January 25, 2007

This ain’t your mother’s Welcome Wagon anymore!

Local Welcome Wagon Club raises funds for HOPE Services

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Perhaps you remember the Welcome Wagon lady visiting your new home with a basketful of goodies when you were a kid. The Welcome Wagon is still going strong, but it has a different focus now: fundraising for local charities.

Welcome Wagon Club’s Happy Hills Hikers meet for a two-hour hike every Tuesday at a trailhead in Almaden Valley. There are also two longer hikes each month. Here a group enjoys a hike at Santa Teresa County Park. From left: Barb Withers, Sue Swackhamer, Rita Skillman, Jane Bishop, Terry Ewing, Marilyn Sinitzin, Mary Ewing, Eric Thomson and Carol Fitting. Photo courtesy of the Arndt family

The local Welcome Wagon Club #3 is a nonprofit organization that offers much more than cakes and brownies—it also offers activities and a yearly fund-raiser. This year’s fundraiser has a Valentine’s Day theme and is a request for donations to HOPE services.

“We chose HOPE Services this year because we were looking for a charity where we could really make a difference,” said Welcome Wagon Club #3 Second Vice President Heather Schaadt, who recently moved to downtown San Jose from Almaden Valley where she had lived for 20 years. “It is a local, smaller organization that does wonderful work.”

At the beginning of each fiscal year Welcome Wagon Club #3, which includes members in San Jose, Cambrian and Almaden Valley, chooses a new charitable organization to support. Past recipients were Inn Vision, which supports homeless individuals and families in Santa Clara County, and The House on the Hill shelter for women in recovery and their children.

“This year ‘HOPE’ is our cause,” said Welcome Wagon Club #3 member and Almaden resident Renee Fisher. “I have sent flyers to everybody in sight and out of sight: New York, Montreal, Paris, and Birmingham and to everyone in the club. I would love to have a great response from everywhere. We have many events to encourage people to donate to HOPE. One of the events is a Valentine Donations drive for HOPE. Not only do we want to raise money for such a great organization but to make people aware that they exist.”

Hope Rehabilitation Services
In 1951, several dozen people responded to a newspaper item sent in by a parent of a child with a developmental disability. The group started to work, plan and lobby and on Feb. 11, 1951 HOPE Rehabilitation Services was officially recognized as a nonprofit agency serving people with developmental disabilities.

Besides sports, activities and fund-raising, Welcome Wagon #3 members enjoy close friendships. From left: Jean Arndt, Beverley Valle, Heather Schaadt, Renee Fisher and Silke Hansson. Photo by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

HOPE’s first program center opened as a pre-school for children and was administered by volunteers from the San Jose Junior Women’s Club. By 1957, HOPE’s focus changed as the needs of the community shifted and the organization stated providing services for adults with developmental disabilities.

Today, HOPE’s services include a range of employment and job training programs, developmental activities, professional counseling, infant services, senior services, supported and independent living services, and mobility training for approximately 2,500 children, adults and seniors. Many of HOPE’s clients work in the community at both large and small Silicon Valley companies, as well as government facilities throughout Santa Clara, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

HOPE’s mission is assist people with developmental disabilities to live and participate in their communities as well as achieve their maximum potential by understanding their dreams and assist them, their families and the community. HOPE serves infants, toddlers, adults, and seniors with developmental disabilities including autism, mental retardation, Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and other conditions.

“HOPE Services appreciates the efforts of the Welcome Wagon Club to raise funds for our clients with developmental disabilities,” said HOPE Services Vice President Resource Development Sue Holt. “Through such efforts, we are able to provide much-needed funds for program and services, and can, in addition, help increase public awareness about individuals with developmental disabilities and what they are capable of achieving through inclusion into the community. For this, we are grateful to the Welcome Wagon Club.”

Welcome Wagon Club’s Happy Hills Hikers meet for a two-hour hike every Tuesday at a trailhead in Almaden Valley. There are also two longer hikes each month. Here a group enjoys a hike at Almaden Quicksilver County Park. Left: Jean Arndt, Sue Swackhamer, Frances Stevens, Renee Fisher, Terry Ewing, Barb Withers, Eric Thomson, Gerry Fisher, Carol Fitting, Jim Randall, Jane Bishop, Marilyn Sinitzin, Brigitte Barnes, Barbara Lynn Smith, Jon Barnes, Sunny Lager and Veronika Phillips. Photo courtesy of the Arndt family

Welcome Wagon Club #3
The Club was first established in 1960 and is currently the only known Welcome Wagon Club still serving the San Jose area though members live throughout the South Bay area and beyond.

It is a nonprofit social and service organization comprised of members of all ages and diverse backgrounds. Membership is open to new residents as well as those who have lived in the area all their lives.

Willow Glen resident Silke Hansson moved here from Singapore six years ago and joined Welcome Wagon Club #3 for the sports activities.

“I didn’t know anyone here and was tired of just sitting around,” said Hansson who now serves the group as the sports chair. “I had gained 4 kilograms and I needed to exercise. I lost the weight by hiking, golf and tennis with the club.”

But if sports aren’t your style, Welcome Wagon Club #3 has several groups: antique, book, Saturday evening gourmet, movie night, needle and home arts, spinner, games and cards.

“We did have a garden group but it will probably start up again,” said Welcome Wagon Club #3 President Beverley Valle, a member for six years since she moved to Santa Teresa from South Africa. “If someone has an idea for a new group one is started. And everyone is invited to join, all ages and all walks of life.”

Welcome Wagon Club #3 members recently gathered at Rene Fisher’s lovely Almaden home to make final preparations for the donation drive for HOPE Services. From left: Renee Fisher, Jean Arndt, Heather Schaadt, Beverley Valle and Silke Hansson. Photo by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

Second Vice President Heather Schaadt didn’t join specifically for a game of bridge or tennis.

“I’m not really into the activities as much,” said Schaadt. “I joined because I wanted to give back and be of service to charities. When I joined 11 years ago we did fashion shows as fund-raisers. Every year we chose a different organization to help. And I do love all my friends here. You can be as involved as you want, even in just one activity.”

The kick-off of the Welcome Wagon Club #3 fund-raiser for HOPE Services starts with the Valentine donation drive. Member Renee Fisher contacted Almaden artist Mary Morrison who offered two drawings of perky ducks for the flyer. Fisher who was born in France and lived in New York before moving to Almaden, went to work creating the handout and started mailing it to Welcome Wagon members and friends near and far.

But the women aren’t stopping at the Valentine Donation drive to raise funds for HOPE Services. The book group will sell books with proceeds donated to HOPE. And on March 17 there will be a charity walk at the Almaden Lake Trail.

To donate to HOPE Services, send a check to Don and Jean Arndt, 736 Portswood Dr., San Jose, Ca. 95120. Donations are tax-deductible.

To join Welcome Wagon Club #3, contact membership chair Gail Maggiani at (408) 268-6959.

For more information on HOPE Services, call (408) 284-2850 or visit www.hopeservices.org.