Nov 5, 2006

Education benefits from kitchens on display

By Kim Selby

As the holidays rapidly approach, the kitchen increasingly becomes the central gathering place for families and guests. With entertaining on the brain, hostesses in the Peninsula get into the spirit with festive decor and invite the opportunity to eye their neighbors' kitchens.

To their delight, six incredible entertainment kitchens and homes were featured for the fourth annual Burlingame Classic Kitchen Tour, benefiting the Burlingame Community Education Foundation.

A private preview tour and appreciation party was held for volunteers, teachers, school staff and other VIPs from the community on Oct. 22. Guests had the opportunity to tour architecturally-distinctive kitchens and homes and attend a reception at Gilman Screens and Kitchens in Burlingame.

Event chair Debbie Hirth and Burlingame Community for Education Foundation president Peter Stevenson welcomed guests at Gilman Screens and Kitchens. Chatting happily, guests entered Gilman's ready to sample delightful culinary bites organized by Pam Lampkin. The hors d'ouevres were plentiful and homemade. Preview party co-chairs Michelle Glavin and Perissa Clark said that the lively crowd included more than 200 volunteers.

Whitney Murphy and Julie O'Brien, the kitchen selection co-chairs, enjoyed their search for the featured kitchens. Homeowners Tom and Audrey Treanor, Kerry Bitner and Shaun Anderson-Ahn were happy to help the education foundation raise much-needed funds for the school district.

The selected homes for this year's tour were located on Poppy Drive and Morrell, Crescent, Burlingame and Pepper Avenues. Docent volunteers, organized by Maureen Westerman, staffed each of these unique homes. Staging and accessories for the homes were provided in part by Tribeca in Burlingame, Castles in the Air in San Mateo and Julie Mifsud of Belmont.

Highlights of the Burlingame Avenue residence, remodeled in 2003, included a 14-seat circular dining room table, dramatic Giallo Reale honed marble on the center island, floor-to-ceiling white cabinetry and expansive paned windows that accentuate the nearly 10-foot ceiling.

In the Crescent Avenue home, the indoor and outdoor kitchens provide the family with options for dining and entertaining. The outdoor living space is steps away from the kitchen and contains a travertine tumbled-marble cooking center, gas fireplace and seating area.

Another magnificent outdoor eating area was found on Pepper Avenue. Their outdoor kitchen contains groutless hand-stacked cobblestones and is accessible from just beyond the glass French doors of the eat-in kitchen.

The committee for the annual house tour hoped to raise $45,000 to donate to the foundation. Hirth noted that the money would go directly to support the music, physical education and library specialists for the five elementary and one middle school in the district. "Without the foundation, we would not have these resources to support the children from the 1,700 families in our district."

In addition to the tour, there was a catered boxed lunch served at Kohl Mansion on Oct. 23, chaired by Anna Derugin, and a boutique chaired by Mondana Arami. A percentage of the sales from the boutique were also donated to the foundation.

Other committee chairs who worked for more than a year to produce this fundraiser included Lauri Pasch, Christine Seeley, Jennifer Ulrich, Karen Eastwood, Marisa Wachhorst, Teresa Boland, Cici Walsh, Maureen Westerman, Jennifer Esposto, Barbara Moore and Jennifer Kajisa.


SOROPTIMISTS LOBSTER SALE

"Applause for claws" is what the Soroptimists of San Mateo were saying on Oct. 21 at their first - and intended annual - lobster sale. A unique fundraising effort, the sale of these popular and tasty delights, will benefit scholarship and local service projects.

The parking lot at the Caltrain Station in San Mateo was buzzing as pre-ordered lobsters were hastily snatched up. Sixty more lobsters were sold to onlookers who spotted the event and wanted a feast of their own.

Event chair Angela Dunn, in her dangling lobster earrings, said, "Everyone will love our lobsters.
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And apparently that was the truth. Out of the 360 lobsters sold, Jo Rhodes and her family ordered 14 lobsters and delivered them to family members from San Mateo to Tracy. Rhodes even wrote a thank-you letter describing the fun and hilarity that surrounded the family dinners. Many escapees were found running around various folks homes, with kids and grandchildren enjoying the lobsters alive as well as cooked.

The lobsters averaged one pound each and were purchased for $18. The succulent crustaceans arrived fresh from Maine that day and were packed in Styrofoam-lined boxes. Cooking instructions were provided for the lucky families feasting on lobster that Saturday night.

The Soroptimists raised $2,000 on lobster day and president Kurt Papenhouse was in fine form handling the deliveries himself. Other members were on hand to assist with this sea faring adventure, including Terry Griest, Jennifer Strohmaier, Lynn Wright, Patti Piplick and Jean Fiske.