Big night for Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula at EPACENTER

Cañada College student Xitlali Curincita selected as the Youth of the Year representative by a panel including Golden State Warrior Andre Iguodala and the CEOs of Nike, Zoom and GingerBread Capital.

It was quite a celebration for Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula, which announced its Youth of the Year representative at a ceremony filled with tech all-stars — and a Golden State Warrior — livestreamed from the new EPACENTER in East Palo Alto.

Xitlali Curincita, a student at Cañada College, received the honor over three other finalists — Ian Motuliki, Kaeja Byrd and Maria Chapa Maldonado — who all shared their stories during the program. The committee that selected Curincita was a very high-powered panel that included Nike CEO John Donahoe, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, Western Digital Executive Vice President Christine Bastian, GingerBread Capital CEO Linnea Roberts and Golden State Warrior Andre Iguodala. Curincita will represent the Peninsula organization at the regional and national level this year.

And that wasn’t all. A trio of “superhero partners,” sisters Anne Wojcicki and Susan Jojcicki and Susan’s husband, Dennis Troper, announced a $25,000 fundraising match for the evening that will go toward the organization’s youth programming. “All of you are amazing role models,” Anne Wojcicki said. “Your vision for the future, your tenacity, your ability to stick with the challenges and
make things happen … you’re all role models to us.”

LET’S HEAR IT FOR TRUMPET DAY: Did you know that Wednesday, Feb. 2, is Trumpet Day? What, you thought it was Groundhog Day? Well, it’s that, too, but this year it’s also Trumpet Day. So says Ron Gordon, the retired Redwood City teacher who is behind other fun “math holidays” like Square Root Day (9/9/81), Odd Day (11/13/15, with three consecutive odd numbers) and Once Upon a Day (1/11/11).

So why Trumpet Day? Say it out loud and it’s “to to to too,” which may work better without an actual trumpet, Gordon concedes.

He came up with the idea following Once Upon a Day, and Gordon plans to give away $2,222, split among 52 people (that’s 2+2+22 times 2) who let him know how they’re marking the momentous day. He’s set up a website with his contact information and more details about Trumpet Day at trumpetday.net.

Now, some might say that there’s another Trumpet Day coming up in a few weeks when the calendar hits 2/22/22, but that date hits a sour note for Gordon.

“For me, this is the best one. It’s really cute,” he said. “That other one is a little too(t) long.” In other words, he says, one two too many.

VISIONARY VISIT: Here’s a rare instance of some of the COVID chaos we’ve all been dealing with actually having a positive result for audiences in San Jose. Leading African-American dancer and choreographer Camille A. Brown will be present when San Jose State’s School of Music and Dance presents performances by her acclaimed New York-based company at the Hammer Theatre Center on Feb. 4-5.

Brown originally was not expected to attend because of rehearsal conflicts with “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf,” the Broadway revival she is choregraphing this spring. But as shows have paused for COVID, her schedule opened up.

“To my knowledge, we’ve never had a performance artist of her stature at SJSU,” said Fred Cohen, director of SJSU’s School of Music and Dance. “Seventeen of our dance majors in the University Dance Theatre troupe worked over the winter break with a veteran member of Ms. Brown’s dance company, and will be dancing one of her signature works, ‘New Second Line,’ to close the program.”

Tickets to see the show in-person or livestreamed are available at www.hammertheatre.com.

TRIBUTE TO A COMMUNITY CHAMPION: Friends and family will say farewell to Connie LoBue Scarpelli, who died Jan. 18 at age 90, at a funeral Mass at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 3 at St. Christopher Church in San Jose. I first met Connie when she was honored by the Italian American Heritage Foundation in 2006 for her work as a teacher, starting at Roosevelt Junior High and moving on to what was then Peter Burnett Junior High and eventually San Jose High. She also was an active member of the the Santa Clara County/Florence, Italy Commission, which would put on the biennial Medici Masked Ball.

She established the Bulldog Foundation while she was at San Jose High and it continues to provide support for the school (and you can still do that in her memory at www.sanjosehighfoundation.org). No doubt there will be many glasses of Campari or red wine deservedly raised in her honor.