our customers have saved over $570,000.00 in discounts since January 2009!

510 A Kelly Avenue | Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 License #751718

ABSOLUTE FLOORINGABSOLUTE FLOORING

www.absolutefloors.com

green builder certified

Our new Saturday hours are 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.We’re available by appointment after normal showroom hours.

We have a huge selection of quality carpets and flooring that are sure

to fit within your budget and style—eco-friendly carpets, berbers and

wools, bamboo, sisal and grasses. Stop by our showroom and we think

you’ll be surprised!

Call us today to see how much you could save!

650.726.8141

AbFlooringReviewNovFinal.indd 1 10/19/10 8:16 PM

HMB November 2010 1

Dr. CharlesHaltermanD.D.S.

Half Moon Bay | 650-726-6884See us online atwww.coastsidedentistry.com

As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,I focus on:

Early prevention practices. Cavities can start at one year of age

One of my main objectives is that our patients never have dental fi llings. This is possible.

For school age children, 90% of cavities start in the pit and fi ssures of teeth. I place sealants that can last a lifetime.

Evaluation of the child’s developing bite for simple interceptive treatment or timely referral of an orthodontist.

Dr. CharlesDr. CharlesDr. CharlesDr. CharlesDr. CharlesDr. CharlesDr. CharlesDr. CharlesDr. CharlesDr. CharlesHaltermanHaltermanHaltermanHaltermanHaltermanHaltermanHaltermanHaltermanHaltermanHaltermanD.D.S.D.D.S.D.D.S.

Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s developing bite for simple developing bite for simple developing bite for simple developing bite for simple developing bite for simple developing bite for simple developing bite for simple developing bite for simple interceptive treatment or timely interceptive treatment or timely interceptive treatment or timely interceptive treatment or timely interceptive treatment or timely referral of an orthodontist.referral of an orthodontist.referral of an orthodontist.referral of an orthodontist.referral of an orthodontist.referral of an orthodontist.

As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,I focus on:I focus on:I focus on:I focus on:I focus on:I focus on:

Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year

One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is nevernever have have have never have never

dental fi llings. This is possible.dental fi llings. This is possible.dental fi llings. This is possible.dental fi llings. This is possible.

For school age children, For school age children, For school age children, For school age children, For school age children, For school age children, 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit and fi ssures of teeth. I place and fi ssures of teeth. I place and fi ssures of teeth. I place and fi ssures of teeth. I place

last a lifetime.last a lifetime.last a lifetime.last a lifetime.last a lifetime.

Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s

last a lifetime.

As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,As a specialist in Children’s Dentistry,

Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Early prevention practices. Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year of ageof age

One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is One of my main objectives is that our patients that our patients dental fi llings. This is possible.

Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year Cavities can start at one year of ageof age

dental fi llings. This is possible.

For school age children, For school age children, For school age children, For school age children, 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit 90% of cavities start in the pit and fi ssures of teeth. I place and fi ssures of teeth. I place

that our patients dental fi llings. This is possible.dental fi llings. This is possible.

sealants that can sealants that can

Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s Evaluation of the child’s developing bite for simple developing bite for simple developing bite for simple developing bite for simple interceptive treatment or timely interceptive treatment or timely referral of an orthodontist.referral of an orthodontist.

and fi ssures of teeth. I place and fi ssures of teeth. I place sealants that can

2 November 2010 HMBDiana Gil-Osorio

Open Every Day 10am-6pm & Sunday 10am-5pm604 Main Street • Half Moon Bay • 726-2898

PLAYWITHYOUR FOOD

WWW.MYTOQUE.COM

HMB November 2010 3

» PUBLISHER’S NOTE DEBRA HERSHON

Publisher Debra Hershon

Managing EditorClay Lambert

WritersLily BixlerMark FoyerMark NoackStacy Trevenon

Photographer Lars Howlett

Production and DesignBill MurrayMark Restani

Business Offi ceKim Ritner

CirculationBarbara Anderson Advertising SalesLouise StrutnerMarilyn JohnsonBarbara Dinnsen

Find us P.O. Box 68714 Kelly AvenueHalf Moon Bay, CA 94019p: (650) 726-4424f: (650) 726-7054

The HMB Magazine is published on the fi rst week of every month and inserted in the Half Moon Bay Review. The entire contents of the magazine are also available in PDF format online at hmbreview.com

HMBHALF MOON BAY REVIEW MAGAZINE

Before we plow forward into the merry season of rampant consumerism, this a good time to sit back, take a deep breath and think for a moment about letting go, paring down and giving away.

I read a recent article in the New York Times Magazine about a woman who was caught up in the “work-spend treadmill.” � e more she worked, the more she bought, and deeper

in debt she became. She found herself surrounded by “stu� ,” yet she wasn’t happy.

She and her husband began donating some of their belong-ings, and the more they let go, the happier they became. � ree years later, the two live in a 400-square-foot studio apartment. � ey are car-free. � ey ride bikes. And they no longer have any debt.

� ey work fewer hours so they have more time — and money — to travel and do volunteer work. � ey live their lives believing that the acquisition of material goods does not bring happiness, and they are on to something.

New studies on consumption and happiness indicate people may be happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects.

I’m lucky to be at the stage in my life where my children are raised and on their own, and it’s a� orded me the opportunity to take a long, hard look at my lifestyle and consider making changes. My husband calls our mortgage, “the beautiful handcu� s,” and while we still have the house, we found a small studio apartment in Mill Valley where we spend most weekends.

At � rst, it was just a way to get out of the fog, but with no TV and the barest of essentials, we � nd that we spend most of the weekend hiking, reading, talking, playing Scrabble — do-ing all the things we like to do.

When I’m home during the week, I’m looking at the house in a new way: cleaning closets and drawers and making weekly trips to donate to the Senior Coastsiders � ri� Store.

So while we may be straddling two lifestyles, it is an opportunity to test out what it would be like to downsize, even if it is just on the weekends.

As we move closer to the holiday, it’s a good time to remember that the season is about peace and happiness and not just the stu� we have.

Sometimes less is more

Open Every Day 10am-6pm & Sunday 10am-5pm604 Main Street • Half Moon Bay • 726-2898

PLAYWITHYOUR FOOD

WWW.MYTOQUE.COM

4 November 2010 HMB

We have you covered for the holidays!• From our Produce Department, enjoy fresh cut organic veggies and fruits for your soups, sides, pies and stuffings• Our Deli can make dinner for you — check out our ready to serve Thanksgiving menu• Pies and desserts from local bakeries• Great dinner recipes online and in our store flyer

Oven Roasted Brown and Serve Whole Turkey by DiestelOven Roasted Diestel Turkey BreastField Roast Stuffed Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute with Apples and Crystallized Ginger *Mom’s Mashed PotatoesSavory Turkey GravyMushroom Gravy *Organic Bread Stuffing with Herbs *Organic Maple Glazed Yams *Organic Butternut Squash withCranberries and Spinach *Cranberry Salsa *Triple Cranberry Sauce ** vegan

Order your All Natural, Organic, American Heirloom or Smoked Diestel Turkey today!

Quantities are limited, so order early!

Call or stop by the Meat Department.

Don’t forget the turkey!

Corner of Hwy 1 and 92, Half Moon Bay 650-726-3110 www.newleaf.com

at

Order from the Deli by Sunday, November 22

for pick up onWednesday, November 25.

Please order early,as availability is limited.

at at New LeafNew LeafNew Leaf

Oven Roasted Brown and Serve Oven Roasted Brown and Serve

Thankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully SimpleThankfully Simple

Open onThanksgiving!

Thanksgiving from Our Deli

Order from the Deliby Sunday, November 21

for pick up on Wednesday, November 24

Please order early,as availabilty is limited

HMB November 2010 5

Features

10Q&A: STEVE BACICH

The Half Moon Bay High School Boosters’ Athletic Corp. president tells why he loves helping out.

18STAYING VIGILANT AT

THE FIREHOUSEvoltunteer fi refi ghters play a key role in the department.

26ART SUPPORT

The Djerassi Foundation is a year-round retreat that gives artists the gift of time.

34LENDING A HAND

AT THE WAVESRunning the Mavericks big wave competition

requires a boatload of surf fans.

On the cover Photo illustration by Bill Murray

» CONTENTS

The Volunteering Issue.

PAGE 34PAGE 26

PAGE 18

Departments

7 UPCOMING EVENTS

41 NEWS YOU CAN USE

43 DOWNTOEARTH

44 SIGHTSEEING

HMBTHE ANNUAL VOLUNTEER & NONPROFIT ISSUE

BILL MURRAY

STEP FORWARD.

Nonprofi t Profi lesRead about 16 groups

that do the Coastside good.

Q&A with Steve BacichHMBHS booster president.

It takes all kinds of of people to keep our Coastside non-profts and volunteer organizations moving forward. Meet a few inside and see if you too can help.

HALF MOON BAY REVIEW MAGAZINENOVEMBER 2010

6 November 2010 HMB

HMB November 2010 7

» UPCOMING EVENTS NOVEMBER

Explore the sea floor — and seafaring vessels

Welcome the Christmas holidays11/6 For the 10th year, the Johnston Holiday House will give the Coastside a jump on Christmas and a start on holiday festivity and shopping. The circa-1850s house is decked out for Christmas with themed festivities and handmade gifts galore. Most, if not all, rooms in the historic house, built by Half Moon Bay pioneer James Johnston for his family, will be decorated, packed with gifts made by 35 artists from the western United States and boasting at least one decorated tree. The whole house is decorat-ed in keeping with this year’s theme of “Traditions and Legends.” For example, the parlor will be decorated with “the legend of the Christmas card,” or the dining room décor will be patterned after “the traditions of the candy cane.” But the gifts for sale will follow just the tradition of giving colorful and heartwarming gifts for the holidays. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 6, 7, 13 and 14, with admission of $10 per person, at the historical house at 110 Higgins Purisima Road in Half Moon Bay. The traditional Spanishtown Historical Society-hosted tea will take place on one weekend only, at 1 p.m. Nov. 6 and 7, with tea, tea sandwiches and dessert donated by the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, at the train depot down the hill from the White House of Half Moon Bay. Reservations are required at 726-7780. Proceeds from the Holiday House will go to the Johnston House Founda-tion for ongoing maintenance and continued interior restoration of this historic house. 726-0329.

Give thanks for karaokeThursdays | Got a taste for karaoke? Stop by the Old Princeton Landing, at 460 Capistrano Road in Princeton, every Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and sing along. 728-9103.

Meet the life in the reefs

11/4 Twice a month — at the new moon and the full moon — the tide not only gets low, it goes out far

enough to see the very ocean floor, and that’s when nature photog-raphers Mary and Phil Hill lead shutterbugs and hikers out to see this strange new world. They provide trekking poles, kneeling pads and snacks, and give participants a roughly five-mile and four-hour “adventure.” 712-8456; [email protected].

