Wed03122014

News

"Project Los Altos" moves on


Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier
San Francisco residents Kate Haug and Ivan Uranga, with their son, make an artistic statement as they stroll over artist Jessica Stockholder’s “Cross Hatch” on State Street.

As blossoms emerge from ...

Read more:

Loading...

Schools

Los Altos High hosts 29th Writers Week

Los Altos High hosts 29th Writers Week


Traci Newell/Town Crier
Professional writers such as Ellen Sussman, share their writing processes with students and explain how they got where they are today.

Los Altos High School hosted its 29th Writer’s Week last week, presenting a diverse...

Read more:

Loading...

Community

Pizza making helps choir travel and feeds the homeless

Pizza making helps choir travel and feeds the homeless


Courtesy of Margie Woch
Main Street Singers members, from left, Daniel Beatty (tenor, junior), Madeline Woch (soprano, senior) and Edward Barnes (bass, junior) display the pizzas they made for the homeless.

The Los Altos High School Main Street...

Read more:

Loading...

Business

Main Street coffee bar emerges

Main Street coffee bar emerges


Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier
Owner Jeff Hampton opened Red Berry Coffee Bar last week after 18 months of renovation at its home on 145 Main St. The bar specializes in offering customers fair-trade coffee for espresso drinks.

For Jeff and Lisa Hampton...

Read more:

Loading...

Books

People

LUCILE “LUCY” TERESA HILLESTAD

LUCILE “LUCY” TERESA HILLESTAD

Lucile “Lucy” Teresa Hillestad, 81, of Woodruff passed away peacefully March 5, 2014.

Lucy was born in Mazomanie, WI to Gertrude and Frank Wolf on February 19, 1933. Lucy was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin and friend.

Read more:

Loading...

Travel

New Tahoe resort offers five-star experience – with views

New Tahoe resort offers five-star experience – with views


Courtesy of The Landing Resort & Spa
The Landing Resort & Spa in Lake Tahoe boasts guest roomswith fireplaces, flat-screen televisions and panoramic views of the lake.

The Landing Resort & Spa debuted with a big splash on Lake Tahoe̵...

Read more:

Loading...

Comment

Isabella: The Rockey Road

This has been a tough week for my family. Our sweet dog, Isabella, is dying, and any day now we will be saying goodbye to her forever. She is still mentally alert and seemingly happy, but her agility has long passed and it seems to be tugging at her ...

Read more:

Loading...

Stepping Out

LAYT's 'Nickleby' continues at Bus Barn

LAYT's 'Nickleby' continues at Bus Barn


Pierre LauRent/ Special to the Town Crier
Nils Forstall, left, and Joseph Modirzadeh star in “Nicholas Nickleby.”

The Los Altos Youth Theatre production of “Nicholas Nickleby” is scheduled through March 22 at Bus Barn Theater, 97 Hillview Ave....

Read more:

Loading...

Spiritual Life

Magazine

Children cha-cha: Marti’s, San Juan offer dance classes for kids

Children cha-cha: Marti’s, San Juan offer dance classes for kids


Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier
Instructor Hristo Minev, front, instructs twin brothers Dexter and Ryan Quisol in a ballroom dance class at Marti’s Dance Studio.

Lily Quisol and her sons Ryan and Dexter danced the conga from the family car to the st...

Read more:

Loading...

Church's film screening reveals wounded veterans' struggles and triumphs


Courtesy of Didrik Johnck
A group of wounded Afghanistan and Iraq war vets scale the 20,000-foot Mount Lobuche in Nepal, chronicled in the movie “High Ground.”

Two members of Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos decided to honor American military veterans by showing a movie, of all things.

Church Deacon Lauren McCombs and longtime Los Altos Hills resident Christopher Smith hosted a screening of the documentary “High Ground” for approximately 100 church members and local residents last week at the church’s parish hall. The award-winning 90-minute film depicts the struggles and triumphs of 11 wounded Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and one Gold Star mother as they climb to the summit of the 20,000-foot Mount Lobuche in Nepal.

