At the Annual Holiday Luncheon in December to benefit the families served by the Santa Clara County Public Health Nurses, members and guests brought more  than 100 colorfully wrapped gifts to help provide a happy holiday for local  children. 
 
The goal of this annual gathering for Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga’s members and guests is to bring holiday gifts for children of families served by the Santa Clara County Public Health Nurses in the Nurse Family Partnership.  Assistance League supports these families throughout the year with essential baby needs, gifts and love!  At holiday time, members shop for an individual child and gather for lunch to hand off the gifts collected to the Public Health Nurses who support and encourage new mothers through a 2-year program for healthy babies and families.  Last year, 28 young families successfully completed this program.  Our commitment is to help these families and their new babies get a good start in life.  

Words, words and more words!  Only a few months after the school started, our chapter provided new dictionaries in English and Spanish to students in the Campbell Union School District. 
 
In late November, Assistance League of Los Gatos- Saratoga held another very successful Dictionary Day for the Campbell Union School District. Thirty-five Assistance League members and 11 community volunteers visited 37 classrooms in nine schools. These members and community volunteers provided a short presentation to the students on the best way to use their new dictionary.   Overall, 838 English dictionaries and 285 Spanish dictionaries were distributed to these local students.  This is just one facet of the Literacy Program that Assistance League holds dear and are happy to be able to sponsor each year.

​Our chapter is pleased to cosponsor the Campbell Union School District’s Young Authors Awards program with our partner Barnes & Noble.  One author from each of the schools in the district presented and autographed their book and received accolades for their continuing interest in literacy and writing.
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In addition to the Rising Young Authors Award, Assistance League’s Literacy Program provides volunteer readers to thousands of eager students each year in schools where many students have no books at home.  This year 38 volunteers will be in a record 44 classrooms sharing quality literature with Kindergarten through third graders monthly. Volunteer tutors also assist with young readers struggling to master skills.

Children growing up in book-deprived homes miss out on wonderful imaginary worlds where cats wear hats, llamas wear red pajamas and a curious little monkey has one adventure after another.  Youth books instill a lifelong love of reading that translates into early academic success and greater chance for success in life.
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To help meet that challenge, once again our members focus their energies on schools in the area that need the most support with childhood literacy to enhance school and life success.

In the last 15 years since its inception, our Literacy Program has provided over $115,000 worth of books to students and teachers locally. Thousands of books were read and distributed to eager students each year.  This year 39 volunteers will be in a record 37 classrooms sharing quality literature with kindergarten through third graders monthly. 

Literacy Plus also kicks off the year with tutors working with kindergarten and first graders most in need of additional help with reading.
In October, ALLGS will present $20 Barnes and Noble Gift Cards to the 12 winners of the Rising Young Authors contest of the Campbell Union School District (CUSD) to help them continue their love of reading and writing.

Later this fall, volunteers will pack, distribute and explain how to use the  dictionaries or English-Spanish lexicons to over 1,000 CUSD third graders.

        
      Eighty members of the Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga, bearing beautifully wrapped packages, gathered at the annual Baby Shower Luncheon.  The baby gifts were presented to the nurses of the East Valley Public Health Clinic through a program called the Nurse Family Partnership.
 
            In late August, nine nurses attended the event to enjoy lunch and to receive 72 gifts from members valued at more than $2,600.  The gifts were later distributed by the public health nurses to their clients, first-time pregnant mothers and their babies who are low income or at risk because of their living situations.
 
            Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga is a partner with the Public Health Department/Nurse Family Partnership and the baby shower was just one way our volunteers support this endeavor.  Also, throughout the year, new baby bundles with hand-made quilts, diapers, baby wipes, books and soft toys are delivered to each new mother when her baby is born and, at the holiday season, Assistance League provides the children of each family with gifts to brighten the season.   

Lynette Key was honored by the Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga with the Ada Laughlin Award for 2016 at its Annual Meeting and Board Installation. This award is given to a member who is an “unsung heroine”, one who has worked behind the scenes and on many projects that benefit our chapter and the community at large.
 
This award honors the legacy of Ada Laughlin, the co-founder of Assistance League, who 100 years ago personified the “unsung heroine” role in developing our non-profit, all-volunteer organization which continues today to make a difference.  
 
Lynette has been co-chair of the Literacy Program for several years.  This involves purchasing books for volunteers to read in classrooms, scheduling classrooms and teachers for a wonderful experience that focuses on literacy and overseeing the   distribution of books to each student twice a year to share at home with their families.  As a member of the Literacy Plus team, she tutors students in grades K-1 in reading and language and also participates in Dictionary Day when a dictionary is given to over 1,000 third graders in the Campbell Union School District. 
 
Lynette has also been active in the Nurse Family Partnership Program which serves young, first-time mothers and their babies.  She has constructed baby quilts, collected cribs, blankets and other baby items, plus provided all the data input necessary to support this program.

Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga installed a new Board for 2016-2017 in May 2016. The newly installed President is Susan Scharlach.  The new Board includes:  : Kathy Kelley, President-Elect; Gladie Rabitz, VP, Membership; Barbara Alioto and Barbara Weber, VPs, Philanthropic Programs; Barbara Dariano and Karen Maxwell, VPs, Resource Development; Janet Jacobson, Recording Secretary; Karen Azzi, Treasurer; Kris Burke, Education; Judy Levin, Marketing Communications; Lynn Sprague, Strategic Planning and Terri Spice, Parliamentarian.

​PBS Newshour had a great story on the impact that the Nurse Family Partnership makes in the lives of mothers and their children in 43 states all over our country.  We support this program locally with our Family Program.  We invite you to watch the video of this great story​.

​Pregnant?  Teenaged?  Homeless?  Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga volunteers opened their hearts again this year to help very young new mothers who are part of the Nurse Family Partnership with East Valley Medical Clinic in San Jose.  Assistance League provided gifts for each child whose mother participates in a program of education and wellness for their babies sponsored by the Public Health Nurses.  The colorful packages made a special backdrop for the holiday event on December 9, 2015,  at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Saratoga.  Nurse managers spoke about the challenges that face the young families they see and expressed appreciation, not only for the holiday gifts, but for the support that Assistance League provides their program all year round.  A dozen nurses and staff from the clinic attended and loaded their cars with 101 gift bags, valued at more than $4,000, to distribute to their clients.  Members and guests were entertained by Magic Makers, a special-needs choral group that definitely brightened up the room.  

“We do, we do!” say the third graders in the Campbell Union School District.  “We found out how to spell words and learned their definitions.  We even found out that some words have more than one meaning—who knew?”  

On Tuesday, December 1, 2015, 44 volunteers from the Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga and the community presented each of the 872 third graders in the district with a dictionary to take home.  The volunteers also taught a fun lesson about how to use the dictionary, and talked to the students about the importance of literacy in their future lives at school and work.  These small dictionaries also contain information about states, nations, solar systems, languages, calendars and other almanac subjects. 

Assistance League coordinates with The Dictionary Project, a national organization that seeks to present every third grader in the country with a free dictionary. Dictionaries continue to be a valuable learning tool, even in this age of technology.