When you get to be a certain age, every birthday is cause for a celebration, right? Well, the same holds true for organizations like the San Jose Woman’s Club, which will hold a free community celebration Thursday for its 130th anniversary at its historic downtown clubhouse.
As the tale goes, the club was born in December 1894 when nine women — described as “public spirited” in a 1929 newspaper article — gathered at the downtown studio of Fannie Estabrook. San Jose historian April Halberstadt, who has been a member of the club since 1995, says women’s clubs proliferated in the era, when two of the big topics of discussion were women’s suffrage and Prohibition. And there were definitely points of disagreement.
“There was a misconception that all women wanted the vote and would hold hands and sing songs. Those women were considered too radical at the time,” said Halberstadt, who served as the club’s president in 2009-11. “How do you get people with divergent ideas together? Where is neutral territory?”
The San Jose Woman’s Club provided that venue and quickly grew in size and mission. The club and its members helped found the San Jose Day Nursery and were early supporters of the Sempervirens Club to save the redwoods in Big Basin. Over the years, the club championed education and advancing women’s rights. In 1939-40, the club sponsored the San Jose Junior Woman’s Club for women under 40, and one of its first members was Betty Ann Chandler. At 107, she’s the club’s oldest and longest-serving member and still makes occasional appearances at events.
Thursday’s celebration — with the theme, “Beginnings, Building & Belonging” — runs from 4 to 6 p.m. and activities will include an exhibit on the club’s history (including a celebrated 1939 visit by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt), another showcasing its community partners including Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence and the Sempervirens Fund, live piano music and light refreshments.
There’ll also be tours of the historic Spanish Revival clubhouse at 75 S. 11th St., which was built by architects Wolfe & Higgins in 1929, and a book drive in partnership with Hicklebee’s for nearby Horace Mann Elementary School. The event runs from 4 to 6 p.m., and you can RSVP at sjwc130.eventbrite.com.
The club today has 167 members — including some men — and that number has been trending upward since the COVID-19 pandemic, as the club continues to host events for its members and rent out its Landmark Ballroom to other organizations. In April, it started a monthly Salon Talk series, featuring interviews with local women who work in creative fields. Poet and artist Dorothy Atkins will be the guest at the May 18 salon at 2 p.m., and landscape designer Candice Stein will be featured June 22.
Lynda Sereno, a club member since 2008, said that while women’s concerns have evolved since 1894, the need for women to gather in solidarity and learn from each other is just as relevant as ever.
“Our work’s not done,” Sereno said. “Women’s work is not done, especially today.”
SUNNYVALE CARES: Marie Bernard, the executive director of Sunnyvale Community Services, shared some sobering statistics at its “Our Kids, Our Community,” fundraiser on Thursday night. In one of the wealthiest areas of the country, it helped 11,300 low-income residents last year — including 3,700 kids under 18; 20 percent more people came for weekly food than last year; and because of limited food donations from Second Harvest Silicon Valley, the nonprofit had to purchase 50 percent of the proteins –eggs, milk and meat — that it distributes.
“I wish we could say that things have gotten better,” she said.
Fortunately, she was talking to the right crowd. The 170-plus people who gathered inside Sunnyvale Community Services’ warehouse/headquarters on Kern Avenue helped surpass its fundraising goal by donating more than $362,000. At the event, Sunnyvale Community Services presented awards to longtime supporters Shane Jacksteit, Mary J. Bradley and El Camino Hospital, which had CEO Dan Woods in attendance.
ART THAT MATTERS: Three Gilroy high school students won $3,000 in prizes from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office’s “Justice for All” poster contest, which this year challenged Santa Clara County Students to raise awareness about online crimes such as catfishing and cyberbullying.
Christopher High senior Austin Abero received $1,500 for first place; Nataley Ramos, also a senior at Christopher, took second and got $1,000; and third place went to Maya Sanchez, a junior at Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy who received $500. The winners received their checks Thursday afternoon from Assistant District Attorney Terry Harman at the Neon Exchange in Gilroy, which houses the office’s Mariposas Resiliency Center for victims of violent crime and also displayed all 36 student posters submitted for the contest.
The prize money, by the way, comes from assets seized from drug dealers and other criminals.
WALK IN THE PARK: For those 50 or older, San Jose’s Happy Hollow Park & Zoo launches another season of Senior Safari events on May 22. The monthly series runs through October — always on the fourth Thursday of the month — and gives those young-at-heart visitors entrance to the park at 9 a.m., an hour before it opens to the public. There are usually senior-related booths and activities to check out along with the various animals. Both admission and parking are free for Senior Safari attendees, though if you didn’t pre-register you may want to arrive early. Get more details at www.happyhollow.org/seniorsafari.
CHEERS: The San Jose Wind Symphony will show its appreciation for Edward C. Harris, who served as its music and artistic director for 20 years, with its May 18 program “For Ed” at the McAfee Performing Arts Center in Saratoga. When he wasn’t wielding a conductor’s baton, Harris’ instrument of choice was the clarinet, so the Wind Symphony — now under the direction of David Vickerman — will have clarinetist Steve Sánchez performing Oscar Navarro’s beautiful “II Concerto,” which shows off the wind instrument’s technical capabilities.
The 3 p.m. concert also features some other favorite pieces of Harris’, and it’s my understanding that he’ll take up the baton once more before the end of the show. Go to www.sjws.org for tickets.