A piece of history floats in

11/5 A replica of the Lady Washington — the official ship of the state of Washington —that floats up

and down the California coast offering educational programs for kin-dergarteners through 12th graders, will pull into Pillar Point Harbor and stay there through Nov. 10. It will teach students about the lives of 18th-century navigators and explorers, marine science and period technology. To schedule a program, call Roxie Underwood at (800) 200-5239, ext. 102; the general public is welcome too, especially on weekday afternoons and Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Learn ecology, buy a pumpkin

11/5 Start at the Miramar trail head, pass by nesting areas, stop by a pumpkin patch to get a souvenir

of the season, and you’ll have completed an Eco-Pumpkin Cycling Tour, which blends health and the season. Beginning today, it runs through November on every weekend or on demand. Organizers provide bikes, helmets, water and snacks. 712-8456.

How’s your spelling?

11/19 Coastal Repertory Theatre opens its 25th sea-son with a Tony Award-winning, quirky, charm-

ing yet heartwarming musical comedy, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Adolescent overachievers learn that winning isn’t everything and there is indeed a place for them in the world. Running through Dec. 18 in Half Moon Bay. 569-3266.

Homecoming time

11/24 Homecoming for former Half Moon Bay High School basketball players takes place Thanksgiv-

ing Eve, with the girls at 5:30 p.m. and the boys’ game to follow. This event gives alums a chance to reminisce about their days of playing at Half Moon Bay High. There’s no admission charge. 712-7200.

8 November 2010 HMB

Thanksgiving Sale!We Pay the Sales Tax!

On New Hot Tubs

1917 South El Camino Real , San Mateo “Just south of Hwy. 92” (650) 574-7600

Coastside Reps: John (ext. 671), Joey (ext. 672)

3419 REGATTA BLVD., RICHMOND (888) 650-77273815 REDWOOD HWY., SAN RAFAEL (415) 472-7727

6700 AMADOR PLAZA RD., DUBLIN (925) 551-7100

SERVING THE BAY AREA S INCE 1976 • OVER 850,000 SPAS SOLD

Come see our wood, pellet & gas stove showroom!

4 days only!4 days only!4 days only!Nov.26-29

Cheryl Burchiere MannickVice President, Platinum Club Member650.533.7549 [email protected]://mortgage.bankofamerica.com/cherylmannick

Rachael Mannick SageMortgage Loan Officer650.303.2224 [email protected]://mortgage.bankofamerica.com/rachaelsage

HMB November 2010 9

Thanksgiving Sale!We Pay the Sales Tax!

On New Hot Tubs

1917 South El Camino Real , San Mateo “Just south of Hwy. 92” (650) 574-7600

Coastside Reps: John (ext. 671), Joey (ext. 672)

3419 REGATTA BLVD., RICHMOND (888) 650-77273815 REDWOOD HWY., SAN RAFAEL (415) 472-7727

6700 AMADOR PLAZA RD., DUBLIN (925) 551-7100

SERVING THE BAY AREA S INCE 1976 • OVER 850,000 SPAS SOLD

Come see our wood, pellet & gas stove showroom!

4 days only!4 days only!4 days only!Nov.26-29

10 November 2010 HMB

HMB November 2010 11

Bacich gives his time as Cougars’

top booster

Steve Bacich is president of the Half

Moon Bay High School Boosters’ Ath-

letic Corp., having taken over the post

earlier this year. In his short time as the

president, he has filed to make the club

a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and helped raise

money to refurbish the gym and get

new bleachers at the football stadium.

He is married with two children and is

involved with both Little League and

Challenge Baseball on the coast.

He sat down with Mark Foyer of the

Half Moon Bay Review to discuss the

current state of sports in high school,

and his vision for both the school and

the community.

Q: What is the biggest chal-lenge you face as president

of the booster club?

A:So far, it has been prioritizing. There are so many needs. Decid-

ing which need to tackle first, second and third. There are lots of issues and needs at the school that need to be addressed. We have to prioritize to see which ones we can tackle first.

You have raised money to redo the gym and get additional bleach-ers for the football stadium. But people are going say, “This is nice. But why are we giving money to the athletic facilities because there is so little money for the basic needs of education.” What do you say to those critics?

Q&A

“I do know one thIng that has always been consIstent.

we wIll always have chIldren. Kids will need

opportunities to play. we wIll want to have organIzed sports, to gIve these outlets

and these opportunItIes to grow.”

Half Moon Bay High School Boosters

Steve Bacich is a hands-on president of the Half Moon Bay High School Boosters’ Ath-letic Corp. He’s even been known to sell some “Cougars Churros” for a good cause.

photos by mark foyer



I can understand that. That’s where our priorities are as well. Without academics, we have no reason to have a school. The reality is that money that schools used to spend for facilities, (referee) fees, and league fees we are now paying. That mon-ey is available for the school to use for academics. It’s one of our biggest goals to help the school. This is something that we know is important, extracurricular activities. I’m not denying that it is more important to have good English teachers and math teachers than a pristine facility. We are trying to create a situation where there’re more funds available for the kids and the school.

As you know, about 99 percent of the kids who play sports at Half Moon Bay will not play at any collegiate level. So why are high school sports important?

Having these extracurricular activities are very important, especially highlight-ing what you said. This could be their last time in organized sports. It’s such an important part of growing up for kids. It’s the same reason you would (want the opportunity) to be in a play. Maybe they won’t be on Broadway or have an Emmy, but it’s important they have this opportu-nity to express their talents. Athletics is the same way.

Did you play high school sports?

Yes, I did.

What did you play?

I played tennis.

Where did you play?

Bishop Montgomery High School in Southern California.

You have talked about getting a new gym and a new pool. How much would it cost?

I’m glad you asked that because this is a subject that is dear to me. I think there

are some really big needs in our com-munity. We need a Boys & Girls Club. We need a performing arts center. We need an additional gymnasium for the Coast-side. We would love to have an aquatics center. I think all those things are needs that we can identify that we would all like to see. The costs for those will vary. We know that a new aquatics center will be about $1.5 to $2 million. A perform-ing arts center could be tremendously expensive. I have seen some big numbers bandied about. But the issue is that with the right amount of motivation and desire to really see something like that in our community, I think all of those are possible. Then going on to the Boys & Girls Club, that has been a need that has been identified for decades now. I think I’m not alone in saying that this size community on the Coastside only having three gymnasiums is really hurting our youth and adults who would like to use those facilities for recreation.

What are some of the hurdles you need to clear to make all those wishes reality?

I think the first thing is pulling to-gether the right people who are willing to see this through. You asked me how much this would cost. I think for me to put out a number with such little information would not do it justice. It will be very expensive. Maybe it doesn’t all happen at the same time. Maybe it happens in phases. The other comment is that maybe it doesn’t all happen right

here in Half Moon Bay. Maybe it goes up to El Granada, Moss Beach. Maybe this is spread out over the whole Coastside area. But, there’s been a strong need for this for many, many years. In particular these three things: the Boys & Girls Club with the gymnasium, the performing arts center and the aquatics center.

The other thing you have talked about is the creation of a fresh-man girls’ basketball team and a freshman baseball team. Given the fluctuation of enrollment, do you think it’s wise to start up so many freshman programs and put the money into those programs when maybe the money should go to the established programs?

I think for both of those examples, they helped the established programs. For in-stance, in girls’ basketball, all those girls that are coming up can further refine their skills and mature. The program has a lot more to work with as opposed to having only a limited number of spots on a frosh-soph team. More girls either don’t have an opportunity to play or get on the team. I think that’s really a shame. That would help the girls’ program; that would fill the girls’ program. The same thing would be true for baseball.

We talk about money a lot. Now, money is really tight. Do you fear that someday there might not be the money and the resources to have sports at the high school?

‘NOTHING GIvES US A BETTER THRILL THAN TO SIGN A CHECk THAT HELPS SUPPORT ADDING ADDITIONAL kIDS

PLAyING ON THE FIELDS HERE AT HALF MOON BAy.’

STeve BAcicH, BooSTer cluB preSiDeNT

Q&A


Tuesday-Saturday 10:00-5:30www.mainstreetgoldworks.com542 Main Street, Half Moon Bay

650-726-2546

Murano GlassCome see the collection we brought back from Italy

Have you filled out your

wish list?

Extended hours before and after work available. Call for appointment times.

731 Oceano Blvd., Pacifi ca (650) 738-2100 | shoreviewdental.net

S I N C E 1 9 9 5

Our new offi ce will make you

Modern Dentistry for today’s families

Cosmetic & Pediatric Dentistry

Dr. Sam Ahani General Dentistryt Specializing in preventive, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry including placing and restoring implants.t Invisalign, Cerac and oral conscious sedation availablet VOTED BEST INVISALIGN DENTIST IN SAN MATEO COUNTY BEST OF THE BAY - KRON 4!

Dr. Sepi Vafi Pediatric Specialistt A keen sense of what a child needs to make their appointment productive and enjoyable t Kind and warm environmentt Experience with special needs patientst Dedicated to providing excellent, personalized care and service

Dr. Sam Ahani Dr. Sepi Vafi

SMILE!


I think the situation at the University of California, Berkeley, is a warning bell. Even a successful university will have to make some very tough choices. I think these things are very cyclical. Certainly, we are in a downturn. Hopefully, we are coming out of it. I do know one thing that has always been consistent. We will always have children. Kids will need op-portunities to play. We will want to have organized sports, to give these outlets and these opportunities to grow. Maybe the sports will change. Maybe field hockey, lacrosse and boys’ volleyball will come into fashion, which would be great. It’s just like the surf club. I think it may not be a traditional sport, but as long as kids are being active, using their minds, it’s a benefit for all of us.

This is the second year that the school has imposed a fee to play. Have any athletes indicated these fees are a burden? What can the booster club do to help?

We are very sensitive to this. Everyone has to be hypersensitive to this. One, we ask the coaches to be aware of that. Typi-cally, what happens is these things are ad-dressed with the team, whether it’s help with the participation fee, or helping with uniforms or helping with the other added costs. It’s something typically handled at

a team level. Likewise, scholarships are available from us. That’s something we enjoy doing. Nothing gives us a better thrill than to sign a check that helps sup-port adding additional kids playing on the fields here at Half Moon Bay. I think we are always open to anyone’s needs and understanding that there are going to be situations that things are going to get just overly expensive for some families. We are there to help.

Do you think the fees might end up causing some problems, demo-graphically speaking? Will there come a day when the students who have the ability to pay to play can and those who don’t have the ability might be on the sidelines?

I hope that day never happens. That would be absolutely tragic. It would be a great disservice to our community and our high school, as well as those athletes. The first criteria is if the kid has a desire to play, every opportunity should be af-forded to him, so they are not shut out. Certainly these financial issues should not be the reason for them to be shut out. A lot of kids are shut out due to grades. We see every semester that kids are denied participation because of grades. That’s unfortunate. But that’s teaching the right lesson, because grades are a higher

priority. If it forces kids to get extra tutoring, which is happening, or have some teams actually work in study hall, which is also happening, those are great outcomes because of that.

