Debbie Hilleary of Palo Alto gave $100 to the Holiday Fund this week in memory of her father, whose birthday would have been today.
Her father was John "Jack" Sutorius, a former Palo Alto mayor and City Councilman who died Feb. 21. He would have been 66 today.
Many other gifts have come in this year to remind us of great Peninsula residents, among them the late Assemblyman and local attorney Frank Crist Sr. and his wife Jean, and longtime City Councilman and Stanford registrar and professor J. Pearce Mitchell.
Worth noting is a donation made in the name of another Palo Altan who died this year--Silicon Valley pioneer David Packard. The donation was for $25,000 and came from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
The gift came in the form of a matching grant, meaning the Packard Foundation will match dollar-for-dollar other individual donations up to $25,000.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is also offering a $30,000 gift, the largest matching grant yet offered through the Holiday Fund.
In addition, three other donors, who prefer to remain anonymous, have each provided matching grants of $10,000 for this year's Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund. The Palo Alto Weekly has thrown in another $10,000 matching grant from proceeds from this year's Moonlight Run.
When all of this is added up, it means that $95,000 is available in matching grants this year during the Holiday Fund campaign. That is a challenge to the entire Midpeninsula community made in the names of some people whose contributions to this area were countless.
All of the money will be given away in grants to local nonprofit organizations that support families and children. Last year, $125,000 was distributed in grants to 41 local groups serving families and children. This year, thanks to the matching grants, we have a potential to distribute $190,000.
"It's a formidable challenge, but we are confident that the community will respond," said Weekly Publisher Bill Johnson. "Meeting this match would be a great tribute to Packard and the many people who helped create this area."
So far, 298 donors have given $26,386. With the matching grants for individual donations, the total raised so far is $51,872.
All contributions are tax-deductible and are placed in a trust account with the Community Foundation of Santa Clara County. All donors of $25 or more will have their names--or the names of the people they would like to honor--listed in each issue of the Weekly between now and the end of the campaign in mid-January. The donor coupon can be found in today's edition on page 14.
We encourage residents to participate in this year's fund-raising campaign, either in their name or in honor of others. All donations will have double the impact. And families and children will receive twice the benefit.
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