Tweet

Share
 

Up to the Eagles

Redwood City’s Maple Street Shelter has a newly landscaped garden with its own solar-powered fountain, thanks to Jake Bornstein, 15, of Cupertino. Proud mom Phyllis Brock reports that her son planned the project, raised the funds and directed its implementation as one of the requirements for becoming an Eagle Scout. The shelter’s director had dreamed about having a peaceful place for residents to spend time as they transition to jobs, and was overjoyed by the results, Brock added. Bornstein and fellow scouts, members of Troop 76 of Los Altos, converted a bare dirt space to a pleasant outdoor seating area for the 78 residents of the homeless shelter. They added three tons of pea gravel, benches, the fountain and a lemon tree, “so the residents could have fresh fruit,” Bornstein said.

In more scouting news … Peggy Isaak Gluck, Eagle adviser for Boy Scouts of America’s Redwood District, writes that two Jewish young men became Eagle Scouts on Aug. 21. They are Josh Temes of Troop 14 in Palo Alto and Daniel Meier of Troop 27 in San Mateo.

 

Rough waters

Mervyn Danker, American Jewish Committee regional director, writes that his son, David Danker of Foster City, braved the rough waters of the bay to swim 1.25 miles from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park in San Francisco on Aug. 26 in the 10th annual Swim with the Centurions. Noting that the race director told him the conditions were the worst he’s ever seen, David said, “There were massive swells and it was extremely challenging, but I got into a rhythm. The mind says, ‘You can do it’; then the body takes over. I started to enjoy it.” He didn’t encounter sharks, which apparently are deeper in the water, but an occasional seal popped a head up to check him out. The younger Danker, a personal trainer at the Peninsula JCC, began open water swimming in 2008. This was his fourth consecutive Alcatraz to S.F. swim. The next challenge, he promised, is a round trip. “He’s an athletic fellow,” said the older Danker.

 

The poet and the rabbi

Sam Doctors, formerly of San Anselmo, has released a book of his poetry, “Moods and Moments of a Restless Mind.” The former professor and entrepreneur has been writing poetry since his retirement in 2004. He dedicated the book to his wife, Meredith Cahn, in honor of her “completion of four years of classes at the Academy of Jewish Religion,” and her subsequent ordination in May 2011. Cahn, who began rabbinic studies at post-50 years old and commuted to Los Angeles for her classes, is now the rabbi at North Tahoe Hebrew Congregation in Tahoe Vista. Doctors and Cahn and their daughter Olga Cahn live in Truckee.

 

Short shorts

Rimon Law partners Michael Moradzadeh and Yaacov Silberman were named to the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebels list, “our annual nod to lawyers who are helping change the profession in ways both big and small,” according to the website … Gerry Vadnais is the new executive director of Moldaw Family Residences, the continuing care retirement community on the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life in Palo Alto. He was formerly at Bridgepoint in Los Altos and Aegis in Concord, and is replacing Marilyn Israel, who is now the director of strategic projects at Jewish Senior Living Group.

This columnist can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

most popular rss feeds