Los Altos has a habit of getting things done. When we look back over the past decade we see how small groups with a vision and a passion on wheels have made permanent marks in our community.
Take for instance the youth center. It remains a valuable resource. The Los Altos Youth Center is essentially a big room with a fireplace, kitchen and some storage space. It’s perfect for get-togethers of 50-100 people. Since its opening in 1960, countless teen dances, Girl Scout father-daughter dances and goodbye parties for city officials have taken place in its space.
The center, located on Los Altos civic center property next to city hall, is the result of an ambitious fundraising effort nearly 50 years ago by members of the Federated Woman’s Club of Los Altos. It took only one year and 25 days for the fledgling women’s group to raise the $61,404 needed to build the center, this at a time when homes in Los Altos were going for around $20,000.
Their vision and relentless pursuit of it caught on with the surrounding community. Before you knew it, the local business community was embracing the effort and aiding in the fundraising. Club members proved excellent networkers. It turned out someone knew how to reach Bing Crosby. Crosby came through with $15,000 for the project. The resulting January 1961 dedication of the new center was a proud moment for the Federated Woman’s Club and the community at large.
Can such a high-spirited, communitywide effort happen again? Certainly, the recent past has caught glimpses of what this community can do when united by a common cause. About five years ago, when drastic state budget cuts threatened teacher layoffs in the Los Altos School District, concerned parents mounted an SOS (Save Our Schools) campaign that netted approximately $1 million in just six weeks.
There will be opportunities ahead. Supporters of a new community pool at the end of Rosita Avenue are trying to raise millions for a new pool in which we all can share. Discussions are beginning to heat up about a transformation of the existing civic center that has some residents dreaming of a new senior center rivaling that of Mountain View’s or a new theater that would take the Bus Barn Stage Company out of the existing bus barn in which it now performs.
As passage of numerous bond measures and parcel taxes attests, Los Altos is a proven supporter of schools and education. The question is, will residents stretch beyond the schools to support other major community-building projects, as they did long ago with the youth center? We believe they will. But the vision and results need to be clearly defined.
