Get your athletic shoes ready; you’re going to be busy walking this week.

Fundraising Walkathons are nothing new to WG, but a strange convergence has many of them taking place this week across the neighborhood.

Things kick-off Saturday, October 4, with the 6th annual Walk’n Wag fund raising event benefiting the Silicon Valley Humane Society. To be clear, you probably shouldn’t take your pets to the other events.

Kids at three local schools have their walkathons next week, too, including the granddaddy of them all, the Booksin Walkathon on Saturday, October 11. Students at the school are strolling around campus for the 21st year in a row, hoping to raise more than the $150,000 they raised last year.

The kids at Galarza Elementary School (and the co-located Hammer Montessori School) will also be circling their field on October 11 for their walkathon.

Schallenberger students get a bit of a head start on their walking, with the modest hour-long strutting set for Tuesday, followed by the huge Harvest Festival on Friday, October 10. The Home & School Club has posted a list of their Silent Auction items online, to whet your appetite. Booksin’s list is coming soon.

If you wanted to walk to all four of the fund raising events, by the way, you’ll need good shoes … and a little help from Google’s Walking Directions (currently in beta).

The trip would be a modest 7.7 miles (10.1 if you want to make it a full loop), both of which are far shorter than the average participant will walk in any one of those Walkathons!

Good luck, everyone!

Booksin’s 21st Annual Walkathon

WillowGlenExtra is pleased to bring another great “weblog” to the Willow Glen community … once again hosting and sponsoring the official website for Booksin School’s 21st Annual Walkathon.

Scheduled for Saturday, October 11, this year’s Walkathon promises to be more exciting than ever … with the standard array of fundraising activities, a Silent Auction, food booths, great music, and lots of fun!

Well, if you still haven’t found a reason to visit Elva’s Coffee Stop (website by WGx), maybe this is your big chance. WG’s best Community-Involved Business is at it again this week, collecting coffee donations for troops stationed overseas.

Elva’s Operation Coffee & Cookies drive ends Sunday! Don’t miss out!

Elva and her crew have begun grinding coffee for the bags, with the lion share of the project set to wrap-up this weekend. The response has been so great, that Elva is worried her coffee grinders will conk out … thus the early start!

It may be a shocking headline … but the enemy is us.

Following the tragic death of a middle school bike-rider last June – run over by a parent picking up her own child from the same school – this year’s school opening week comes with an urgent safety message: Slow down!

The full court press comes from many sources, including the SJ Mercury News, bicycle safety training from SJPD, this week’s WG Resident, and SJUSD Superintendent Don Iglesias. Iglesias used a prerecorded voicemail message to remind parents to slow down and be safe:

I want to ask you to make safety a high priority for your child and all the other children who attend your neighborhood school. School zones are busy and hectic particularly at beginning and end of the school day. Please model safe behavior, so that all of our kids can have a safe journey to and from school
… There’s nothing more precious than the life of our children.

If you were looking for another reason to visit the Safety Fair this weekend at River Glen Park, here’s a simple way you can help: Stop by the special booth hosted by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry:

On any given day, more than 6000 men, women and children are searching the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry for a life-saving donor like you. This year one of those 6000 in search of a match is also one of our neighbors in Willow Glen. In fact, he’s a five-year-old kid who played Willow Glen PAL Soccer last year. …

Unfortunately, a Marrow Transplant is not an option for our soccer player, because there aren’t enough donors that match his blood and ethnic makeup. But maybe we can all join the fight, and find a transplant match.

During our Kids Safety Fair on Saturday, August 16, you will have your chance to help us expand his options by being checked for a match.… The National Marrow Donor Program will be taking samples from 9-2 at River Glen Park.

It’s the second time in as many years that PAL Soccer players have felt the impact of tragic bad luck, but it’s a microcosmic part of our community that has shown an ability to pull together to support one of its own.

Now you can help, too!

The last energetic installment of Music in the Glen plays out this Thursday, August 14, at Willow Glen Elementary. Don’t miss it!

In today’s post, WGx proudly presents pictures from this past week’s performance, featuring local band Sage, including a shot of the wondering horn section. Additional pictures of crazy dancing and other playground frivolity are available in the right-hand column further down the page.

Special Donation Request: As part of the season finale, organizers are asking for donations of new socks to be brought to the final concert. The Kiwanis Club of WG will donate collected socks to homeless shelters and others in need of warm clothes this winter.

The “eWaste drop-off fundraiser” activity may be totally played out … now that Goodwill of Silicon Valley has gotten involved. Instead of searching for a local drop-off near you, you only have to go to your nearest Goodwill Donation Center, where they now accept all forms of electronic waste. (more…)

Whether or not you consider the corner of Hamilton & Leigh to still be in Willow Glen, there will be a Blood Drive there on Saturday, June 19, hosted by the First Congregational Church.

The Stanford Blood Center will be collecting blood from 9:00 until 2:00 at the church, 1980 Hamilton Avenue. Make an appointment if you can.

Last minute donations are certainly welcome … as are kind wishes of support. The locally-grown “Team Willow Glen” joins the regional Avon Walk this weekend, starting the morning of July 12. WGx — although technically on vacation — wishes them well!

With the new library slated to celebrate its Grand Opening on Saturday, August 23, the San Jose Public Library Foundation is heading down the home stretch for donor solicitation to herald the event.

Many WG residents received letters last week detailing the features of the new library and inviting community members to be a lasting part of the library’s future:

Your Willow Glen neighbors are pitching in to help us make your new branch library a reflection of neighborhood identity, and one of the finest facilities of its kind in the nation.

Our story is not complete without you. Your generous donation will help us provide multimedia resources, books, technology and furnishings. Donors will be recognized in the library; for a gift of

• $100+ you will be honored on the Community Donor Wall
• $1,000+ you will be honored on the Legacy Donor Wall
• $5,000+ you will be honored on the Laureate Donor Wall

Please make your donation today. …