Sharks ready to assist victims
When San Jose resident Ryan Brown brought his nephew, Dillon to see his first Sharks game at SAP Center, he took home a hat as a souvenir of the visit, which took place on his seventh birthday. Sadly, that hat — along with all of Dillon’s and his family’s other possessions — was lost when their home in Paradise was destroyed in the Camp Fire about a week later.
When the Sharks heard what happened, the team sent Dillon a letter signed by his two favorite players, Brent Burns and Brenden Dillon, along with a pair of new hats autographed by the players.
That small but meaningful gesture for a fan is just the tip of the hockey stick when it comes to the team’s efforts to aid victims of the Camp Fire. At two games this month, the Sharks Foundation is dedicating proceeds from its 50/50 Raffle — a contest during home games with half the prize pool going to the winning fan and the other half to charity — to the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Red Cross to benefit Camp Fire victims. The first was held Wednesday night, the second game is Monday.
The Sharks Foundation estimates the raffle will bring in about $15,000, and fans can also give cash donations at the Sharks Foundation booth on the SAP Center concourse throughout the month. The foundation is also teaming up with the Lady Sharks — that’s the group of players’ wives and significant others — on a donation drive called Holidays for Paradise. There will be a pre- game collection drive at SAP Center before the Dec. 20 game against Winnipeg. Monetary donations will be collected at the entrances and turned into gift cards for the nearly 1,400 students of Paradise High School.
Of course, the Sharks are far from the only Silicon Valley group that’s been moved to help out. Jim and Suzanne Salata had a huge bash planned for Wednesday night to celebrate both the holidays and the 30th anniversary of Garden City Construction. But after seeing the devastation in Butte County, they decided to scale things back significantly and asked guests to bring donations of gift cards that would be distributed to residents through the Rotary Club of Paradise.
Suzanne Salata said Greg Casella of Catered Too! was more than gracious about their last-minute cancellation. “He was great about it,” she said. “And our catering ended up being Safeway and we had employees and friends serving.” Guests were
very generous, with the Salatas expecting about $10,000 in donations.
Another group inspired to give is Classical League for Young Artists, which hopes that Music for Love, its charity benefit concert on Saturday at Foothill College’s Smithwick Theatre, brings in a lot of donations for the American Red Cross to support families affected by the wildfires. The 7 p. m. concert features a variety of performers, including the Colorful Universe Children’s Performing Arts Troupe, the Chiffon Fu Guzheng Ensemble, pianist Lin Pan and several opera singers. Tickets are available for $25 at eventbrite. com.
TWO HOLIDAY SHOWS — ONE NICE, ONE NAUGHTY
» The crew at 3Below Theaters in downtown San Jose is producing two live holiday shows this month with decidedly different content. The first is “Santastic!,” a family-friendly musical revue with a quartet of young performers hitting new arrangements of holiday favorites like “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” Frosty The Snowman” and “Deck the Halls.” After the 45-minute show, the cast will lead activities with the audience including holiday card-making, cookie decorating and a meet- and- greet with Santa.
The other show is “Who’s Holiday!,” — a one-woman send- up of Dr. Seuss with Shannon Guggenheim playing a grown- up Cindy Lou Who from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” It’s an R- rated take on the material — Cindy Lou is now a bottle blonde living in a trailer — and definitely not for kids.
“Santastic!” has shows at 11 a. m. and 1:30 p. m. on Saturdays and Sundays from Dec. 8-23. “Who’s Holiday!” runs Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p. m. Dec. 7-22. “It’s great that we can do one show for the kids and one for the grown ups,” Guggenheim told me during a break from learning her Seuss- style couplets. “Just don’t get them mixed up!”