Does the booster club play a role in attracting or choosing coaches?

No. We have no operational say in coaches. What we would like to do is help pay for them. We can certainly pay for coaches as consultants. As a corporation, we can write a 1099. We would enjoy that. I think a lot of sports would benefit by having more coaches. The coaches do a great job. They are volunteers. What they get paid on an hourly basis is crimi-nal, because they put so much time and effort into it. I think as an organization, if we can help support the coaches and the teams by having specialty coaches, like a pitching coach for baseball or softball or some type of conditioning coaches for the sports, that would be great. One of the things that we are doing is train-ers. We are looking very hard to getting a training staff on campus. I think that is going to benefit all the sports, all the kids, and the coaches as well, in dealing with the health and welfare of the kids.

What makes a good coach at the high school level?

I think there are so many examples of that. They have so many different styles. I would say ideally that those that lead by example. They get the kids to not only work hard but try to strive beyond themselves, try and do more than what is asked of them. You see the kids that run extra, work extra. If you go to the football field early Saturday morning, you will see Dominic Sena practicing kickoffs and punts by himself or with his father. He has had some great coaching and coaches who have moti-vated him to work hard. 1

Q&A

Steve Bacich says he would like to work toward many improvements on the Coastside, including a new aquatics center and gymnasium.


As a values-driven health care organization, Seton Medical Center is committed to caring for those we servein the San Francisco Bay Area with compassion and dignity. In addition, we have been nationally recognized for excellence in Cardiac Care, Spinal Injuries, Orthopedics, Oncology, Stroke Care, Women’s Health Services and the latest in Robotic Surgery.

Daly City • Moss Beach

Innovative Technology. Heartfelt Care.

800-436-2404 • setonmedicalcenter.org

751 San Pedro Terrace Road, Pacifica 94044 650.359.4800 | www.lindamarrehab.com

★ ★ ★ ★ ★5 Star Quality Rating from www.Medicare.gov

Therapy Services • Hip/knee fracture • Joint replacement • Swallowing Disorder • Stroke • Post cardiac surgery • Post general surgery • Wound Treatment

Skilled Nursing Services • Pain Management • IV/anti-biotic therapy • Restorative nursing • Individualized

care plan • Theraputic Diet

—— The Peninsula’s Premier Short Term Rehab Facility ——

726-5505M-F: 7am-7pm, Sat: 8am-6pm, Sun: 9am-5pm

111 Main Street

726-5505Half Moon Bay111 Main Street111 Main Street Half Moon BayHalf Moon Bay

Time to Fall Backat Ocean Shore!

• Smoke Detectors – check them twice a year. Check out our new Battery Place for all your battery needs.

• With cold weather approaching don’t forget Carhartt clothing for men and women.


*Limited to 1500.00 per customer

**


By LiLy BixLer | Photos By Lars howLett

“The first fire rig donated to us from San Francisco Airport was this yellow color,” says Kings Mountain Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Jim Sul-

livan, running his fingers across the siding of the day-glo fire engine. “The rest are red so this separated us from the others.”

Sullivan is clean-shaven and composed, wearing slacks and a green button-down dress shirt. He fiddles with the radio strapped to his leather belt buckle and gazes into space, con-centrating on some-thing far removed. The crackling radio comes into focus and Sullivan snaps out of his reverie. It’s a grass fire, he ex-claims, and they need Kings Mountain’s water tender. It’s 4:45 p.m. He beelines to the station a few yards away and disappears into the building.

About a minute later, a big truck speeds around a bend up to the station, through towering redwood trees slanted with beams of late afternoon light.

“Grass fire?” volunteer firefighter Bob Simms hollers at Sullivan who comes out of the station with arms full of bulky, soot-stained gear.

“Around Pescadero,” Sullivan returns, stepping fully dressed in his formal clothes into his wildland fire gear.

By 4:56 p.m. Sullivan and Simms were

driving off to support firefighters with a monster truck capable of holding 3,000 gallons of water.

Kings Mountain’s 15-person fire bri-gade is made up entirely of volunteers. This is also the case at other outposts on the Peninsula, including La Honda and Colma. Coastside Fire Protection District is supplemented with about a dozen such volunteers. In fact, volunteers constitute 73 percent of firefighters in the United States, and most fire departments in the country use volunteers, according to the

National Fire Protec-tion Association.

Responding to between about 100 and 200 calls per year, these local volunteer firefight-ers often rise from bed in the middle of the night and holidays to put their lives in danger for the sake of public service. But these men

and women are more than mere volun-teers. They meet the standards for medical aid and fire rescue.

Gone are the days when volunteers would simply fiddle around putting out the fire, explained La Honda Fire Chief Larry Whitney. “This is very professional.”

Training takes nearly a year and consists of hundred of hours of instruction in various forms of medical aid and fire rescue. Volunteers have several training sessions every month with drills, mock fires and other exercises to reinforce skills.

Volunteers fill local firehouses

Coastside units work alongside

the pros

“Volunteering is kind of

my ciVic duty.”

bob simms, kings mountain

volunteer


“You don’t want the first fire for them to see to be a real fire,” explained Gregg Hosfeldt, volunteer Fire Chief and president of Coastside Fire Protection District.

Volunteers don’t receive pay but they are provided with safety equipment, reimbursement for incidental costs and worker’s compensation insurance.

Many volunteer firefighting groups suffer from attrition, but the local brigades have relatively high rates of retention. Every couple of years the stations bring in a new group of recruits. Both La Honda and Coastside Fire Protection District are gearing up to recruit new firefighters, including a new female volunteer, adding to a sprinkling of women firefighters. (In all, fewer than 5 percent of all firefighters nationwide are women, according to the National Fire Protection Association.)

“This takes a lot of heart — it’s not a whimsical thing,” said Whitney.

But sometimes it’s the “heart” that ultimately is one of the biggest challenges for these men and women. Since volunteers are required to live in the communities they serve, when di-saster strikes, the responding firefighters sometimes know the person they are saving.

“Every house fire, chances are we know everything there is to know about that family,” said La Honda Fire Engineer Matt Hanlon. That was true during the San Bruno natural gas explosion in September, as well. Hanlon, a San Bruno native, grew up half a mile from the fire La Honda’s brigade helped extinguish.

“I go out of the way to protect the firefighters,” Whitney said, explaining the delicate balance of temperament of a first responder. “They must be somewhat detached from the situa-tion.”

Career vs. volunteeringNone of the Coastside volunteer firefighters seem to truly

identify as volunteers. As, Whitney said, their work is more like a secondary “full-time, unpaid job.”

Hosfeldt explained a similar sentiment, saying volunteers “don’t see (this) as a hobby when we’re carrying around a radio.”

Although these local volunteer brigades work as any normal, fully paid station, the chiefs explained that some volunteer programs don’t operate this way. In fact, some end up doing sideline work like cleaning up for the career firefighters at the end of a fire.

Even though none of the local volunteers operate such sta-tions, there was a noticeable difference in the fleets from the more removed Kings Mountain and La Honda station when compared to the state-managed professional firehouse based in Half Moon Bay. Coastside Fire Protection District’s volunteer program supplements the force while La Honda and Kings Mountain fleets are the sole fire services for their communities.

Although all of the brigades can serve as a route to a full-time, paid firefighting job, the Coastside Fire Protection District appears more geared toward bringing in and training young, promising firefighters who then move on to be career firefighters. “A lot of the kids have gone through the academy and want to see if they want to be firefighters,” said Hosfeldt. “This is a great resume builder, there is no parallel in experi-ence.”

Coastside Fire Protection District’s goal is to keep its volun-teers for five to 10 years.

Matt Hanlon, left, and Larry Whitney have made protecting

neighbors their priority. Both are members of the La Honda

Fire Brigade.


Sometimes you don’thave time to wait...

If you need carpetthe next day,

WE’VE GOTYOUCOVERED!We have beautiful carpets in stock and ready to beautifyyour home when you are.

116 North Cabrillo Highway

Half Moon Bay

726-6386

owned by Premier Termite, Inc. lic#PR2464

Get a jump on the holidays and treat your home to some newfl ooring. Open yourgifts on fresh carpet.Or check out theincredible wood-like Karndeanfl ooring that cantake a lot ofabuse and iseasy tomaintain.

Our caring and friendly team awaits your call.

San Mateo235 N. San Mateo Dr. #300650.342.4171Half Moon Bay705 Purissima Street650.726.6321www.GotToSmile.com

Experience theOrthodontic

Difference

UNCONDITIONALLY COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE

Call us for a complimentary exam!

• Comfortable Treatment• Caring and Friendly Staff• Braces for Children & Adults• Premier Invisalign Provider• Affordable Monthly Payments

ExclusivE OnE Man shOw

the wOrld of

Michael Parkes

Montara-by-the-Sea, CA ~ 7 Miles North of Half Moon650.712.2111 | www.borsini-burr.com

OpEning rEcEptiOn November 6th, 2010 • 5– 8PM

vpresentation by the artist

“Storytelling by the Masters” November 7th, 10AM

Daybreak, oil on canvas


A Kings Mountain water tender proved integral to fighting a gas explosion in San Bruno in September.

Above, Tim Sullivan gets his gear on to respond to a call on the South Coast. Below, La Honda firemen had added a pancake breakfast to the routine in October.

Often volunteers get hired by the district full time. The paid staff is great, explained Gregg Hosfeldt, volunteer fire chief and president of Coastside Fire Protection District. “A lot (of them) came up in the ranks through the volunteer program.”

Some volunteers joining Kings Mountain’s station do so because they just want to ride a fire truck or sound the alarm. “Then they are out after a year or so,” Sullivan said. “But others come and stay and feel a sense of duty to fill the need.”

Volunteers’ “real” jobs can be in related fields like water treatment and city government but other times the volunteers lead double lives. Perhaps the best example being that a large swath of Kings Mountain’s force is composed of the town’s bedroom residents who work in Silicon Valley.

Kings Mountain volunteer Simms straddles the career/vol-unteer line. He is a salaried firefighter at Coastside Fire Protec-tion District but also volunteers with his hometown brigade. “(Volunteering) is kind of my civic duty,” he said.

Fueling the fireBetween pancake breakfasts, art fairs, and

crab cioppino dinners, raising money is a large component of these volunteer departments. It’s common for a volunteer station to be filled with about $1 million worth of trucks and other equipment. San Mateo County lends its fiscal support, and membership dues from residents often contribute to the stations’ bottom lines. The La Honda station rakes in about $6,000 every October when about 1,000 motorcyclists convene for La Ducati day.

Recently, Whitney could be seen hauling industrial-sized bins of pancake mix and pumpkin filling from the back of his truck, bound for the station’s famous pumpkin pan-cake breakfast.

