This year marks the 35-year anniversary since the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation (LAMVCF) organized its first community effort.
Since 1991, LAMVCF has uplifted numerous causes, offering hyper-local support towards issues faced by the residents of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View.
“I think I’m most proud that we are growing new people (who) care about being generous and being a part of solutions in our communities,” said the organization’s CEO Crysta Krames. “You can see that we’re on the right track.”
Krames added that, while the organization has grown and developed over the years, it has maintained a dedicated focus to its home base.
“We are small, obviously,” Krames said. “But we are anchored.”
On Sept. 26, the organization is celebrating its three-and-a-half decade milestone with Oktoberfest in Lincoln Park. The event will promote togetherness with “Bavarian fun,” including food, live music and dancing. The event is open to all ages.
Krames encouraged all local residents to join in the festivities, noting the place that community support and involvement hold in LAMVCF’s foundational goals.
The organization started over a poker game, when Los Altos resident Roy Lave felt compelled to help a friend donate his estate, after death, to the community he loved.
“(He) wanted to give back to the community that helped him, who gave him such a wonderful life and wonderful experience,” Krames said.
LAMVCF filed its articles of incorporation in 1991, officially becoming a funnel through which residents are able to give back to their people and the environment that surrounds them.
The initial gift that inspired the creation of LAMVCF also planted the seed for the organization’s MVLA Scholars program, which annually awards local students over $700,000 in scholarships.
“They were looking at ‘how do we allow for people who want to do things for the community, be able to invest,’” Krames said.
This general notion of cultivating social growth through investment is a big part of why Krames was drawn to LAMVCF.
After moving to the area in 2006, Krames was shocked to see a lack of public support behind a LGBTQ+ pride celebration planned by a local high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance Club.
“I thought, where am I that this is such an ordeal?” Krames said. “Here’s a group of (queer) young people, and a lot of the allies, wanting to show affirmation and support … this is a community where these kids could be who they wanted to be and choose how to live their best queer version of themselves.”
When Krames saw the verbal and fiscal support that LAMVCF showed for the club’s effort, she felt compelled to get involved with the organization. It was this fiscal sponsorship that made it possible for the club to host its pride celebration.
“When someone feels that they want to take actions that are generous, whether that be philanthropic or it be in kindness or in service, we want to help them activate that and here was a group of young people ready to do that and they were told no,” Krames said. “For us, this is why fiscal sponsorship is so important.”
Specifically, Krames recalled seeing former board chair Mary Prochnow speak to this group of young people.
“As I heard Mary talking about it, I thought, ‘I want to do that,’” Krames said.
Krames added that, in its 35 years, LAMVCF has expanded beyond uplifting the general public by offering support to the area’s civic infrastructure.
“So many of these communities, even your affluent ones, are having these shortfalls in their budget where they cannot do all of the things that the community would like them to do,” Krames said. “We try to throw (our support) out as a tool for partnership for city infrastructure and to create the opportunity for all of the residents who care.”
Krames pointed to initiatives such as Resilient Los Altos and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) as examples of collaborative efforts between LAMVCF and local government. Both efforts center on emergency preparedness and response.
“We’re trying to make sure that we’re organized and ready,” Krames said. “It’s really not a matter of if, it’s really a matter of when.”
Krames added that this kind of hyper-local aid and support is absolutely crucial because it is an area where people can foster positive change and forge the strongest impact.
“I think that right now nationally and globally, for a lot of our residents, feels so overwhelmingly dark and that this is a moment where it’s easier for people to lean in and care locally to just do what they can within within their reach and scope, ” Krames said.
For more information on LAMVCF’s initiatives, see lamvcf.org.
