Toys for Those in Need

Our Palo Alto team donated a cart load of toys to the Ecumenical Hunger Program (EHP) in East Palo Alto yesterday!












About EHP: "Ecumenical Hunger Program provides food, clothing, household essentials, furniture, support programs and referral services to those in need. We strive to do so with compassion, respect, integrity, sustainability, empowerment, and teamwork."

Visit EHP Cares for more information, to donate or to volunteer.

Spare The Air Alert

A Winter Spare the Air Alert has been issued for Saturday, January 18, 2014 in the Bay Area.

Wood burning is banned both indoors and outdoors on Saturday, for the full 24 hours.

Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy. It is illegal for Bay Area residents to burn wood or other solid fuels in fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts, pellet stoves, outdoor fire-pits, or other wood-burning devices.  This wood-burning ban will be in effect for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano Counties. (Visitwww.sparetheair.org/Stay-Informed/Todays-Air-Quality/Reporting-Zones.aspx to see if your city is located within the Air District.)

Winter air pollution is mainly caused by particulates or soot pollution from wood smoke. Smoke from wood-burning fires is linked to illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis and lung disease, and is especially harmful for children and the elderly.

For more information about the Wood Burning Rule, or to check before you burn, visit www.sparetheair.org or call 1-877-4NO-BURN.

You can also call 1-800-430-1515 and register to receive automatic phone calls when a Winter Spare the Air Alert has been called.

To see the current air quality forecast visit www.sparetheair.org.

Repair Cafe, Palo Alto, Take Five

We (along with the Museum of American Heritage) sponsor this super cool event that happens once a quarter in Palo Alto, called Repair Cafe, where thirty-plus volunteers spend their Sunday helping fix things - most any manner of things, for anyone who shows up with something broken. We see a lot of small electrical appliances: microwaves, fans, lamps. We see lawnmowers and chain saws, bicycles and family heirloom pieces. We have jewelry repair, electrical and woodworking volunteers. It's a really fun time, especially if you're a tinkerer or the owner of something broken. Come on by and see for yourself!

ACE Supports Community Project

I showed up in the afternoon on Saturday and this incredible group of Girl Scouts, with some help from their family and friends, had made so much progress already. They are pictured here working on their Silver Award, which entails 50 hours of community service on a single project, as well as an incredible amount of planning and documenting the project, both before and after. These girls absolutely deserve an award for one of these projects.



The work took place outside as well, in an area the shelter had just included in their land and that was in much need of love and attention.


This area is the Silver Award project from 2012 and is still looking great! The paint we donated is holding up and looking fresh and new. Hassett ACE Hardware (and me, personally) feel so good about donating supplies to these young women. Seeing a space that needed attention cared for, and making a transitional living experience just a little brighter, is such a beautiful thing to participate in.

And below is the finished product. The place looked like professionals had been there all weekend. One of the little boys who lives at the shelter even came out towards the end of the day and planted some seeds in his new garden. How wonderful.

- Jocelyn Lovelle

Cruise for a Cause Gives Back in Willow Glen

Cause and Effect

On September 8, 2013, the Sixth Annual Cruise for a Cause took place near the La Villa Deli in downtown Willow Glen.  The cause was to raise money and collect non-perishable foods for the Second Harvest Food Bank.  The effect was actually collecting the food and monetary donations so that less fortunate folks could have something to eat, and, as a result, allow participants to bask in the simple pleasure of giving back.   Simple?  It should be.  Unfortunately, in today's world there seems to be less and less interest in helping your fellow (hu)man, then in days gone by.  But there are always opportunities for individuals and groups to change that, and theRompacoglioni Car Club Crew, and their Cruise for a Cause, stand as an example of just such an opportunity. 

As a member of the Hassett ACE Hardware F.A.C.E. (Facilitating Awesome Community Engagement) team, I had the pleasure of participating in being part of the effect for the cause.  Jeff Cimoli, chief organizer for the event, approached our store for support.  As a family-owned operation for over fifty years, Hassett Hardware was definitely in tune with community outreach.  So we offered a store gift card for their raffle and individual discount coupons for the participants and spectators.  Due to a scheduling conflict, the coupons meant to go in the participants gift bags needed to be personally distributed...by me.  And that was quite an experience.   Nearly all the recipients of the hand delivered coupons expressed their enthusiasm and appreciation that a local business would "go the extra mile" in working to make the event a success.  Their complimentary expression was returned by my thanking them for THEIR participation, for without them, there would be no event.  And so it is, cause and effect.  So the challenge is...what cause is out there waiting for YOUR participation?  Pick one and see what wonderful effects can transpire.  You will only be pleasantly surprised.

-Paul Vezinaw

Organic Willow Glen Oasis Garden Update!

• We promised we would give you some fun garden updates. So here we go! The Garden is shaping up to be a welcoming backyard park, complete with patio swing!

Fourth Repair Cafe in Palo Alto a Success

Sunday, July 21, was the fourth Repair Cafe in Palo Alto and again, we had a great time.

Here is what the founder, Peter Skinner, reported on the event:

Thanks to all of you who participated in yesterday's Repair Cafe.  We had the usual eclectic collection of stuff come across the transom, including bikes, clothing, cameras, cell phones and computers, lawnmowers, luggage, lamps, toasters, cd players and microwaves.  We saw 3 broken sewing machines and a vintage film projector.  We even had a brush with a Silicon Valley legend [Dan Kottke...known as 'Apple employee number one']  – see my blog post here.



All told, 73 people brought in 114 items. We were able to fix 76 of them (67%)  and partially fix another 14 (12%).  The remaining items were deemed worthy of the recycling bin (provided by Greenwaste of Palo Alto) or carted away by their owners.  Not a bad fix rate!  There were many very happy people when they left.  Here's feedback from two satisfied visitors to the Repair Café:

Just wanted to weigh in to tell you how pleased we were to bring our “old”super 8 movie projector 

for repair and have so many volunteers show an interest in making this family relic work correctly. 

No less than six and more like seven or seven gentlemen had a look and tired MANY ideas to make 

the projector work as of old. At the end of the afternoon with Jim and Casey’s expertise, they 

got the it to almost work correctly. Movies can be seen and with a bit of “hands on” the movies 

can be seen without the flicker that plagued it before. It was a 

solution is to have at least some of the most precious family memories done by a professional unanimous  that the BEST 

and use the projector for family night entertainment. THANK YOU ONE AND ALL FOR YOUR HELP

 

Nick and Barbara Mardesich

Cupertino, CA

Cub Scouts Make Pinewood Derby Cars at ACE

We had the fun privilege of hosting Cub Scout pack 236 and helping them cut out their Pinewood Derby cars! We also got to go watch them race those cars last weekend at their Pinewood Derby in Half Moon Bay.

We are hosting more car-cutting events. The next one is schedule for February 10, 2013.

At our Palo Alto store: 10am - 12pm at 875 Alma St.

At our San Mateo store: 10am - 12pm at 545 First Ave.

At our Half Moon Bay store: from 12pm - 4pm at 111 Main St.

We've got all the tools, supplies and accessories the Scouts need - even the cars!

Here are some photos from the last Pinewood car-cutting event and from the Derby itself!