This year Kings Mountain celebrated its 47th art fair to support its volunteer firefighting program. Coastside Fire Protection District has, among other events, a crab and salmon dinner held at I.D.E.S. Hall, and a root beer float booth during the Pumpkin Festival.

Changing timesAll three firefighting fleets are longstanding. The La Honda

and Kings Mountain stations date back to the 1950s and 1960s, respectively. Coastside Fire Protection District began as “Hose Company No. 1” in 1879. It started out with 300 feet of hose, a few buckets and several axes. Soon after, the community raised money for the station’s first hose cart. After a series of fires threatened Main Street, the fleet bought another hose cart and a fire bell, which is on display in front of the fire station on Main Street. The fire department was officially formed in 1926, and, soon after, the first truck forced the old hose cart into retirement.

La Honda’s brigade dates back to the 1950s when a group of community members formed a community society and fundraised for a local fire department. The group eventually


n ORGANIZATION | Silicon Valley Community FoundationMISSION | The mission of Silicon Valley Community Foundation is to strengthen the common good, improve quality of life and address the most challenging problems. We do this through visionary community leadership, world-class donor services and effective grantmaking.

ABOUT | Silicon Valley Community Foundation makes all forms of philanthropy more powerful. With more than 1,500 funds under management, we have the resources and experience to help donors accomplish their giving goals with ease and effectiveness.

OUR HISTORY | Silicon Valley Community Foundation serves San Mateo and Santa Clara counties spanning the San Francisco Peninsula south to Gilroy. We are one of the largest community foundations in the nation with $1.7 billion in assets in 2010.

• We provide grants through advised funds, our supporting organizations and our Community Endowment Fund.

• In 2009 the community foundation awarded $250 million in grants, including $8 million from our endowment, and received $237 million in contributions.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR GIVING | Our team of experts can provide you with the best and most relevant charitable solutions. We accept a variety of gifts.

For more information, please email [email protected] or call 650.450.5444.

Professional advisors can call our Professional Advisor Hotline at 650.450.5517 for answers to charitable giving questions or to schedule a consultation.

HOW TO APPLY FOR A GRANT | Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s grantmaking strategies focus on five key areas: Economic Security, Education, Immigrant Integration, Regional Planning and a Community Opportunity Fund for safety-net services.

Here are just a few of the nonprofits serving your community that have received grants from Silicon Valley Community Foundation:

Coastside Adult Day Health Center, HIP Housing, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center, Peninsula Interfaith Action, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, Senior Coastsiders Inc., Shelter Network of San Mateo County

To learn more visit our website at www.siliconvalleycf.org.

MAJOR EVENTS | Index of Silicon Valley, co-presented with Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network – February 18, 2011; Conference on Charitable Giving – May 10, 2011, co-presented with Stanford University’s Office of Planned Giving; Regional Meeting in October; Projections report and panel discussions, co-presented with Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

CEO AND PRESIDENT | Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS | Nancy H. Handel, Chair; John M. Sobrato, Vice Chair; Jayne Battey; Gloria Brown; Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D.; Caretha Coleman; Thomas J. Friel; Gregory M. Gallo; Narendra Gupta; Susan M. Hyatt; Samuel Johnson, Jr.; William S. Johnson; Robert A. Keller; Anne F. Macdonald; Ivonne Montes de Oca; C.S. Park; Sanjay Vaswani; Richard Wilkolaski; Erika Williams; Gordon Yamate.

SILICON VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION2440 West El Camino Real, Suite 300Mountain View, California 94040-1498Main Phone: 650.450.5400 | Fax: 650.450.5401Email: [email protected] | www.siliconvalleycf.org

• Donor Advised Funds

• Corporate Philanthropy Services

• Charitable Trusts and Annuities

• Charitable Gift Annuities

• Scholarship Funds

• Memorial Funds

• Real Estate

• Bequests

coastside NONPROFITS


adopted the name La Honda Canyon Fire Brigade, purchased a fire truck and brought on 19 volunteer firefighters.

Kings Mountain’s origins date back to 1962 when the town didn’t think CalFire was equipped to handle fires in its com-munity. The mountain town was already building the com-munity center, and residents decided the bottom level of the building would house the fire station.

As times change, firefighters find themselves spending the majority of their time responding to medical aid calls and traffic accidents and less on fiery explosions and structure fires. Modern buildings generally have sprinklers; likewise, fire safety education and other precautions have mitigated the risk of fires, Hosfeldt explained. Firefighting technology is evolving with the trade.

“One of the first engines I drove was a four-speed. Now everything has computer screens,” Hosfeldt said.

In fact, the La Honda brigade just purchased a a brand-new “’rescue ambulance on steroids.” The vehicle is a life stabilizer that transports people to ambulances, often getting victims to the help they need and shaving precious minutes off of response times.

Coastside Fire Protection District has the “quint,” a five-function fire vehicle with a ground ladder, aerial ladder, pump, hoses and ability to carry water.

Perhaps the most notable example of innovative firefighting gear is the pair of water tenders Kings Mountain and La Honda brigades have in their vehicle fleets. They are two of only three such vehicles in the county.

The La Honda brigade and its water tender were integral in fighting the San Bruno fire that erupted on Sept. 9 when a PG&E gas transmission line explosion killed eight people and destroyed nearly 40 homes. The massive fire exploded a water main, leaving firefighters from all over the Bay Area without access to hydrants.

La Honda’s volunteer fleet was on the scene within 30 min-utes. “There were fire engines all over the place but there was no water,” explained Matt Hanlon, the La Honda volunteer and engineer. “Those homes were candles.”

La Honda’s crew is used to fighting fires with few hydrants, relying instead on its water tender — think a portable fire hy-drant that stores the equivalent of 120 bathtubs full of water.

Literally seconds before one fully involved house passed the flames onto the home next door, Hanlon remembers the crew doused the unscathed building with water, saving it from burn-ing to a crisp.

Ultimately two things allowed firefighters to extinguish the fire: PG&E turned off the gas lines and the water tenders shuttled 120,000 gallons of water from a hydrant a mile down the road to the scene of the fire.

Such selfless response is the result of mutual aid agree-ments in force throughout the region, but the hard work is noticed away from the home jurisdictions. Half Moon Bay City Councilman John Muller praised the La Honda brigade for bringing its invaluable experience as a rural crew to extinguish the gas fire at a recent City Council meeting.

One of the first fleets to the scene, the La Honda volunteers stayed with the mighty water tender two days after the explo-sion. They were one of the very last crews to leave. 1

Above, Tim Sullivan negotiates the twisty roads in a Kings Mountain engine. Below he dresses for work – putting on safety gear from head to toe.


■ ORGANIZATION | Coastal Repertory Theatre

ABOUT | “The Artistic Beacon of Half Moon Bay Entertainment”, Coastal Rep is a non-profit regional theater serving the greater Bay Area for nearly 25 years. We believe live theatre feeds the soul, challenges the mind and nourishes the heart; playing an impor-tant part in the character and fabric of the Coast-side Communities. We are proud of our volunteers who give literally thousands of hours in front of and behind the stage to create the exquisite program of plays we offer each year. Coastal Rep is a reflection of the great creativity and commitment which abides on the Coast. Through its Coastal Theatre Conservatory (CTC), Coastal Rep provides a safe and nurturing environment for young people ages 4-18 to learn and practice the art and craft of Theatre.

PROGRAM | Coastal Rep will celebrate its 25th Anniversary Season with an unforgettable array

ARTISTIC AND CONSERVATORY DIRECTOR | Michael Lederman has acted and directed some of our biggest hits and helped launch the careers of a host of theater professionals. Most recently he was the director of the phenom enal production of Always...Patsy Cline. A teacher by day, Michael has been the drama instructor at Sea Crest School for 12 years and is the founder and

Conservatory Director of the Rep’s youth theatre program, Coastal Theatre Conservatory. He was awarded the 2009 San MateoCounty Arts Educator of the Year.

PARTICIPATE | The magic of a play from first reading to opening night is the participation of a kaleidoscope of people. There are many ways you can join in and support the thrill of live theater:

• Become a season ticket holder.• Audition for a play (postings in the Half Moon Bay Review and on the Coastal Rep website).• Volunteer to one of the many roles needed to create great theatre; set construction, lighting, sound, costuming, stage manager, producers, directors, ushers, wine and snacks, box support.• Support the Theater with your expertise; website development, marketing, public relations, development, or in-kind support such as electrician, carpentry, plumbing, etc.• Make a donation.

DIRECTORS | Michael Lederman (Artistic and Conservatory)Bob Mitton (Technical)

BOARD | Michael Adler, Mark Elchinoff, Sean Rollings, Kim Levin Roxane Ashe, Cheryl Fowell, Pam Izzo, Peter Martin, Michele Parry

COASTAL REPERTORY THEATRE1167 Main Street, Half Moon Bay CA 94019650.569.3266www.coastalrep.com

of productions ranging from joyful and moving musicals to rollicking and heart tugging plays, all promising to remind us of the magic that is live theatre. This 2010-2011 anniversary season brings us 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Noises Off, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Odd Couple, Rent, To Kill A Mockingbird. As well, you can look forward to the 19th Annual Talent Show in January. CTC classes are offered throughout the year with a musical production in May and summer production in August. Scholarships offered through the Zane Allen Scholarship Fund.




■ ORGANIZATION | Coastside Adult Day Health Center

MISSION STATEMENT | Since its inception in 1982, the CoastsideAdult Day Health Center’s Mission is to keep people as healthy,active and independent as possible, when advancing years or physical/mental conditions call for extra care and attention.

ABOUT | Coastside Adult Day Health Center is excited tocelebrate our 25th year of providing health care services to ourfrail, elderly, and disabled.We are especially proud that we werethe 1st Adult Day Health Center in San Mateo County. Over theyears we have continued to assist coastside families and their lovedones in an effort to keep the elderly in their own homes, near fami-ly and friends, and in the community they helped build, preservingtheir dignity and choice. One of the biggest fears a senior has is tobe placed in a nursing home. Our services offer a cost effectivealternative to premature placement.

With Compassion and Professionalism, we offer comprehensive andall inclusive services that are individualized for each participant.

Services include:■ Nursing and personal care/medications moni-

toring■ Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapies■ Social Services/case management■ Memory Enhancement program/beginning

dementia■ Alzheimer’s program/progressed dementia■ Stimulating group activities■ Respite and support groups for families and

caregivers■ Nutrition education and counseling■ Hot nutritious lunch served daily■ Door-to-door, wheelchair-accessible trans-

portation■ Information and referrals

Hours of operations are Monday thru Friday, 9AM – 3PM.We acceptMedi-Cal, long term insurance and veteran’s benefits.Those payingprivately will be based on a sliding scale. For more information call:650- 726-5067

COASTSIDE ADULT DAY HEALTH CENTER645 Correas St., Half Moon Bay, CA 94019(650) 726-5067www.coastsideadultdayhealth.org

EXECUTIVEDIRECTOR |Janie Bono-James

ORGANIZATION | Senior Coastsiders

MISSION STATEMENT | To offer opportunities that supportsuccessful aging.

