Milestones
By Miles H. Barber

Extraordinary results are usually performed by ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

This is the story of Mission City Community Fund where a group of less than 20 community members with the help of a dozen or so volunteers have raised over two million dollars for non-profits in the past 25 years.

Directed this year by Chair Jerry Marsalli, MCCF will be celebrating its 25th year of raising funds and directing those funds into community projects in Santa Clara and our County.

The major source of funding comes through their annual dinner, dance and auction which will be held this Saturday night at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Again, board volunteers like City Councilman Pat Kolstad and George Nobile, owner of Vito’s Italian Restaurant, offer their time to head up this event. They are challenged with dozens of details to assure a great time is assured by attendees.

Many local companies also contribute to the support of this event such as the San Francisco 49ers who are offering a live auction item of a trip for two on the team plane to your choice of any of the three away games remaining in the season. This package includes hotel, meals, great tickets to the game and a pass to visit the teams down on the field.

Robin Burdick, a City employee and MCCF board member teams up with Steve Silva, local Fire Captain to obtain gifts and donations for the silent auction and Christmas trees opportunity drawing.

This year under the Christmas trees you will find wine, computers, phones, flat screen TV’s and gift cards to dozens of local restaurants. A small donation for a ticket can be rewarded with thousands of dollars in amazing prizes.

Another great offering is an “instant wine cellar”, where the winner of this elaborate collection of sixty fine wines will be rewarded with new inventory just in time for the Holiday Season.

And the dinner itself is a major accomplishment as this year the Convention Center Caterer, Aramark, has promised a fabulous fare of tossed greens, wild salmon and prime filet and most important, the famous chocolate decadence soufflé for dessert.

One of the main attractions of the evening is the announcement of who will win the 2012 Infiniti G37 sedan. Again, volunteer board members have been responsible for offering tickets for this $38,500 automobile, sponsored by Stevens Creek and Peninsula Infiniti stores. Only 500 tickets are available and three of the last four years, local members of the community have been winners.

Consider for a moment that hundreds of members of our community will gather for this special MCCF event that has been in the planning for nearly a year. Imagine the work that is invested by regular people doing irregular things, all as volunteers to make a difference in the lives of so many.

Tickets to the event and the opportunity drawings may be purchased at www.Missioncityfund.org., (and you need not be present to win the car). Or you may call ticket chair Yvette Sessions at 408-727-5365.

Miles Barber can be reached at Scweekly2011@yahoo.com