Piglets Save Girls From Slavery

Find out how by reading Meredith May’s “Woman’s Idea Saves Thousands of Nepalese Girls” at www.sfgate.com.

Learn what you can do for the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation at www.nyof.org.

Princeton’s $100 Million Climate Change

International biz whiz Gerhard R. Andlinger has given Princeton University $100 million to pump up its research on “clean-tech” solutions to the world’s soaring demand for energy.

Princeton’s new Gerhard R. Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment will feature a cutting- edge laboratory, new faculty positions, and endowed funds for research, outreach and visitors.

“The work of the center will help create a better world for our children and grandchildren, which I see as a personal as well as institutional responsibility.”

 —Gerhard R. (Gerry) Andlinger, Princeton alum & Austrian native who first came to the U.S. after winning a New York Herald Tribune essay contest in 1948.

Herb Alpert Sweet on SoCal

Herb Alpert just gave $15 million to what will now be known as the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts.

In November, the eight-time Grammy winner–whose Whipped Cream (and Other Delights) sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S.–pledged $30 million to UCLA to form the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

3rd Year Free at Harvard Law

Harvard Law students who pledge to work five years for nonprofits or the government will have their third-year tuition waived by Harvard Law.

Read Jonathan D. Glater’s “Harvard Law, Hoping Students Will Consider Public Service, Offers Tution Break” in the NY Times.

Love for Limerick

“F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. I think I’ve proven him wrong. And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools.”

—Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis and donor of The Leonard Collection to the University of Limerick Library

McCourt also supports “the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Ireland who kept my family alive in Limerick. I’ve been a supporter for 20 years. I used to send them $50 when I was a teacher.”

5th Avenue’s Free University

“It’s a free university for everyone, from children to scholars. I’ve always loved this Library, particularly for the way in which it serves all people and entirely without cost to them.”

—Stephen A. Schwarzman, on the New York Public Library, to which he just donated an unrestricted $100 million.  

Crayon Box Preschool

“For many years, owning a business of my own did not seem possible to me.” 

—Adriana Razo, who started her South San Francisco bilingual preschool program with the help of ALAS, a Women’s Initiative training program for Latina entrepreneurs.

Find out how to get involved at www.womensinitiative.org.

Pied Pipers of Preparedness

If Franklin D. Roosevelt were alive and living in the San Francisco Bay Area today, he might say we have nothing to fear but lack of preparation.

Luckily, the Red Cross has an antidote to that fear in the form of its Prepare Bay Area initiative designed to get you—or someone who lives with you—ready for the next big disaster.

“Our goal is to train one person in every household,” says Emily White, Emergency Preparedness Education Manager for the American Red Cross Bay Area(ARCBA). “We have lots of great opportunities for volunteers who want to be trained as Red Cross ambassadors.”

Community preparedness specialist Emerson Chen serves the Red Cross through Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the national service program designed to fight poverty in America. 

“I heard about the Peace Corps in college and the cool projects people were doing all over the world, but I thought it would be hard to be away from home for two years,” says Chen. “Then I realized that many problems in each corner of the world also exist in the immigrant and impoverished communities in the U.S.”

Chen focuses on seniors and people with disabilities who “often lack the financial and mobile means to obtain all the disaster supplies recommended to the general population” and “have additional needs such as medication, hearing aids and collapsible canes.”

A med school applicant whose personal disaster kit includes Pop Tarts, chicken noodle soup, hand sanitizer and Mandarin Chinese novels, Chen plans to “work with underserved populations in health care—Latinos, Asians, low-income or people with disabilities. I hope to continue to be a Red Cross volunteer and serve in disaster relief as a medical professional.”

Vallejo Police Chaplain Carolyn Millard works with the Red Cross Ready program and Interchurch Disaster Relief Network to map out the best locations for spontaneous shelters, food and clothing distribution centers.

Millard, who also ministers in various correctional facilities, relishes “seeing the fear of disaster dissipate as we prepare our neighborhoods to be ready themselves and to respond to others in the event of a crisis.”

President of the Youth for Chinese Elderly (YCE) Club at Galileo Academy of Science & Technology, Jessica Sen joined the Red Cross when she moved here from China as an 11th grader.

“Disaster is unpredictable, especially earthquakes,” says Sen. “I like helping others get ready, particularly the vulnerable and monolingual elderly group. I’m glad that I can use my skills [in first aid, disaster preparedness, Cantonese and Mandarin] to serve the Asian community.”

Hoping to be the first in her family to attend college, Sen believes that volunteering makes teens more responsible, thoughtful and prepared for the future. “Teenagers are in a transition between childhood and adulthood. We need to find ourselves on the right path,” says Sen, who lives with her grandmother and works a part-time job.

“Spending time on meaningful volunteer activities is better than computer games.,” says Sen. “Fun volunteer events can fill the emptiness of teens and give them self-satisfaction and confidence. Volunteering presents a vision of our community–it helps us to be involved and to develop our citizenship.”

Insurance agent Maria Rivas, who is bilingual in English and Spanish, shares Sen’s sense of civic responsibility. As an AmericaCorps volunteer for the Red Cross, Rivas has driven countless miles to schools and churches to teach first aid, CPR and emergency preparedness.

“People should commit to volunteer and help take the message of emergency preparedness to their families, neighbors and co-workers,” says Rivas. “There are still a lot of people out there that need to hear that they need to start preparing today. It’s sad to say, but many of them do not have the slightest idea where to begin.”

Business continuity expert Patty Peper teaches companies to begin with their employees. “Well-prepared employees are much more likely to be available to fulfill their workplace roles in disaster response and recovery than ill-prepared ones,” says Peper, whose Red Cross employee preparedness classes are offered at no cost to Bay Area businesses. “Promoting employees’ personal preparedness strengthens overall community preparedness, which in turn lessens a disaster’s impact on business recovery.” 

“It’s one thing to increase awareness of the risks all of us living in the Bay Area face from disasters—earthquakes, wildfires, floods or even tsunami,” says Peper. “But the real satisfaction lies in empowering people with the realization that they can take concrete steps to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities and to speed recovery from even the most devastating disaster.”

–Laura Svienty

20 Questions for Isabel Allende

1. What is an irresistible human trait?
Kindess.

2. What is the highest form of giving?
To give time and love.

3. What is your most positive flaw?
Generosity.

4. What skill do you wish you possessed?
I wish I could sing beautifully.

5. Which is more important: security or passion?
Passion. I am not interested in security, it’s boring and it’s also an illusion because life is risky and no one can be totally safe all the time.

6. What is your driving force?
Feminism. The desire to be independent, free, and fend for myself and my children.

7. Who are your favorite writers?
Too many to name them.

8. Who are your heroes?
Women who care for others, support their families, struggle with poverty, abuse and repression, and also manage to love and sing in spite of all odds.

9. What does the Isabel Allende Foundation do?
My Foundation tries to empower women and girls in the areas of education, health and protection. We believe that if we empower a woman, we save a family, and if we help families, the community at large benefits. By empowering women we can change the world. An empowered woman will educate her children and raise strong daughters.

10. Name three things that empower women.
Women need educational skills to support themselves. Health is essential, and that includes prevention and contraception. Women should be organized, keep in touch with each other and be informed, because isolation makes them vulnerable. Together they are strong.

11. Name three Bay Area nonprofits that need support.
Homeless Prenatal.
Mujeres Unidas y Activas.
Women’s Recovery Services.

12. What is the sweetest smell?
The smell of a baby.

13. What is the loveliest sound?
The laughter of children.

14. What do you do to relax?
Write.

15. What is your daily creed?
Do no harm and do good whenever possible.

16. Which novel is in your carry-on bag?
I travel all the time and in my carry-on there are always six or seven books. I don’t have just one book with me. I seldom read a book twice because there are too many good writers out there and not enough time in my life to read them all.

17. Where (and/or with whom) do you feel truly at home?
I feel at home where Willie, my husband, is. It can be in a plane, on a safari in Africa or underwater. He is my home.

18. What motivates people to give?
In most cases, the motivation to give is simple generosity and compassion, but I have heard that some people give to show off their wealth. It used to be diamonds, now it’s philanthropy. Excellent! The motivation doesn’t really matter, as long as they give.

19. What is a food you couldn’t live without?
Water.

20. What is the soundtrack of your life?
Silence. The sounds of Nature are enough for me.

$9 Million Raised for Agassi Prep

…at this year’s Grand Slam for Children in Las Vegas. The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy (AACPA) is a model charter school that offers academic programs designed to enhance at-risk children’s character, respect, motivation and self-discipline. Students are admitted via lottery.

Find out who was there in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.