ABOUT | Founded in 1977, Senior Coastsiders hasbecome the focal point for senior services on theCoastside.We strive to create an atmosphere thatacknowledges and affirms the value, dignity and selfworth of seniors and adults with disabilities.The agencyalso serves as a resource for the entire community forinformation on aging, support of caregivers, and develop-ment of innovative approaches to address issues of aging.

SERVICES | Information, guidance and referralsSocial workClasses, lectures and tripsTransportationGrocery shoppingHome delivered mealsLunches served at the centerHome repair assistanceSpecial eventsVolunteer services and opportunities

EXECUTIVEDIRECTOR |CaraSchmaljohn

Senior Coastsider staff left to right (back row): John Yengich,Vicki Cormack, Cara Schmaljohn,Tracey Gould

(front row left to right): Carla-Ruth Morgan,Aki Link,Kathy Perlongo, Sharon Maggert

SENIOR COASTSIDERS | 535 Kelly Ave., Half Moon Bay726-9056

www.seniorcoastsiders.com

MAJOR EVENTS/FUNDRAISERS |

Seniors Night Out | APRILHome Rehab Day | JUNETaste of the Coast | SEPTEMBER5K/10K Pumpkin Run | OCTOBERSenior Coastsiders Thrift Store | YEAR-ROUND

CURRENT BOARD | Hayes, Marian Herreid, Susan Kealey, Jim Kellenberger, Tom Kirkpatrick, Janet Schade, Nancy Stern, Ben Tyson, Robert Zadek

Suzanne Black, Michele Borovac, Howard


“I THOUGHT I’D DIED AND GONE TO HEAvEN.”

roBerT BuelTeMAN, THree-TiMe ArTiST iN

reSiDeNce


“I THOUGHT I’D DIED AND GONE TO HEAvEN.”

roBerT BuelTeMAN, THree-TiMe ArTiST iN

reSiDeNce

in the 1990s, an Eastern European artist heading to California’s Djerassi Resident Artists Program, canceled at the last minute.

So Djerassi tapped Montara photographer Rob-ert Buelteman for three weeks at the program in June 1996.

This seemingly innocuous but timely change of plans brought big changes in Buelteman’s life and dramatically underscored the reasons why artists apply for residen-cies.

Buelteman, known for his innovative techniques that do not use conventional lighting but produce glowing images of plants and leaves, had already been a fixture at the Djerassi ranch, photographing the land on com-mission for the Peninsula Open Space Trust to help it promote conservation easements.

“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,” said Buelte-man of that first of his three residencies.

While there, he made photographs for his tabletop art book “Eighteen Days in June,” but accomplished much more besides. At that time, he had just lost his mother and mother-in-law to cancer and learned his sister, too, was dying of cancer. But at Djerassi he found balance.

“Thanks to the Djerassi Resident Artists Program I recovered the creative vitality I lost while coping with several family tragedies,” he wrote in the book’s intro-duction. “The solitude and silence of the resident artist program allowed me time for reflection not possible in the outside world … I was there with nine other spirits whose dance of artistic expression with me over those 18 days opened a hurt and closed heart, and assisted me in my return to living.”

Buelteman also developed friendships with ranch staff and founding trustee/board member Dale Djerassi that lasted as he returned for winter residencies in 2009 and February 2010.

“Being with other people on the journey is nurturing

Djerassi generosity produces space for

artsby stacy trevenon

photos by lars howlett

lIterary, vIsual, fIne artIsts take a break at coastsIde retreat

From left, interdisciplinary artist Keith Hennessy of San Francisco socializes with fellow artists-in-residence Esteban de Valle and Richard Walker in the Artists’ Barn. Many at Djerassi appreciate the opportunity to work alongside artists from different mediums.


beyond question.”The nurturing aspect and the focus on creating reinforced by

the supportive staff at Djerassi, helped him as he worked through his grief and continued to face Lyme disease, which he had battled since 2007.

With a mission “to support and enhance the creativity of artists by providing uninterrupted time for work, reflection and collegial interaction in a setting of great natural beauty,” the Djerassi Resi-dent Artists Program, now in its 31st year, has provided some 2,000 residencies and currently serves about 80 artists per year — all at no charge.

Generally, three writers (in prose, poetry and drama), one chore-ographer, one composer, two visual artists and one media artist are accepted for each residency after their applications are reviewed by a panel of local artists and alumni in each discipline.

The artists come from the Bay Area and around the world, and are in their 20s to 70s. Accepted artists fill seven residency sessions of four to five weeks from mid-March to mid-November.

As of 2000, the program expanded to include project-driven, shorter “winter residencies” in December, January and February.

Writers stay in the “Artists’ House,” and the “Artists’ Barn” con-tains visual art and dance studios, a darkroom and music composi-tion studio with a baby grand piano. A chef cooks on weekdays; the artists cook for themselves and each other on weekends.

Above, a cattle barn off Skyline Drive above La Honda was renovated 30 years ago to provide live-in studios for artists seeking time and space to de-vote to their work. Below, approximately 50 sculptures can be found around the Djerassi grounds, installed as a reflection of the natural environment many left as gifts by the artists for their time.


“THIS IS OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE. ARTISTS ARE CREATING THINGS THAT BRING CULTURE TO THE WORLD.”

MicHelle FiNcH, DjerASSi proGrAM ADMiNiSTrATive AND

coMMuNicATioNS ASSiSTANT

They all share Djerassi’s jewels: free time to pursue art, side by side with peers.

“It’s time to be free for the creative juices to flow and not to be encum-bered by requirements,” said program administrative and communica-tions assistant Michelle Finch, adding that participants can “concentrate and be able to have those moments of epiphany.”

There’s no pressure to finish projects, she said. Though participants work at their own pace, “we don’t have a problem with artists milking it,” — but many do finish projects anyway.

In recent years, choreographer Sara Shelton Mann created “Tribes” which was performed in San Francisco, and peer Nina Haft created “debris/flows.” And composer Veronika Krausas made headway on her opera “The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth.”

“I find that in the day-to-day world it’s difficult to create because life is so full,” said Buelteman. “You have to remove yourself from your family, your friends, your wallet, your profession, so you can see other possibili-ties for the creative life.”

The program was founded in 1979 by Stanford University Professor Emeritus Carl Djerassi, who along with Syntex Corporation colleagues first synthesized a practical oral contraceptive in the 1950s.

Proceeds from Syntex stock allowed him to purchase land west of Stanford in the 1960s. He named it the SMIP (Syntex Made It Possible) Ranch, but renamed it “Sic manebimus in pace” (Latin for “thus we will remain in peace”) in 1970.

Katri Haarde of Estonia designs computer-animated backgrounds for an animated film in her studio in the Artists’ Barn.


Mission stateMent | The Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce and Visitors’ Bureau is a partnership of business professionals working together to strengthen a sustainable socio-economic climate in our unique Coastside community.This membership organization provides networking opportunities and represents the interests of business with government.

aBoUt | The Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce and Visitors’ Bureau is the only volunteer membership organization dedicated to the promotion of business on the Coastside.The Chamber now serves nearly 700 members and has established itself as a leader in the community since 1963.

Through a well planned and balanced Business Plan, the Chamber is dedicated to creating a strong local economy, promoting the community, providing networking opportunities, representing the interests of business with government, and encouraging a sustainable future.

The Chamber is the primary source of tourist/destination marketing information for the Coastside, from Montara to Davenport. The Chamber is also dedicated to maintaining and increasing its membership by providing more benefits and more comprehensive services for the business community.

Quality of life and creating a strong local economy have become increasingly more important to the entire Coastside. They are also proud of their ecotourism program and are a leader in ecotourism trends.

The Chamber also provides representation, access, information, and solutions for your business. The Chamber invites you to join them and looks forward to assisting you in making your business a success!

HALF MOON BAY COASTSIDE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & VISITORS’ BUREAU 235 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 (650) 726-8380 | www.hmbchamber.com

n oRGaniZation | Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce & Visitors’ Bureau

PResiDent/Ceo |Charise Hale McHugh, ACE


n ORGANIZATION | PUENTE

ABOUT | PUENTE (Puente de la Costa Sur) provides vital services for men, women, youth, children, and families

living in the South Coast communities of Pescadero, La Honda, Loma Mar and San Gregorio. Puente provides food, clothing, rental and utility assistance; literacy programs for English and Spanish learners; enrollment in health insurance programs; educational

health outreach, screening, and immunizations; parenting education and support programs; and counseling and peer support for adults and children, and youth employment and leadership development. Puente also works with farmers, ranches, and nursery owners to promote a sustainable agricultural economy on the South Coast. PUENTE is a 501 © (3) tax-exempt organization.

PUENTE 620 North Street P.O. Box 554 Pescadero, CA 94060 650-879-1691 www.mypuente.org

PUENTE’s summer club in action

Puente’s Youth Bridges Award Scholarship Recipients

Puente’s Summer Youth Employment Program Participants

ExEcUTIvE DIREcTOR |Kerry Lobel

[email protected]


Sadly, the program evolved out of personal tragedy for the Djerassi fam-ily. Daughter Pamela, herself a poet and painter, took her life in 1978. Subsequent-ly, visiting Italy with his wife as they tried to come to terms with her death, Djerassi considered the patronage that Renais-sance Italy’s Medici family gave to artists of their time, and wanted to do the same for today’s women artists.

It started with a female graphic artist from Jerusalem who spent a year working at Pamela’s beautiful but isolated house. In four years, one artist grew to five, and one of them told Djerassi that the ranch manager’s house and barn might be a more amenable setting.

With help from his wife, late biographer and Stanford Professor Emerita of English Diane Middle-brook, Djerassi established a compre-hensive residency program for men and women artists.

The program emerged very similar to what it is today, in 1982. From 1994 to 1999 the family converted it from a pri-vate family foundation to a public charity with a board of trustees overseeing fund-ing and operations.

That decade also saw the emergence of specific activities designed to introduce the public to Djerassi and its mission.

Those include an annual Open House that welcomed the public into the ranch and artists’ studios. Tours showcase the picturesque ranch and open, wooded land, and the ranch’s onsite sculpture collection created by resident artists.

At occasional Sunday Salons, artists present their work. An annual “Artful Harvest” features entertainment, a benefit dinner and an auction of alumni work.

The Djerassi program also partners with the Other Minds Festival that showcases contemporary, avant-garde music. In the early 1990s, the program helped found the nonprofit Alliance of Artist Communities that supports and advocates for artist residency programs worldwide.

The list of Djerassi artists in residence in 2010 reads like a geography lesson: writers from the Bay Area and Southern California, visual artists from Brooklyn to Budapest and Vienna to Vietnam, cho-reographers from London to San Fran-cisco, poets from the East Coast to Japan

At the end of their residencies, artists contribute reflections on their experiences as part of a book project. Screenwriter Ashia Chacko of San Carlos included a poem, watercolor and feathery blue string.


n ORGANIZATION | Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay

ABOUT | The Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay has a 40-year tradition of community and world service. We are part of Rotary International, the largest and oldest nonpolitical and nonreligious humanitarian organization in the world, with more than 1,200,000 Rotarians in 33,000 clubs in 170 countries worldwide. Rotarians are business and professional leaders who volunteer in their communities and promote world understanding and peace, encourage high ethical standards and carry out projects that address poverty, health, hunger, education, youth and the environment.

LOCALLY | we

• Sponsor the RotaCare clinic, providing urgent health care to the underinsured

• Distribute dictionaries to all 3rd graders on the Coastside

• Support local youth athletic teams

• Deliver Christmas gifts to deserving families

• Sponsor an ethics-based essay contest in local high schools

• Host visiting young professionals from other countries

• Sponsor the Half Moon Bay High School Interact Club

INTERNATIONALLY | we

• Support clean-water projects in Ecuador

• Support education of AIDS orphans in Kenya through G.R.A.C.E. USA

• Support humanitarian projects in Russia and Mexico

• Support Rotary International’s efforts toward worldwide polio eradication

Join us for lunch on Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. at the Community United Methodist Church777 Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay www.hmbrotary.org

■ ORGANIZATION | G.R.A.C.E.(Grassroots Alliance for Community Education)

ABOUT | G.R.A.C.E. is a non-profit organization created in 2001to prevent and alleviate suffering caused by the HIV/AIDS epi-demic in Africa. G.R.A.C.E. believes passionately in a grassrootsapproach, and works with communities in Kenya and other coun-tries in Africa to develop effective responses to the epidemic.Programs:

■ The Grassroots Program supports problem solving from withincommunities, where lives can be improved dramatically with evenmodest funds.■ The Naisula Education Program enables children orphaned byHIV/AIDS to obtain an education and prepare for a promisingfuture.■ The Youth Development Program engages, educates, andinspires young people to network with their peers, creating asafer future.■ The Farm Resource and Conference Center gathers peopletogether for meeting, learning, and innovation, while serving as amodel of sustainable agricultural practices for local farmers.

UPCOMING EVENT | Book signing reception. G.R.A.C.E. invitesyou to meet authors Karen Ande and Ruthann Richter (Face toFace), and Gail Holland (Love Each Day) at a book signing recep-tion.Thursday, November 5th 5:30-7:00 p.m., La Piazza Courtyard604 Main Street, Half Moon Bay. The public is welcome to thisfree event.

FOUNDER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | NatashaMartin, a Bay Area Jefferson Award recipient, isco-founder of Global Strategies For HIVPrevention, board member of the HesperianFoundation, and founding advisory board member of the Firelight Foundation.

G.R.A.C.E. USA | P.O. Box 185 Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 | [email protected]



and playwrights from Canada the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest.

What enticed Carl Djerassi — author, playwright, professor emeritus of chemistry, winner of the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology, recipient of 21 honorary doctorates, and still actively in-volved in the program — to support artists?

“This is our cultural heritage. Artists are creating things that bring culture to the world,” said Finch, noting that 70 percent of artists are not able to make a living from their art.

“The arts are very strong in this family. They see it as a way to help artists trying to be creative and challenged by everyday life. The creative process doesn’t support artists, and to pursue it can be a challenge in today’s world.”

Looking ahead, the next step in the Djer-assi program will fulfill Diane Middlebrook’s wish for expansion of the Djerassi program, with four more artists in the future Diane Middlebrook Memorial Writers’ Residence. In October, ground was broken for the building of four small writer’s studios in an overarching, solar structure, Finch said. The hoped-for opening date is 2011.

“We are happy to do this as a memorial to her and the impact she had in this program,” Finch said.

The program’s impact on Buelteman, so far as he is concerned, is ongoing.

“You find people whose lives and art resounds with you,” he said. “You know that other people are taking the same journey, making the same hard decisions in life, to be fully self-expressing.” 1

Clockwise from upper right, Communications associate Michelle Finch takes in the view with artist-in-residence Katri Haarde of Estonia. A French sign marks the entrance to the Artists’ House. Novelist Molly Moynahan of Chicago completed 100 pages of her memoir and has her bag almost packed on the day before her de-parture. A sculpture by David Nash both reflects and contrasts the sur-rounding woods.


Huge waves demand

huge helpmavericks contest relies on hundreds of volunteers each year


by mark noack

each year the Mavericks surf competition requires the help of Renee Sorenson, a former insurance brokerage employee more used to sitting behind an office desk than barreling down a giant wave.

She has never touched a surfboard in her life. Big waves terrify her, she explains, saying that anyone who dares to ride them is either very courageous, or perhaps, very crazy.

“For most of my life, the only surfers I knew were ones like “Gidget Goes Hawaiian,” she said with a laugh. “I really got fascinated with Mavericks … achieving what they do, some of those surfers have to have a death wish.”

Despite the unlikely background, count the 60-year-old Red-wood City resident among the most devout fans of the Coast-side’s premier big-wave competition. Each year, Renee and her daughter religiously make a pilgrimage to Pillar Point around 3 a.m. the morning of the competition to help organize the event.

Mavericks’ volunteers since 2003, the mother-and-daughter team has become part of a network of ready and willing helpers who are the key to putting on the surf contest in a moment’s no-tice. The surfing event annually draws the world’s elite surfers, big-name sponsors, more than 50,000 spectators and a tsunami

of international media coverage. But the event is typically put on with about $500,000. That is a lot of money, but not in the world of elite professional sporting events. What Mavericks lacks in money, it makes up with hundreds of volunteers.

Compared to other big-wave competitions in the world, Mavericks is an anomaly in more ways than one. Famously scheduled with just a day’s notice, the Mavericks competition is focused entirely on landing on the best surf swell of the year. But putting total priority on the waves can make everything else a last-minute marathon.

“There’s so many moving parts … We only have 36 hours, so it hard to manage,” said Katherine Clark, Mavericks’ competi-tion co-founder. “I don’t sleep for two nights prior, there’s so much to do.”

Since the first competition in 1998, the grunt work of Mavericks has been done by teams of impassioned volunteers. Once owner of the Road House Café in Princeton, Clark said in the early years of Mavericks she would try to recruit pretty much anyone who came through her doors. For its first years, Mavericks relied on many family members, friends and a few complete strangers who scrambled to put on the contest.

The number of volunteers has increased along with the fame of the contest. In recent years, typically more than 200 people say they want to help out. Those volunteers include many re-

“WHOEvER’S ORGANIzING THIS

THING, I’M STILL GOING TO BE THERE.

yOU BET.”reNee SoreNSoN, MAverickS

SurF coNTeST voluNTeer

Review File Photo


ORGANIZATION | Johnston House Foundation

MISSION STATEMENT | To protect, preserve, restore andrefurbish for future generations the historic James JohnstonHouse in Half Moon Bay.

ABOUT | Founded in 1972, the all-volunteer Johnston HouseFoundation has rebuilt the James Johnston House from acrumbling ruin to its current stately presence.Work continueson historically-correct interior rooms, furniture and acces-sories. Our goal includes providing a comprehensive educa-tional experience for visitors.We desire to tell the story ofthis unique saltbox house, its inhabitants and the impact onCoastside, California and American history. We are activelyseeking volunteers to join us in the endeavor.

SERVICES | Open House – Third Saturday each month January -September, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free tours by costumed docents.Private tours and school group tours available upon request.The revised "The White House of Half Moon Bay" book, acomprehensive description of the house, family and restora-tion efforts, is available for sale.

MAJOR EVENTS/FUNDRAISERS | Johnston Holiday HouseBoutique & Tour, a major fundraiser – First two weekends inNovember.

CURRENT BOARD | Mary Bettencourt, Imogene Geiling,Lauren Goodrich, Dana Harrison, Deborah Houston,Jan McCorkle, Jack McHugh, Cameron Palmer,Edie Phillips, Janice Rossi, John Ryan.

JOHNSTON HOUSE FOUNDATION, INC.P. O. Box 789, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019726-0329www.johnstonhouse.org


n ORGANIZATION | Coastside Hope

MISSION STATEMENT| Coastside Hope is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to helping local coastside residents in need. For over 30 years, our mission has been to alleviate hunger and provide basic necessities within our community.

Coastside Hope is a small agency but we serve the entire community, the working poor, low income seniors, veterans, residents with physical disabilities, single parents and the unemployed.

You may know us through our Adopt-A-Family or one of our Food Distribution Programs, but we do so much more.

WE PROVIDE |

• Emergency and supplemental food

• Clothing & Household items

• Personal hygiene items

And:

• Assist those struggling with severe financial hardship by providing rental and utility assistance.

• Offer referral assistance for other critical needs programs, such as medical and mental health.

• Facilitate immigration and citizenship services.

• Provide assistance with complex forms and offer free tax preparation.

Our Coastside residents are the very fabric of our community. Last year we distributed over 125 tons of food to more than 3,000 local residents, 10% of our entire community. To find out about how you can strengthen our community and help those in need, please contact Denise James, Community Development Director at (650) 726-9071 ext. 222 or [email protected]

Current Board: Bob Reilly, Judy O’Leary, Jeff Perls, Barbara Wright, Laura Burtness, Mike Alifano, Steve Anderson, Dalia Huerta, Peter Lowenberg, Laurie McKinney

Honorary: Dell Williams, David Pasternak, Rose Serdy

COASTSIDE HOPE 99 Ave. Alhambra. El Granada, CA 94018 | (650)726.9071 www.coastsidehope.org | www.facebook/coastsidehope.org

Executive Director | Fatima Soares


tired folks, stay-at-home parents and amateur surfers. “These are people who are really stoked by the vibe,” Clark

said. “A lot of people don’t surf at all. They just want to see it — the Woodstock at the beach.”

Understandably, many people can’t take a day off with only about 36 hours of notice, Clark said. On the day when the surf contest is called, about a third of the organizers’ volunteer list can actually show up.

But over the years, a core group of about 30 unpaid volun-teers have stepped forward to give aid each year, helping to parks cars, build temporary structures, fence off protected areas and prepare as best they can for a contest taking place on 40-foot waves.

As soon as winter rolls around each year, Sorenson and her daughter know they need to be ready to rush to the Coastside if the contest is called. At their home, they have backpacks ready to go and stocked with supplies for a long day of outdoor grunt work. Provisions include snacks, drinks, sunscreen and cell phones. Since becoming volunteers in 2003, the Sorensons say the event has become a sacred mother-daughter bonding day — and let work be damned if they can’t get the time off.