The Nov. 6 screening at the church, held partially in honor of Veterans Day, ended with a brief panel discussion that included two military veterans, Smith and one of the film’s cinematographers, Oracle Corp. Senior Producer John von Seeburg.

McCombs said she had the chance to view the film – now available on Netflix – earlier this year and walked away inspired, wanting to share its messages with others. Specifically, she pointed to the detailed accounts in the film of the 11 veterans overcoming physical obstacles – such as amputations – as well as mental hurdles like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and traumatic brain injuries to achieve their feat together. McCombs added that the film also offers stark reminders about the troubles some veterans face as they transition back into civilian life.

“I’m a pacifist, I need to say that to start, but I believe in our nation and I believe in those people who have served in the wars,” McCombs said. “I believe we need to support them when they come back.”

McCombs later added that the veterans’ experiences – what happened in the war and how they got wounded – made a profound impression on her.

“For me, that’s the part I recognize where we as a nation need to step forward and help transition them back,” she said.

Invisible wounds

East Bay native von Seeburg told the Town Crier he was thankful his employer, Oracle, gave him the time off to join the Nepalese expedition and film the veterans in action. Von Seeburg added that the veterans and film crew experienced “a really intense, emotional experience – and it wasn’t on the summit.”

“It was all of the things that happened day-to-day in our interactions with these guys that actually were the most meaningful,” von Seeburg said. “A lot of barriers were broken between us as filmmakers and them as soldiers. When you think about it, it’s really courageous for them to tell their stories on camera.”

Von Seeburg said the experience gave him a new appreciation for Veterans Day. He hopes the film spreads awareness about the debilitating issues some veterans face as they return home from war.

“It changed me – definitely did,” he said. “I came back understanding that some of the worst wounds are the ones you can’t see – it’s the hidden, invisible wounds that are some of the worst and the hardest to recover from. I never really understood that or knew that.”

A ministry to veterans

Smith, an 11-year U.S. Navy veteran and 40-year Los Altos Hills resident, noted that Christ Episcopal Church and its members are no strangers to military veterans issues. Smith and a group of church members supply pasta dinners once a month to recovering veterans and their families at the Palo Alto Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center.

“The challenges that they face, I’m just so impressed with them and their families,” Smith said. “You’re looking at a guy and you see that his wife is actually feeding him and you just think, ‘Wow, these people have a long, uphill climb.’ We really owe them a lot.”

In addition, five members of the church – including McCombs – cook dinner monthly for the families of veterans living at The Fisher Houses associated with the Veterans Administration hospital in Palo Alto. The living facilities offer families a place to stay while veterans receive medical treatment at the hospital.

“We sit down with them, talk to them and offer them a meal. … It adds some normalcy to what they’re experiencing,” said McCombs, adding that the church also hosts an annual Valentine’s Day dinner and dance to raise funds for veterans at the hospital.

For more information, visit highgroundmovie.com.

Schools »

Schools
Read More

Sports »

sports
Read More

People »

people
Read More

Special Sections »

Special Sections
Read More

Photos of Los Altos

photoshelter
Browse and buy photos
http://www.losaltosonline.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=46086
www.losaltosonline.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2014-10
166818
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:MND4STMXI3KRHUYAFYGG464SSH3JDA42
<urn:uuid:8a00d3e3-91e0-41e8-9d84-b8ccc5219f94>
2014-03-12T17:39:51Z
184.105.137.230
sha1:LLRDY3BBH6TJQY2WWGRT2SSZEVX3KJXC
<urn:uuid:36e03aad-42d7-4bee-82e5-fbaee19b7096>
http://www.losaltosonline.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=46086
length
response
<urn:uuid:738a2901-7aba-414f-8036-fe096b5e3a51>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-10
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for March 2014
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf