The folks at the Booksin Walkathon have put together one of the most impressive silent auction collections ever, and you won’t want to miss it this Saturday afternoon.

They’ve got some awesome stuff, including hotel stays, cool electronics, sports collectibles, tickets, certificates, dinner parties, and two once-in-a-lifetime airborne opportunities:

One Hour Ride in Vintage WWII plane: Here is your chance to indulge your Walter Mitty fighter pilot fantasies. Up for auction is a 45-minute flight in one of the few remaining BT-13s left in the world. (Approximately 35 airworthy BT-13s remain of the 11,537 that were made at the time of the war.) You will be flying with a highly experienced airline pilot and flight instructor who has approximately 25,000 hours of flight time.

Helicopter Flight Over San Jose with SJPD: Bid to fly over San Jose in a once-in-a-lifetime helicopter ride in the Police Department’s patrol helicopter!

You can bid even if you aren’t normally part of the Booksin community. Just stop by this Saturday!

This WWII plane is the real deal! (more…)

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!

One of the finest social events of the Fall Season is the annual Willow Glen Foundation Wine Tasting Fundraiser, the primary fund raising event for the WG Middle School & High School Foundation (Website by WGx).

This year’s version will be hosted on Sunday, November 2, benefiting the Foundation and the event’s host, the new Willow Glen Library.

Each year, local wine makers and merchants donate their products and services to raise funds to improve Willow Glen Middle and High School. This year, our goal is to raise $30,000 to be used directly to improve student literacy, including:

• Refresh and update books in both school libraries;
• Expand the individualized reading program in the middle school;
• Put more books in language arts and literature classrooms; and
• Fund 8th Grade literature circles.

The check you write today will help make these things a reality!

And new this year, you can buy your tickets — or make any donation — online from the Foundation’s website.

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!

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!

Willow Glen PAL Soccer — in conjunction with host Holly Barr — invites the WG community to attend a special “Willow Glen Safety Day” for the community. (more…)

September 7, 2008

Mark your calendars for a fun day to renew old friendships, dance to some great music, and support local schools.

The Willow Glen Foundation is reaching out to Alumni on September 7, from 1:00 to 5:00, on the WGHS campus.

Alums from every WGHS class are invited to bring their children – and grandchildren – and have fun getting caught up with their Ram buddies.

“Honorary” Alums are welcome, too! The “Garage Band” will play music that everyone can dance to, and there will be games and raffles, and tours of the campus, a BBQ meal for purchase, and a “Ram Shop” with themed items to buy.

Local Realtor Holly Barr – hey! I’ve heard of her – and Willow Glen PAL Soccer are teaming up to host a special community Safety Fair on Saturday, August 16, at River Glen Park.

Along with the soccer league’s festive “Pre-Season Games,” the entire community is invited to meet representatives of the SJ Fire Depart and the SJPD Mounted Police Unit – yes, the horses!

Apparently, Lighting at Willow Glen needs more internet traffic. Who doesn’t?

Since, he changed his website from the early-adopted “WillowGlen.com,” owner Dan Cullen has seen his hit counts – and actual online purchases – decrease. So he’s been running a contest to see who can send him the most internet link referrals.

The contest has been running since May 24, and now gets the big media print treatment. In Friday’s Willow Glen Resident, Cullen promotes his invitation for websites to enter the referral-based contest. The prize: win some lighting products.

After once receiving millions of visitors at WillowGlen.com., the hits on Cullen’s new website www.LightingAtWillowGlen.com are now drastically down, and so are his sales.

“It literally dropped overnight,” he said.

Since the San Jose businessman likes a challenge, Cullen has created a web-based contest. Anyone with a website can add a link to www.LightingAtWillowGlen.com. The person who creates the link and draws the most traffic to the website for a period of three months will win up to $1,000 in lighting products, and the contest will then start over.

As an aside, WGx assumes the profit from selling “WG.com” to the Virtual Valley group is funding the contest — and then some. A further irony is not lost on WGx: Earlier this week, an article published here highlighted the apparent cessation of the Willow Glen resident’s own website.

It’s also not clear if the Resident/Merc offices are looking for some free lighting swag … but the link to Lighting @ WG appears three times in the online story. One has to wonder if the staff of the Willow Glen Resident get to win the contest if the Mercury is the actual web host.

And now WGx has entered the fray … It’s David vs. Goliath … literally?