“My boss always knew there was one day I wasn’t going to come into work,” Sorenson said, trying to describe the experience of Mavericks. “It’s a feeling of excitement. It’s

Christmas morning.” Everyone who comes out to help at Mavericks is quickly

divided into one of several groups headed by the veteran volunteers. Multiple groups are organized just to keep specta-tors from climbing up the coastal bluffs, trampling the coastal marshes or otherwise damaging the nearby area. Volunteers also help with security, medical aid, assisting the media, and managing traffic around the area. Finally, volunteers also pre-pare lunch for all the competitors, judges and staff.

Clark says she tries to rotate the jobs around so that no one person has to do one grunt task all day — for instance, having to stand in the sun directing cars where to park.

Many local businesses, restaurants and boat captains have also contributed by giving event organizers reduced prices.

Several other groups call in volunteer help for the Mavericks event. The day before the event, the San Mateo County Sheriff ’s Office contacts all 256 people on its volunteer list. It includes members of its horse-mounted patrol, the cliff and dive rescue unit, air squadron, communication team, and the junior explor-ers along with other groups.

During this year’s contest, the Sheriff ’s Office had 31 volun-teers at the Pillar Point bluffs. That was a good turnout, reflect-ed Sgt. Joe Sheridan, who manages the citizen volunteer teams.

“The contest was on a Saturday, and that’s always the most

Photo courtesy Renee Sorenson

Amanda Sorenson, left, is one of many who say they wouldn’t be anywhere other than Pillar Point on Mavericks contest days. She and her mother, Re-nee, are ready to volunteer at a moment’s notice.


ORGANIZATION | Half Moon Bay Lions Club

ABOUT | The Half Moon Bay Lions Club was organized in1947 with 23 charter members and has served the San MateoCounty Coastside ever since. For all of its 63 years, the clubhas contributed to local youth causes, from Boy and GirlScouts troops, to school programs.They help send travelingteams to tournaments and provide funds for equipment for allkinds of youth and sports activities. Over the past 20 yearsthe club has provided scholarships to both Half Moon Bayand Pescadero High School students. They give five $1,000scholarships to the students of our two high schools everyyear.The programs they support today include youth, seniorand other community activities. Some of the things the clubdoes on an annual basis include the Relay for Life, RebuildingTogether, Senior Brunch, construction of wheel chair ramps.Their contributions also support the Senior Coastsiders,Coastside Adult Day Health Center, No Questions AskedBreakfast, Quarry Park improvements, and the July 4th Paradeand Pancake Breakfast.

HMB Lions Club members and volunteers at setting up the ham-burger booth at pumpkin festival.

FUNDRAISING | The Half Moon Bay Lions Club raises fundsthrough golf tournaments, the Pumpkin Festival hamburger andcorn-on-the-cob booths, pancake breakfasts, wild game feedsand other fund raising events.They often need help staffingevents and have joined with the high school groups for assis-tance.This gives the students the opportunity to receive thefunds they need by earning them. It’s a win-win program.

BOARD | President Jim Asche, Diane Ayon, Jay Warshauer,

HALF MOON BAY LIONS CLUBP.O. Box 3023, Half Moon Bay 94019www.halfmoonbayca.lionwap.org

Bob Ptacek, Bob Myers, Greg Redican, Audrey Asche, RobinRourke, Tom Murdock, Beau Fenech, Cameron Jeffs, GaryCakebread, Gil Bustichi, Suzanne Mau, and Jon Bruce.

Anyone interested in joining the Lions can contact this year'sclub President, Jim Asche at 728-3630 or any of the above boardmembers. The HMB Lions Club meets the first and third Mondayof each month at the Half Moon Bay Brewery at 7:15 p.m.

GET INVOLVED!

DONATE | Our local public schools will thrive and continue to improve with your commitment to support the CABRILLO EDUCATION FOUNDATION (CEF) ENDOWMENT FUND. Every tax-deductible dollar donated to the CEF Endowment Fund before December 31, 2010 will be matched dollar for dollar!

Please remember to include the CEF Endowment Fund in your estate plan where you can create a personal legacy of support for education on the Coastside. Just 1% can make a huge difference.

SPREAD THE WORD | Our local public schools have some of the best teachers in the country. Our schools receive numerous awards and have outstanding and always improving test scores. Our high school students continue to score significantly higher on all AP exams than students across the entire nation. Our graduates get accepted at the finest colleges and universities in the nation.

Help us reach our $2M goal at which time we willstart distributing a long term, stable source of unrestricted income to all our Coastside public schools

CABRILLO EDUCATION FOUNDATION

P.O. Box 354, Half Moon Bay 650.726.7871

www.CEFfund.org

Our Community! Our Schools! Our Future!

n ORGANIZATION | Cabrillo Education Foundation

The Cabrillo Education Foundation (CEF) is committed to enriching educational excellence in our local public schools through fundraising and community outreach.

$2,000,000

$1,500,000

$1,000,000

ExEcuTIvE DIREcTOR | Melissa Rey



opportune time for volunteers,” he said. “If it gets scheduled on a Wednesday? That’s when I cross my fingers.”

Bringing in hundreds of volunteers is essential, organizers say, because they have learned to expect the unexpected. De-spite many precautions, there’s still a big element of uncertainty that comes with bringing large crowds within sight of five-story waves. Past competitions have turned the roads near Princeton into a gridlock mess of cars and pedestrians all funneling to the same spot. Nearby shop owners have complained that traffic essentially closes their business for the day.

In 2006, a spectator was seriously injured by falling rocks tumbling down the bluffs. That resulted in a lawsuit.

Each year, contest organizers, law enforcement and politi-cal officials try to better control the problems, for example, by restricting parking to certain areas, shutting down some roads, and trying to restrict certain areas from spectators. But many officials have also commented that there’s only so much they can do.

Then there was this year’s competition and the infamous rogue wave. The huge wave propelled toward the Pillar Point shoreline and crashed into a crowd of people, injuring three and washing away or damaging thousands of dollars in equip-ment. YouTube video clips of the wave washing over the scaf-folding and knocking over bystanders became as memorable than the actual competition.

Contest officials are still considering how to better keep visitors off the shoreline during next year’s contest. But when the wave struck, one thing that worked marvelously were the volunteer teams.

As soon as the wave receded, on-call medics quickly rallied to the shoreline, treating the injured and was rushing them to the hospital.

On the beach that afternoon, Sorenson remembers standing on the edge of the shore, wondering whether the speakers and electrical wiring near the judge’s tent were placed too close to the ground. But her intuition came a moment too late; she had her back to the ocean when the wave plowed into her from behind.

The wave knocked her down and carried her inland, and her backpack held her down in the water. Other people trampled over her as they were frantically trying to get out of the wave.

When Sorenson was able to stand up, she immediately went into damage-control mode. She started patrolling the beach to make sure no one was missing, and to check in with her staff. For a while, she forgot to consider what had happened to her.

“I was in shock,” she said. “My daughter came up to me and said ‘Mom, your hand!”

Her left hand was swollen and she had blood running down her arm. Sorenson continued running around trying to help others while her daughter chased her around, pleading with her to find a medic for herself.

“It took a full hour to convince her to get someone to check out her hand,” recalled Amanda, Sorenson’s daughter. “She just kept saying she was fine.”

Amanda drove her mother to Kaiser-Permanente hospital in Redwood City, and by that point her hand was throbbing in pain. An X-ray scan revealed her left hand was broken. She couldn’t move her fingers, and she says her hand continues to give her trouble. But Sorenson has no regrets.

“I think it went really well,” she said, reflecting on this year’s competition. “It took several weeks to get the sand out of my body.”

No matter what, she said, she’ll be at Mavericks to help next year and in upcoming competitions.

“Whoever’s organizing this thing, I’m still going to be there,” she said. “You bet.” 1

Mark Foyer / Review

Volunteers help staff the medical team – which proved a crucial function during the last contest.

IN RECENT yEARS, TyPICALLy MORE THAN 200 PEOPLE SAy THEy WANT TO HELP OUT. THOSE vOLUNTEERS INCLUDE MANy RETIRED FOLkS, STAy-AT-HOME PARENTS AND AMATEUR SURFERS.


n ORGANIZATION | Coastside Land Trust

MISSION STATEMENT | The Coastside Land Trust is dedicated to the preservation, protection and enhance-ment of the open space environment including the natural, scenic, recreational, cultural, historical, and agri-cultural resources of Half Moon Bay and the San Mateo County coastside for present and future generations.

ABOUT | The Coastside Land Trust is dedicated to protecting the urban open space of the San Mateo County coast, for enjoyment now and for generations to come. A grassroots organization since 1997, we safeguard scenic bluffs, open space, stream corridors and agricultural and recreational lands in coastal San Mateo County. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Coastside Land Trust is the only organization dedicated entirely to the protection and preservation of land in the urban Coastside. Taking a strategic approach to land conservation, we:

n Protect land by purchasing and accepting donationsof land and conservation easements

n Secure private and public funding for landconservation

n Provide assistance and resources to landownersinterested in protecting their land

n Lead local conservation, restoration, stewardship,and educational activities

SUCCESSES | Our successes include helping protect the historic Ocean Shore Railroad Right-Of-Way, owning and maintaining key open lands adjacent to the Coastal Trail in Half Moon Bay, and our continuing collaboration with the California Coastal Commis-sion and the City of Half Moon Bay to secure key conservation easements in the riparian areas

of Arroyo Leon, Frenchman’s and Pilarcitos Creeks.

VOLUNTEERING | Coastside Land Trust relies on volun-teers to help with local habitat restoration, monitoring of our conservation easements, and important tasks in our Half Moon Bay office.We are currently looking for help in our office, with outreach events, and key stew-ardship programs including monitoring of conservation easements and habitat restoration.

COASTSide LAnd TRuST 788 Main St., Half Moon Bay, CA, 94019 | 650.726.5056 www.coastsidelandtrust.org [email protected]

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | Jo Chamberlain


ORGANIZATION | Sonrisas Community Dental Center

MISSION STATEMENT | To deliver high-quality, affordable dentalservices to low-income and uninsured residents of San MateoCounty Coastside and promote the maintenance of lifetime oralhealth for all.

ABOUT | Since opening in 2001, Sonrisas has provided urgently needed dental services valued at more than $4 million dollars to5,000 Coastside low-income, uninsured children and families.Volunteers, students and paid bilingual, bicultural staff make it allpossible. In addition to dental services, Sonrisas provides oralhealth education to the community through school screeningsand community outreach programs. We’re changing lives, onesmile at a time.

