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Editorials LGMA becomes force for local preservation
It wasn't so long ago that the Los Gatos Museum Association was just scraping by financially. There was no money for an executive, and volunteers shouldered all the responsibility for running the Forbes Mill and Tait Avenue museums.
An infusion of money courtesy of several generous bequests helped give the organization stability. The annual house tour has become a community event eagerly anticipated each fall.
And now the LGMA is beginning to flex its muscles, and that's good to see.
The board has set its sights on saving a house which may or may not have been designed by Julia Morgan. Dubbed the Oriental Building, the structure is nearly 100 years old.
Badly damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake, the building was facing demolition by the Sisters of Presentation on whose property it sits.
The LGMA got a grant for $212,500 to move the building from the county Historic Heritage Commission and is awaiting final approval by the Board of Supervisors.
Beverly Pevarnick, the museum association's executive director, plans to apply to other sources for the rest of the needed funding. Then the LGMA will have to find a place to move the house.
Whether or not the project ultimately meets with success, it's clear that the LGMA is setting itself up to be taken seriously not only as the keeper of the town's historic treasures, but as a force for historic preservation
That's good. History can always use a strong organization looking out for it.
Happy Birthday, Kiwanis
From cleaning up trash on the Highway 17 ramps at Los Gatos-Saratoga Road to helping raise funds to eradicate the biggest cause of preventable retardation in children worldwide (lack of iodine in the diet), the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club is busy doing good work.
It's been active and contributing in Los Gatos for 75 years now.
The service club, some 50 members strong, is most visible organizing the Fiesta De Artes which it took over a couple of years ago, and whipping up the club's famous Philly steak sandwiches at the Eastfield Ming Quong Strawberry Festival, something club members have been doing for 25 years.
But Kiwanians also participate in less visible projects, many of which they learn about by surveying local officials and schools each year. They've built several school playgrounds, painted the Red Cross building some years back and helped purchase equipment for the home economics department at Los Gatos High School. The club's primary charitable cause is raising money for local scholarships.
Congratulations to the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club on its 75th anniversary.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
