Cupertino DailyCupertino Is A Giving Town
CREST Award winners
By Ruby Elbogen
I attended the CREST Awards ceremony recently because I had a vested interest. I was thrilled to see my Son-In-Law, Stuart Chessen, my good friends, Gail & Howard Jensen and Quota “sister” Kay Roberts receive awards for volunteering their time, energy and effort, selflessly helping others. As I listend to the stories of what all these extraordinary people had done and are still doing, I was astounded. What was even more surprising was how modest all the recipients were about what they had accomplished on behalf of the other 51,990 residents of the place where we live.
It does give one pause to think that if everyone gave a little the few people who give so much would be able to concentrate on things they might like to do if they had time. There wasn’t one recipient who gave just one day a week so that others would benefit. However, if everyone gave just one or two hours a month for the myriad of causes benefiting from the volunteer work of the CREST Award winners, each of them could do a little less.
There is no shortage of places to help. Every Service Club holds fund raisers and would welcome extra hands: Lions, Rotary, Quota and W.C.S., Special Needs Families, Cupertino Library the Senior Center and many others. Every Nursing Home welcomes visitors and volunteers to read to residents, Cupertino’s Emergency Services, Disaster Preparedness. There’s no shortage of places to help. Occasionally, I hear someone who doesn’t agree politically with a person who graciously volunteers to help in many areas and I wonder how and why that enters into the picture of who someone really is. It’s better to delve a bit deeper and define someone by the good deeds he or she has done, than painting with a wide brush attempting to cover all the positive with just a modicum of ”bad”. What I’ve also noticed is those who do the least to help others, shout the loudest about perceived evil deeds. One common thread ran through all the people receiving CREST Awards, they all had an “ah, shucks” attitude, they were all surprised they were chosen–but we weren’t, and they are all in very good company. And, in cheering them on–so were
we.
Tags: CREST Award winners, Cupertino, giving town
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