SERVICES | AFFILIATIONS |

STAFF | Robert Chiang DDS; Diane Grech, Educational Program Coordinator; Adriana Gutierrez; Lisa Handa RDH-AP; Julia McKeon, Executive Director; Torrey Rothstein DDS and Dental Director; Veronica Ruiz RDA; Yadira Torres RDA

BOARD OF DIRECTORS | Judy Macias, President, Nigel Taverner,

SONRISAS COMMUNITY DENTAL CENTER210 San Mateo Road Suite 104, Half Moon Bay(650) 726-2144 www.sonrisasdental.org

Clinic Affiliate

DENTALDIRECTOR |TorreyRothstein, DDS

Graduate Residency Program

Dental HygieneStudent Training

Dental Student Training

General dental servicesfor children and adults includingexams, cleanings, restoration,prevention, oral health education,and some specialty services:Referral coordination to specialtyservices • Preventive screening andoral health classes for Cabrillo andLa Honda Pescadero Elementaryschools (over 1,000 studentsannually) • Community oral healthprograms and classes • Outreachand screening locations at food give-aways, RotaCare, Pescaderoand others as needed • Public healthdentistry training for dental andhygiene students • Volunteer services and opportunities.

Vice President, Julia O’Daly, Secretary, and Don Pretre, Treasurer, Andrea Hayes, Dan Lucier, Maureen Perron, C. Ray Sheppard DMD


» NEWS YOU CAN USE

Make your charity countcouple your urge to donate with a little research

Every year Americans give about $300 billion to charities and nonprofit organizations, and that giving is most likely around the holidays. Perhaps the spurt of generosity is spawned by

reruns of “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Miracle on 34th Street.” Maybe it’s Mom’s pecan pie or the fact that receiving gifts compels us to give in return. For whatever reason, the winter holidays provide annual proof of our compassion.

Unfortunately, some on the receiving end are unscrupulous. By some accounts, our most trusted charities are plagued by fraud. In 2008, the Nonprofit and Volun-tary Sector Quarterly reported that the nonprofit sector loses $40 billion annually — 13 percent of all philanthropic giving — to fraud and embezzlement. The topic is frequently discussed at nonprofit gatherings and among leaders of charitable organizations.

So how do you make sure your donation will be beneficial and accomplish your goal?

The truth is, making such a determination can be more difficult than you think. But there are some online resources to help you make the right decision.

In California, charities and nonprofits have to register with the Office of the Attorney General. There are currently about 150,000 registered organizations. You can search by organization name, the city or county in which it is registered, or by type. Expect to find a registration number, whether the organization is current with its filings and an address. You may also find a phone number and more detailed financial information.

For example, most nonprofits must file a Form 990 with the Internal Rev-enue Service (IRS rules exempt religious organizations and those that take in less than $25,000 a year). The Form 990 asks whether individual organizations have written policies governing conflict of interest and treatment of whistle-blowers. It asks organizations whether there was an independent review of compensation for executive officers. You will find names of key officials within the organization and their compensation on the forms. There will be a list of all fundraising activities within the year in question and the amount retained by the organization.

The Office of the Attorney General also has a wealth of useful links to other organizations that can help determine the trustworthiness of charities.

While the state doesn’t give any seal of approval for charities, other groups do — including the Better Business Bureau. The BBB’s charities portal has many resources to guide your search, including its own Charity Seal Program. Remember: Organizations aren’t required to register with the BBB, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see particular nonprofits listed.

— Clay Lambert

Give wiselyThe Web has many resources for those who want to be sure their charitable contributions won’t be wasted.

t California Attorney General (916) 322-3360 or 1-800-952-5225, http://ag.ca.gov/charities/

t The Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov

t BBB Wise Giving Alliance, (800) 575-GIvE, www.bbb.org

t American Institute of Philanthropy, www.charitywatch.org

t GuideStar, www2.guidestar.org


■ ORGANIZATION | Boys & Girls Club of the Coastside

MISSION | To inspire and enable all young people, especially thosewho need us most, to realize their full potential as productive,responsible, and caring citizens.

ABOUT | Founded in 1994, Boys & Girls Club of the Coastside is anon-profit organization that provides programs and services foryouth. Currently housed on the Cunha Middle School Campus,offering lunch time and after school activities until 6 p.m. Ourorganization is dedicated to promoting health, social, educational,vocational, and character development to boys and girls.

SERVICES | Homework Help during Power-Hour; Weekly activities,sports, art, cooking;Torch Club; Collaborate activities with: SAL/PAL,HMB Recreation Division, Community School, & Library,Volunteerswelcome; Events: Pumpkin Festival & Night of Lights; Field Trips:Bowling, Roller Hockey, etc.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR |Anna McDevitt

BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF THE COASTSIDE600 Church Street

Half Moon Bay, CA 94019www.bgc-coastside.org


n ORGANIZATION | Future Farmers of America Ag Boosters

MISSION | To promote, aid, and assist, financially or otherwise the Half Moon Bay High School FFA Chapter to ensure success of agriculture education by preparing tomorrows agricultural leaders today.

SERVICES | The FFA Ag Boosters provide a wide range of opportunities to Half Moon Bay FFA Chapter members that include the California State FFA Convention, Greenhand Conference. The FFA Ag Boosters provide monetary support so students can participate in statewide events. The FFA is also a County Fair award sponsor.

FUNDRAISING | Ranch Breakfast, Holiday Stocking Sale, Rose Sale are a few FFA fundraising events.

FuTuRe FARMeRS oF

AMeRiCA AG BooSTeRS1 Lewis Foster Drive Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 Rich Giannini 726-2506 Robin Camozzi 726-4814

Richard Poncini 650.740.8726

www.cookingforfriends.net

Cooking for FriendsSpanish Paella starting at

$14.00 per person

Weddings • Reunions • Corporate EventsCooking on-site

Serving Breakfast & Lunchwith a Mayan infl uenceServing Breakfast & LunchServing Breakfast & LunchServing Breakfast & LunchServing Breakfast & Lunchwith a Mayan infl uencewith a Mayan infl uencewith a Mayan infl uence

Monday-Friday 8 am-5 pmSaturday-Sunday 8 am-6 pm

650.728.7699460 Capistrano Road, Princeton-by-the-Sea

Outdoor Patio Seating Available

Breakfast:Breakfast Burritos

Omelets • Eggs any style

Lunch:Soups & Salads

Burgers • FajitasHot & Cold Sandwiches

Fish Tacos • Quesadillas

• Daily Specials •ask the chef what

he’s eating and he’ll make it for you!

669 CRESPI DR., SUITE F, PACIFICA, CA 94044PHONE (650) 359-1646 • PACIFICADENTIST.COM

WILLIAM R. KIRKHAM, D.D.S.RYAN A. HENSPETTER, D.M.D.

Let Your Smile ShineLet Your Smile Shine


» DOWN TO EARTH

Contact Jennifer Segale, Wildflower Farms, 726-5883 and Carla Lazzarini,

Earth’s Laughter, (650) 996-5168.

Fall favorites

trick of the tradeTop dress about an inch or less of micro-bark to your potted plants. In general, I’m not a fan of bark, but this really does help. Especially if you are ... um, how do I say this delicately, “watering challenged.” But make sure to use organic fertilizers regularly, since when the bark breaks down it will suck up that nitrogen in the potting soil. Counter that process with a little all-purpose organic fertilizer.

— JLS

I’m all about pots this time of year. Well, actually, I’m all about pots most times of the year! It’s just nice to smash a bunch of plants together and know that nine times out of 10 they are going to thrive. No gophers! No over-watering (most of the time). No being crushed by a couple of filthy dogs! Plus, they offer instant gratification, even if the plants aren’t in bloom, you always have a cool-looking pot.

For your consideration, take a look at my two rectangular pots. I adore these pots, as they look good with plants cascading over the edge, or small and freshly planted. It’s a great style of terra cotta, and they have lasted forever! you can find these at Fabbri on Highway 92. Below is a list of the plants that are shown in the photo. I included two extras that were not in full bloom at the time:

n kniphofia

n Salvia greggii

n Pansy

n viola “Penny Red Blotch”

n Diascia “Apricot”

n Nemesia “Juicy Fruits kumquat”

“AUTUMN IS A SECOND SPRING WHEN EvERy LEAF IS A FLOWER.”

AlBerT cAMuS

T


» SIGHTSEEING WITH MARK FOYER

Sign of the times

Mark Foyer is the Half Moon Bay Review’s

sports writer and photographer. You can reach him at

[email protected]

n When: 9:56 a.m., Oct. 2, 2010n Where: Cougar Hill, Half Moon Bay High Schooln Exposure: 1/100 of a second at f/5, ISO 400n Photographer’s Notes: An unwritten rule of sports photography is to get a photo, then look for something unusual. After climbing Cougar Hill and getting some standard shots of Half Moon Bay High School runners passing by with the coast in the background, it was time to get down. That’s when I saw the sign. I decided to get a photo of runners speeding down the hill as they passed the sign. More than 2,000 runners saw the sign, and I’m sure some of them thought running up that hill was harder than advanced-placement calculus.

n ORGANIZATION | Pie Ranch

The team at Pie Ranch thanks you for a tremendous year of local support of our work to get more hands in the soil and engaging people of all ages in learning about food from seed to table.

Pie Ranch envisions a world where:

• People know and value where their food comes from.

• All people have access to healthy food.

• Agricultural and coastal lands are preserved for generations to come.

Since 2005, Pie Ranch has operated as a working farm, hosting youth from regional schools to participate in farm-based programs and activities. Pie Ranch also works with educators and community collaborators in diverse urban, suburban and rural settings to help students apply what they’ve learned at Pie Ranch in their daily lives. In addition, Pie Ranch mentors aspiring farmers as resident apprentices who spend a full year immersed in all aspects of farm operations and marketing.

The staff — Jered Lawson, Nancy Vail, Pei-Yee Woo, & Mary Ann Brooks — and all of the Board of Directors — Susan Peterson, Elisabeth Rix, Jeff Haas, Stefano DeZerega, Linda Maepa, Jane Segal, & Judy Graboyes — invite you to come for a visit and continue to contribute to the work of making farm fresh fruits and vegetables (and yummy pie) a part of everyone’s life.

Ways to get involved with us this holiday season:• Sign up to receive the monthly e-newsletter• Make a contribution online at pieranch.org• Volunteer at the 3rd Saturday of the month public farm day, potluck and barn dance.• Encourage your friends and family to get know and support the work of Pie Ranch and others on the coast who are striving to build a more sustainable food system.

Visit us at www.pieranch.org

pIe RANch | 650.879.0995 | 2080 Cabrillo Hwy., Pescadero

Don’t hide your smile.

C. RAY SHEPPARD, DMDA professional corporationCosmetic Dentistry890 Main Street, Suite A, Half Moon Bay650.726.3355halfmoonbaysmiledesign.com

Visit Dr. Sheppard for the smile of your dreams as well as comfortable, preventative care. We use the most modern dental technologies delivered in a warm, friendly atmosphere.

Having healthy teeth gives you confi dence.

Patient – Kathy Hoffman

CERECO N E V I S I T C R O W N S

C. RAY SHEPPARD, DMD

Date post:	17-Mar-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	wick-communications
View:	233 times
Download:	3 times

HMB Magazine Nov.2010

Documents