Assistance League of San Jose volunteers gathered at a park to assemble 35 gift bags containing a book, a stuffed bunny, a pretty handmade box holding 2 lip balms and a handwritten Easter/spring card. These surprises will be delivered to Stonebrook Skilled Nursing Facility where our Senior Bingo program has been suspended due to COVID protocols. We miss all those smiling […]

Wow, look at those cookies! AL of San Jose volunteers continue to find creative ways to support Family Supportive Housing, a local shelter, by providing homemade dinners and deliciously crafted cookies.

Close Encounters with the Authors concluded on March 23 with a fantastic session. Children’s literature was spotlighted with three purveyors of magic whose books celebrate the ideas of inclusion, perserverance, and doing the right thing . . . and having fun along the way! Many thanks to Ori Gutin, Gennifer Choldenko and moderator Larry Gerston […]

AL of San Jose’s Readers Are Leaders program, besides reading and donating books to students’ classrooms, also provides a $50 grant to the teachers in our Readers Are Leaders classrooms.  One creative and thrift-conscious teacher was able to purchase all of these books for her classroom to model her love of reading with her students. […]

Volunteers delivered 10 very special quilts, created by Karen T., to Parisi House on the Hill this week. These beautiful quilts are given to each new resident in a Welcome bag. We are proud to support Parisi House in their mission to guide women on their journey to break free of addiction and provide them […]

Recently, our Caring Hands program received $100.00 from Joann’s Handmade Heroes program. AL of San Jose’s Caring Hands volunteers continue to inspire and help our local community by using their hands, hearts and minds to create beautiful baby caps and blankets that we donate to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s infant center.

Close Encounters with the Authors session #2 brought three diverse authors to our screens. Members of the Assistance League of San Jose and the Brandeis National Committee, along with their friends and guests, enjoyed meeting with Robert Dugoni, Rachel Levin and Ann Bridges. They don’t all write the same kind of books, but all talked […]

AL of San Jose has received a generous donation from the Safeway Foundation for the Readers Are Leaders program. The chairs of Readers Are Leaders and the Grant committee, along with the chapter President, were excited to receive Safeway Foundation’s check. Our chapter is so grateful for their support.

Our Zoom fundraising event, Close Encounter with the Authors, went off with hardly a hitch!  Members of AL of San Jose and the Brandeis National Committee, along with their friends and guests, enjoyed meeting with Kate Quinn (author of the Rose Code), Susan Meissner (The Nature of Fragile Things) and Elayne Klasson (Love is a […]

Our partnership with Barnes & Noble through Jerri Kazmierczak has provided an abundance of books to give to the community during AL Action Week. We gave out 2,335 books valued at over $18,000 to Family Supportive Housing, Valley Med Pediatric Center, Parisi House on the Hill, 10 Readers Are Leaders Schools and 3 Middle Schools. […]

It’s Friday night Mexican food dinner for the residents at Family Supportive Housing. AL of San Jose volunteers enjoy creating yummy dinners and Family Supportive Housing is so appreciative of this delicious donation.

Our Yard Signs are delivered and looking good around the town. We still have a few left, email us at info@alsj.org if your yard is calling out to be a part of the display while supporting Assistance League of San Jose.

The members of AL of San Jose are well aware of how many hours of love our Caring Hands volunteers put into their special homemade baby blankets, but we were delighted to learn how much one baby loved her blanket. Veronica emailed us to tell us how much her daughter loved the blanket she received at Valley Medical Center […]

Eighty one toiletry kits were created by 18 of our dedicated members in January. These essential supplies were delivered to CityTeam on February 4th along with four of Karen T’s special handmade quilts. AL of San Jose is proud to partner with CityTeam in their efforts to help the displaced and vulnerable populations in our community.

Some of our members are taking advantage of the pandemic “lockdown” to express their creativity and let those “creative juices” flow! Here are three pictures of layettes that were donated to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center this month compliments of Lynda S. Lynda has been experimenting how to jazz up the hats to make the […]

The pandemic has been hard on everyone this year even more challenging for the moms and kids living in community shelters and treatment centers during the holidays. Assistance League of San Jose could not participate in holiday celebrations at Parisi House on the Hill this year, but our presence there was still felt through our donation of colorful quilts and […]

AL of San Jose’s partnership with Barnes and Noble started 10 years ago when Jerri, a retired public school principal, approached Barnes & Noble (B&N) about the possibility of their donating books to the “Make a Difference Day”, National’s project of having every AL chapter obtain books for children. B&N agreed to take part in […]

Our modified Readers Are Leaders program is in full swing. The Ryan School readers are preparing bags for another student book distribution. The school was excited to receive this donation. We miss reading them in person but look forward to reinstating the onsite program in the future.