Program

The speaker for our February 15, 2022, meeting will be Steve Bird, the Executive Director of 408 Food Rescue & Distribution, a Division of Lighthouse Ministries.  After 38 years in the high-tech sector (engineer, manager, trainer, and business owner), Steve retired.  Shortly thereafter, his wife “volunteered” him to help out the gleaning (food rescue) team, part of the Homeless Support Action Team or HSAT.  After his first food rescue, she asked him how he liked it.  He said, “This suits me to the core, I’ll do this until I can’t do it anymore.”  It’s been six years now.

Steve’s organization is a recognized non-profit, with a board of directors, and a team of 38 volunteers.  They just released their first “Annual Impact Report for CY2021.”  The calculations show that they collected and distributed 3.2 million pounds of food in CY2021, which translates to 2.68 million meals.  Steve’s talk will mainly consist of excerpts from their Annual Impact report, which will be emailed to our membership.

For our December 21, 2021 meeting, we will be entertained by Mark Wallace, a talented singer, guitarist, and songwriter who performed for us last year at Christmas time.  Mark was born in 1949 in 29 Palms, California and lived in the Bay Area for many years where he worked as a professional handyman.  (Jack-of-all-trades and Master-of-Many)  He was a long-time member of the San Jose Peace Chorale and entertained at many area weddings as well as at the Unity Temple, Moraga Concert Hall (Santa Cruz), and the Great Hall at Betty Peck’s (Saratoga).  About a year ago, he moved to Colorado to be with his childhood sweetheart Tori Palmer, a retired veterinarian.

For our program, Mark will be singing favorite and obscure seasonal songs of Joy and Praise that people can sing along with (as long as they are on mute).

The speaker for our October 19 meeting will be Cassie Kifer.  Cassie is a San Jose-based author, communications consultant, urban planner, and explorer.  Her work has been featured in Delta Sky Magazine, National Geographic Travel, Fodor’s Travel, Thrillist, and on the website of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority.  When she is home, you can find her seeking out interesting food and cultural experiences and hiking the South Bay’s many parks and open spaces with her husband and rescued shelter dog, Riley.

Cassie’s presentation will consist of a description of several of the local attractions discussed in her book entitled “Secret San Jose:  A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure.”

The speaker for our Aug 17, 2021 meeting will be Rovina Nimbalkar, the Executive Director of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health) Santa Clara County.  Her presentation will cover the mission of, and services provided by, NAMI-SCC.  Rovina brings expertise in nonprofit leadership and a passion for mental health advocacy.

Before coming to NAMI, Rovina led diverse non-profit organizations that worked with vulnerable women, children, and families from different religious, socio-economic, and ethnic backgrounds. She has focused her career on issues related to the impact of trauma on women, children, and young adults from underserved communities.

She has over 10 years’ experience in fundraising, community relations, marketing, outreach, financial management, and strategic planning.  She is passionate about mental health issues and is an advocate for people whose lives have been affected by mental health conditions.

For our June 15, 2021, Zoom meeting, the program will be a choral music concert consisting of songs performed by 7 local choirs:  Rainbow Women’s Chorus, Mission College Chorus, Orchard City Community Chorus (OCCC), Threshold Choir, Resounding Achord, Crystal Children’s Chorus, and Serendipity Choir. 

This concert was produced by Diane James (director of OCCC) as a benefit concert for Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence and was originally performed over Zoom on March 20, 2021.  Musical selections will include “We’ll Meet Again,” “Georgy Girl,” “Imagine,” “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” and “We Rise Again.”

In exchange for the concert video, our chapter will make a $100 contribution to Next Door Solutions.  If individual members want to contribute, their website is nextdoorsolutions.org/give/.

Our May 18, 2021, meeting will be held at 10 AM via Zoom; the invitations will be emailed later.  The speaker will be Mary Ann Warren, Director of the Department of Aging and Adult Services.  She is the Public Administrator/Guardian/Conservator of the County of Santa Clara, Social Services Agency.  Mary Ann will discuss the mission of her department, which includes the following:  Adult Protective Services (APS), whichis mandated by the State of California, to receive and investigate reports of abuse or neglect regarding elders; In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), a government–funded program designed to provide assistance to those eligible aged, blind, and disabled individuals who, without this care, would be unable to remain safely in their own homes; The Office of the Public Guardian insures the physical and financial safety of persons unable to do so on their own; and The Senior Nutrition Program (SNP) provides high quality, cost efficient, nutritious meals to seniors.

Mary Ann joined Santa Clara County in February of 2019 as the Chief Deputy Public Guardian and was appointed Director in January of 2020.  Prior to working in Santa Clara County, she served as a Program Director with the Department of Aging and Adult Services for the City & County of San Francisco from 2005 to 2019.  Mary Ann possesses a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a JD from the Golden Gate University School of Law.

Our speaker for the February 16, 2021, meeting will be Kerry Perkins, the Campbell Museums supervisor since 2014.  Kerry was hired in 2003 as the Campbell Historical Museum and Ainsley House and, over the years, has expanded their education programs to include on-site field trips, traveling history trunks, family-friendly special events, an evening lecture series, and a Sunday jazz concert series.

Like many organizations across the world during the current COVID pandemic, the Campbell Museums have had to physically close and adapt their programming.  Kerry has created online programs for remote education, virtual lectures, tours, and more.  She enjoys making history relevant in our lives today, which includes trying to collect and record history as it is happening in real time.  The last year has provided more material than she and the Collection Specialist can collect and process.

Kerry’s presentation on February 16th is entitled, “Lessons Learned from a Pandemic: What Can the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919 Teach Us?”  She will explore how Santa Clara Valley citizens lived with and through that pandemic and how, in our present-day COVID-19 pandemic, we face some of the same fears, anxieties, frustrations, and safety measures—but can work together to get through it.

Kerry has a BA in English Literature and a MA in US History.  Though not a Campbell resident, she feels a deep affinity for the community of Campbell and takes pride in representing its heritage at the Museums.  She currently lives in Los Gatos with her husband and two daughters.